Vaccines compete with clean water as the biggest public health invention ever.
If you’re even close to being near a vaccination threshold, go get vaccinated.
That is all.
Get vaccinated
by David Anderson| 133 Comments
This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance
Old School
Ugh.
Lapassionara
What is a vaccination threshold?
Baud
Clean water is a liberal plot.
Belafon
@Lapassionara: Close to the time when you should be getting a booster or, like in the case of shingles, eligible.
Lapassionara
@Baud: Yeah. That will be the next to go. Cholera, anyone?
Lapassionara
@Belafon: Thanks.
Baud
@Lapassionara:
Love in the time of, the sequel.
JaySinWA
@Baud: Tricky Dicky was a liberal mole.
terraformer
Just did it yesterday! Got the latest COVID and Flu vaccines at the same time.
I got COVID for the first time this past August, so waited about 3 months before getting the latest version.
Damn my arm hurts
Kirk
shingles last year. Covid and Flu about a month ago. As far as I know I’m up on everything else that is “standard”.
John S.
@Baud:
Unless you live in Flint, MI and then it’s actually a government plot.
Trollhattan
Got the covid and flu jabs last month. Last ever? Experts disagree, but TJ is just a day’s drive
ETA guess I still need RSV and pneumonia jabs.
Baud
Rubio will probably get confirmed unanimously and no one else will get any Dem votes.
JaySinWA
@Trollhattan: Trader Joe’s is giving shots? /s
prostratedragon
Got flu and COVID booster last week. Just consulted with my doctor about TWD shot and she said it was ok to get it 5 years early, so that’s on for next week.
Trollhattan
@JaySinWA: God, if they started you’d NEVER find parking.
Baud
I wonder who he’ll nominate for Agriculture. That’s his base.
Lapassionara
@Baud: I’d read that book.
Elizabelle
Booked for tomorrow.
Vaccines are sexy. Much like leaving following distance, when driving.
Old School
@prostratedragon:
TWD shot?
Kirk
So the vaccines for children program, where the federal government helps cover the cost of vaccines for children going to school, will die (word choice intentional).
NotMax
Penicillin ain’t chopped liver.
;)
.
As far as public health, also too the construction of municipal sewerage systems.
rikyrah
Making a plan now to get me and my sister vaccinated.
NotMax
@Baud
Katie Britt? Lee Greenwood? Hulk Hogan?
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
MPox, Hep A/B and Shingles part 2, scheduled for Saturday.
Belafon
@NotMax: Monsanto’s CEO.
danielx
Flu and Covid last week, updated September 2023 for everything except rabies while in hospital after The Fall. Maybe rabies too, my memory of that period is a little hazy.*
*Everything except going to the ER and being on a gurney in five minutes with people swarming in out of thin air and thinking, oh, I’m in deep shit. That part I recall very distinctly.
Jeffro
whew the cost of feelin’ those white supremacy vibes for a few more years sure is going through the roof, isn’t it? Mmmmm mmmm mm! I do love me some measles and rotten teeth!!
It’s November 14th and trumpov has already done more in 9 days to highlight the vast chasm between the two parties than our blessed snooze media did for the entire past year.
Jeffro
Where’s the organized effort to get Senate Rs to stand up to these monumentally dangerous cabinet picks? Gaetz and Gabbard in particular.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Is your family all in or do they have regrets?
NotMax
@Belafon
“All your crops are belong to us.”
//
JaySinWA
He will Round-Up all the organic farmers. He and RFK Jr can have a slug fest.
VFX Lurker
I’m up-to-date on all vaccinations, and I qualify for Shingrix and pneumonia vaccinations next summer when I turn 50. Hope vaccination will still be an option then.
cain
Thanks for the reminder, I’ll get the vaccinations.
