No. But alternative plans will take creativity and effort, and apparently, we're too tired. Nevertheless, lives are on the line. Timing Boosters: Part I.
Jeremy: Your argument is very effective and makes sense to time the boosters to an increase in the number of cases. I am over 65 and my husband is in his 80s. We received the bivalent booster in September because our son was being married in mid October and I felt that wedding related events would be a high risk situation. We made it through the wedding but 3 weeks later, we both tested positive for COVID. Fortunately it was mild, but it got me to thinking about what the CDC would recommend for 2023.
So I guess that the game plan for us will be to mask up and try to reduce risk as much as possible until the fall when I hope the new boosters are rolled out. I am a retired internist and have tried to time my annual flu shot for mid to late October in hopes that the immunity would carry over into the spring.
Thanks for your comments. They are greatly appreciated.
Jeremy, why oh why have those who have dedicated their lives to public health not at the front of the line giving the science to those who will make this decision. I am tired, tired of not having smart science and health coming from our leadership. Thank you for continuing to inform us and I hope that you will still be headed to Washington from time to time.
Booster rates will be very low, so the individual is forced to act prematurely because there is little community coherence and altruism.
Surges will happen, but there is more or less a constant grind. Inpatient census at our hospital system has plateaued around 150 hospitalized daily for months.
Hypercontagiousness variants, minimal masking, only 1-3 months of decent immunity before reinfection likely - its all a mess. We have to throw out old paradigms that worked for predictable flu seasons.
Maybe 65+ get booster q6 months until pan coronavirus vaccines available, with a serious push for a more practical fall booster campaign for everyone else - to head off or reduce a holiday wave, and blunt the back to school mess that converts children into efficient vectors.
I’ll be testifying to CDC on this later today. Ha.
The WHO has stated that yearly boosters are not a good plan--do you think this will be approved for simplicity over science?
I am a retired primary care physician and have a moderate immune deficiency--I'm in the 65 group. I am already feeling so constrained by the "it's over" behavior, and this policy makes me even more concerned.
Does anyone know if Dr. Faust has posted an analysis of the Cleveland Clinic preprint article (posted 12/19/2022, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.17.22283625v1.full ) ostensibly showing a greater risk of a COVID-19 infection with an increasing number of vaccinations?
This would be a disaster for all the people (including so many grandparents) that wait all year now get together for the holidays in November and throughout December...
Unfortunately the statistics that my state releases to the media are whitewashed. For instance the state refuses to release the statistics from all our 26 hospitals to the Feds. And will only release information on 15-22 hospitals. What if we don’t know if there’s a surge? What are our best individual practices?
Jeremy: Your argument is very effective and makes sense to time the boosters to an increase in the number of cases. I am over 65 and my husband is in his 80s. We received the bivalent booster in September because our son was being married in mid October and I felt that wedding related events would be a high risk situation. We made it through the wedding but 3 weeks later, we both tested positive for COVID. Fortunately it was mild, but it got me to thinking about what the CDC would recommend for 2023.
So I guess that the game plan for us will be to mask up and try to reduce risk as much as possible until the fall when I hope the new boosters are rolled out. I am a retired internist and have tried to time my annual flu shot for mid to late October in hopes that the immunity would carry over into the spring.
Thanks for your comments. They are greatly appreciated.
Jeremy, why oh why have those who have dedicated their lives to public health not at the front of the line giving the science to those who will make this decision. I am tired, tired of not having smart science and health coming from our leadership. Thank you for continuing to inform us and I hope that you will still be headed to Washington from time to time.
So many variables to consider
Booster rates will be very low, so the individual is forced to act prematurely because there is little community coherence and altruism.
Surges will happen, but there is more or less a constant grind. Inpatient census at our hospital system has plateaued around 150 hospitalized daily for months.
Hypercontagiousness variants, minimal masking, only 1-3 months of decent immunity before reinfection likely - its all a mess. We have to throw out old paradigms that worked for predictable flu seasons.
Maybe 65+ get booster q6 months until pan coronavirus vaccines available, with a serious push for a more practical fall booster campaign for everyone else - to head off or reduce a holiday wave, and blunt the back to school mess that converts children into efficient vectors.
I’ll be testifying to CDC on this later today. Ha.
What are your thoughts about "immune imprinting" and booster timing?
The WHO has stated that yearly boosters are not a good plan--do you think this will be approved for simplicity over science?
I am a retired primary care physician and have a moderate immune deficiency--I'm in the 65 group. I am already feeling so constrained by the "it's over" behavior, and this policy makes me even more concerned.
Does anyone know if Dr. Faust has posted an analysis of the Cleveland Clinic preprint article (posted 12/19/2022, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.17.22283625v1.full ) ostensibly showing a greater risk of a COVID-19 infection with an increasing number of vaccinations?
This would be a disaster for all the people (including so many grandparents) that wait all year now get together for the holidays in November and throughout December...
And what if there is more than one surge a year, which very well may be the case?
The current approach is vaccination, with no other mitigation— how will this reduction and simplification improve the public health?
Dr Faust
Unfortunately the statistics that my state releases to the media are whitewashed. For instance the state refuses to release the statistics from all our 26 hospitals to the Feds. And will only release information on 15-22 hospitals. What if we don’t know if there’s a surge? What are our best individual practices?
Thanks