Once they ban covid vaccines and what not, we’ll like see a strong surge of covid.
danielx
@Jeffro:
Yeah, that anti-fluoride thing truly grates. I lived the first eighteen years of my life on well water and believe me, fluoride makes a difference. I always had what I regarded as pretty decent dental hygiene and I’ve still had a lot of really expensive trouble. I admit knocking out one of my incisors wile riding a skateboard didn’t help matters.
Of course, after the second implant I became a dental hygiene Nazi. Brush with electric toothbrush, floss and water pic every night without fail, with morning brushing every morning and interim brushing whenever possible. Morning breath metaphor helped – think of food particles in your mouth as little guys partying with their buds all night, eating and drinking and spitting etc., which is why your mouth tastes and smells like an uncleaned litter box if you don’t clean thoroughly at night.
Anonymous At Work
That’s a load of crap. No, literally. Comparing it to “sanitation and closed sewers system”.
I give a lecture where I credit Jenner with over a billion lives saved just from smallpox vaccine. We include MMR and a few other key ones, I’m not sure mankind could have had enough wherewithal to reach the moon.
p.a
Who the fuck authorised Lewis Carroll to write this timeline?
ArchTeryx
@Baud: Apparently, anything that Putin doesn’t want to rook us for is a liberal plot. And the band plays on.
prostratedragon
“Allegro Inevitable” for string quartet, Mary Howe
CaseyL
I’m up to date on everything, but due for Tdap and MMR in 2029 and wondering if I should get them now.
Jeffro
@Baud: If by ‘my family’ you mean my RWNJ dad and bro…since J6 we don’t talk politics, so we’ve literally had zero conversations about this stuff for years. Including this past Election Day and the nine days since.
If I had to take a guess, my Gingrichian nihilist brother is like, “whatever – talk to me when you win an election” and my supposedly big business-oriented dad is quietly appalled and can see the train wreck that’s coming but he’s also not willing to do jack shit about it.
prostratedragon
@Old School: Tetanus, Whooping cough, Diphtheria. There’s a standard acronym for it which I’ve forgotten.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Oh, my bad. I thought you regularly talked politics with them. Probably better this way.
The Audacity of Krope
@prostratedragon: TDAP. The whooping cough is in there as “acellular pertussis.”
Central Planning
Years ago my wife came down with bacterial meningitis from the haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria. She was in the hospital for about a week. The vaccine “might be” recommended for those without a spleen (also my wife!) but she never got one as an adult.
The CDC recommends the Hib vaccine for all children younger than 5 years old. My wife never got that vaccine because it was not available when she was young. She was something like 1 of 42 adult Hib cases that year.
She said she had a good time in the hospital. The doctors would bring around interns and let them ask her questions about how she felt before/during/after diagnosis. Always willing to help the next generation of medical personnel!
Get your vaccines!!
prostratedragon
@danielx: Your asterisk point does tend to imprint itself even on very hazy minds.😉
Old School
@prostratedragon: Thanks! Google just turned up The Walking Dead and hopefully we don’t have to worry about zombies too.
geg6
I have an appointment tomorrow! Jesus Fucking Christ, I need to find a way out of this goddamned timeline.
The Audacity of Krope
@geg6: There’s only one way out and it’s effectively into the unknown.
Kayla Rudbek
@prostratedragon: TDAP shot, I think? Tetanus, diphtheria, and something else. And if you are GenX, get an MMR shot as well, because the measles vaccine they gave us didn’t always take (I had to update mine after my godson was born so that I could safely visit)
robtrim
@Baud: Don’t know; but for Dept. of Energy I was wondering if the Captain of the Exxon Valdez is still alive. And is he sober?
Old School
I had assumed the Trump administration would be coming after abortion via that “abortion drugs weren’t properly approved” theory. RFK Jr. indicated that he thought abortion should be legal but restricted after “fetal viability” when he was running for president. We’ll see if he changes his mind on that.
zhena gogolia
@robtrim: I’m pretty sure he died.
prostratedragon
@Old School: I don’t know, the way things are going we should be on the lookout.
Central Planning
@zhena gogolia: 2 years ago – Joseph Hazelwood.
One year when I was mentoring students, one of them was cutting metal on a lathe. While they were using oil (like they should!), too much was being used. I said “Not so much oil, Captain Hazelwood!”
All those kids looked at me like I had three heads. What more can you ask for in life?
SteveinPHX
Just got two vaxes on 11/12. Brings me up to date.
prostratedragon
@VFX Lurker: I think near term what might happen that we’ll have to pay for shots that currently are free or subsidized. Farther down, the supply chain is the thing to worry about.
Westyny
Getting pneumonia vaccine tomorrow. Up to date on everything else. : /
Jeffro
@Baud: no worries. I know them well enough to know their reactions, and of course if for some reason they were to have a change of heart…well, they know where to find me.
In the meantime, we just talk NFL, cooking, other stuff.
Jeffro
@geg6: I think I saw somewhere on Bluesky: “I get the idea of alternate universes, and some of them will be evil…but did this one have to be so fucking stupid??!?”
(or maybe that was just the voices in my head)
Baud
Too many people signing up for Bluesky. I can’t connect.
Miki
Gotta love my VA healthcare. All shotted-up, again. Easy peasy.
different-church-lady
Goddamn, this administration is going to be like overdosing on mushrooms.
PAM Dirac
@robtrim:
If he is, it would be never appoint him.
prostratedragon
@CaseyL: That’s it, Tdap! I’m due in ’29 but my doctor said it was ok to get it now. Yours might vary.
different-church-lady
@danielx: The ghost of Terry Southern is just flabbergasted.
OId Man Shadow
Invest in companies that make child-size coffins and child-size dentures.
Jeff Del Papa
Got Covid, flu, and tdap a few weeks ago. Will be going back for the rsv? soon.
did the shingles and pneumonia a few years back. (And a repeat of measles)
wasn’t just the Xers that likely need a measles shot, us boomers need to as well. Back then you got a single jab, with the idea that some 20 years later you would get a booster. But most appear to have forgotten this.
As part of paperwork to run special events in schools, I had to document that I had been fully vaxed. Since any records were 40+ years old, plus some of my immunities were acquired the old fashioned way, I wound up getting tested for antibodies. Turns out that my measles were gone, despite a clear memory of getting one. I got a refresh the next day.
memory is quite clear, as I remember a trip into the city, then out to the burbs with a cooler full of ice, to the pediatrician for the usual jab and lollipop routine. Apparently it was the first day the stuff was available, and we were the first kids that my doctor administered. My mother lost her 3rd grade BFF to measles, and wasn’t going to give it a chance.
Quinerly
Quick vax info if anyone has it before I start Googling. I still don’t have a solid physician since my move after having same Dr for 30 years. I stay up to date on flu and Covid booster. Did that in September. I am due for a Tetnus. Other than these, no vaccinations since childhood. I was one of those odd ball children who never even had mumps or chickenpox as a child. No measles. No childhood diseases even though exposed to everything. Public school, mom was a first grade teacher. Everyone around me went thru at least mumps and chickenpox. Not me. Because no chickenpox, I never even thought about getting a shingles shot. Born 1961. Thoughts?
Ruckus
@Anonymous At Work:
I was born in the first half of the last century so one vaccine was normally given – smallpox. I was in single digits when more started coming out. Even with a lot more space between humans back then than today, at least where I was born and lived a lot of people got diseases that really made life far more difficult or impossible, if one got infected. Today? Think about all the diseases that could maim, kill, or at least make you wish you’d never been born before the first one came out. And now with far more humans on the planet, how many that we mostly don’t even see/hear/worry about very often do we have? Sure there are a some new ones and vaccine development times have fallen a lot as more knowledge is gained. Can vaccines not work for some or not be all that and a snickers bar for everyone? Sure, but we lose a much smaller percentage today than not a lot of decades ago.
Baud
To help you focus on something else, here’s a reddit thread where the UFO folks are mad and Nancy Mace for selling UFO merch and commercializing the issue.
raven
I had my second infusion for my MS yesterday with no side effects. They h]had me get the covid and flu vaccs ahead of time so I’m good to go on that front.
raven
@Quinerly: Run, don’t walk, to get the shingles vac. I had it in my eye and it was like and ice cream headache for a month!
brendancalling
Getting it done this weekend.
different-church-lady
I mean at this point The Onion should just turn Infowars into a straight news sight because parody and reality have merged.
Baud
@raven:
They should use that in the ads.
prostratedragon
@Kayla Rudbek: “P” is for pertussis — whooping cough, a name I like because it sounds so much like something you don’t want. Don’t know what “A” is for. Maybe so people don’t call it teed-up, or Tdip.
Or could be “and.”
Lapassionara
@Quinerly: We miss you here in St. Louis, Quinerly. I hope you find a regular doctor soon. That is the most difficult part of moving, to me.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
Mushrooms don’t deserve that comparison. :)
Almost Retired
@Quinerly: I was born the same year you were, my mother was also an elementary school teacher and I avoided most of the childhood diseases, including chicken pox. My doc had me get the Shingrix shots anyway.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: From the CDC website:
Elizabelle
This does make me wonder if other countries are going to let us blithely fly in, unvaccinated, and infect their own populations.
Were I the EU or Asia, for example, I would be looking very hard at vaccine requirements for boarding international flights.
Of course, the EU has its own anti-vaxx nutjobs. The rightwing there also uses anti-vaxx to organize. Saw a lot of that in Germany a few years ago. Always hoped it was a pro-Ukraine demonstration I was seeing in the distance. But no. Anti-vaxx. Geshundheit!
Quinerly
@raven:
Thanks. I actually inquired about it at a Walgreens a couple of years back. The minute I told the pharmacist I had never had chicken pox he said I didn’t need it.
I really need to get off my butt and get some solid info from an actual doctor. Severe doctor shortage in NM and especially in Santa Fe. I was very spoiled with great access and healthcare in St. Louis.
Glad you are doing well today. Was thinking about you the other day. BJ needs some late night music threads.
bluefoot
@Quinerly: Get the shingles shot. Given your DOB, it’s likely you were infected by chicken pox but didn’t exhibit symptoms. Since you’re due for tetanus, just get the Tdap. Especially if you’re ever around young kids, the pertussis component of the Tdap booster is important.
The Audacity of Krope
@prostratedragon: Acellular Pertussis
Not sure what makes it acellular. But it’s on the box.
different-church-lady
@Elizabelle: Well, we just bomb the ones that don’t.
Auntie Anne
In preparation for a trip to SE Asia in January, I got my covid booster, typhoid (good for 3 years only), and Hep A and B (first of two shots for both) Tuesday. I do not recommend getting all of those at once – knocked me flat for a day. Next month is the second Hep B and updated TDAP. The second Hep A can’t be given for 6 months, but I should be 95% protected if vaccines go south. Did Shingles last year, so all I need is pneumonia.
Gin & Tonic
@Almost Retired: Shingrix is the only vaccine that knocked me on my ass. Both times.
bluefoot
@raven: Hey! I hope the infusions continue with no side effects! I’ve been thinking about you. I no longer work on MS now that I’ve started a new job, but still pay attention to what’s going on in the field.
Phylllis
@danielx: Brush at night for yourself and in the morning for other people.
My dentist advised me to use proxa brushes years ago & it’s amazing what they get to that floss sometimes doesn’t.
Wapiti
@Quinerly: One of the things I read either here or in LGM was that some fraction of kids have asymptomatic cases of chickenpox – and those kids grow up to be adults who can get shingles.
Princess
@Quinerly: Get the shingles shot. You could have had chicken pox very young and no one noticed.
Quinerly
@Almost Retired:
Ok. Thanks…this is great info. I was told years ago that I could have gotten immunity to all those diseases in utero. My mother taught right up to 2 months before I was born, which was kinda unusual at the time. Exposed to everything elementary kids have at the time.
Will make the time for the shingles shots and feeling shitty afterwards. Won’t wow the pharmacist with my talk of no chicken pox.
I am really good about Tetnus. My dad almost died of lockjaw before I was born. His story has stuck with me. It was around 1957.
Ohio Mom
@Quinerly: Well, if you had a PCP, you could ask them for titer tests. Theoretically, you could have had subclinical cases of at least some of the childhood diseases. Needless to say, if the titer tests show antibodies for any of them, you are essentially already vaccinated. That would cut down on the number of vaccines you would need.
Although maybe titer tests would be more expensive than shots?
I think your first priority should be getting a doctor. As the old saying goes, the time to look for a doctor is before you need one.
Eunicecycle
My husband and I got the old people flu shot and the covid booster last Friday. Neither of us had a reaction at all. We usually don’t. It always makes me wonder if we are not creating the proper immunity, if we don’t have a reaction.
Almost Retired
@Gin & Tonic: The Shingrix shots knocked me out too. Evidently I sat half-awake in my chair, drooled and spouted nonsense. More so than usual.
WaterGirl
Could you guys please speak English?
I have no idea what half of the references are in this post.
TWD?
TDAP?
MMR?
Are adults supposed to get those?
The Audacity of Krope
@WaterGirl: TDAP: Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis
MMR: Measles, mumps, rubella
Your doctor or pharmacist is probably best to tell you if you should get them.
zhena gogolia
@Quinerly: I think you should get the shingles shot. I’m not sure not having chicken pox will save you.
Princess
@WaterGirl: TDaP needs boosting from time to time. MMR may need boosting depending on how old you are — the version Gen X got wears out. They’re no big deal as shots — not like shingles or covid.
Quinerly
Thanks everybody!!! Ducking out.
Will probably pop in to collect my bet when Don Jr gets a cabinet level tap. My money is on Interior.😉
Trump is going to push every limit. Flynn tucked away somewhere. Bannon too.
All disgusting but I can’t live and breathe this 24/7 like some of you. Doesn’t mean I’m not terrified and upset. Just means I believe in mental breaks. I will not let Trump consume me.
Glad to catch the Mighty Raven on this thread. I miss Ozark.
WaterGirl
@The Audacity of Krope: @Princess:
Thank you!
No one mentioned RSV – the respiratory illness that’s really bad for little ones and older people. Is everyone getting that one?
JaySinWA
I’ve been trying to find a close disease analogy for Trumpism.
Ebola kills to quickly to spread far.
Plague perhaps? Although that seems faster spread than Trumpism was.
Cancer seems a likely candidate although not infectious but often has environmental roots.
Tuberculosis might be a possibility, slow but deadly.
It certainly looks like an epidemic or pandemic disease.
Could be a Firesign Theatre Beat the Reaper contest.
Princess
@JaySinWA: I think Trumpism is ALS. Breakfast down every part of your body and you watch it happening.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl:
I did, last Spring. I need to see if it’s a one-and-done or an annual.
Ksmiami
Gosh if only there’d been some institutions that could have warned people about returning to the horrors of the 20th century…
AWOL
Got my Covid last month. Just scheduled my first shingles shot for tomorrow. Guess I can squeeze the second one in before we hand the nation over to the vandals sometime in January.
Vandals do what vandals do.
May those that sat this one out burn in Hell.
Forever.
Ksmiami
@AWOL: same. Although I’d settle for them experiencing polio et Al
JaySinWA
@WaterGirl: RSV was mentioned above.
It’s one that the CDC recommendations are a bit odd, in part because there is some risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).
Here’s a summary of the recommendations but you should read the whole thing.
There is a separate recommendation for pregnant people
ETA I linked in reply to this post
Central Planning
@WaterGirl:
I think you need to be imuno-compromised or over 65 to get the RSV vaccine.
ETA – I got RSV a few years ago. Started as a runny nose, then stuffy nose, then sore throat, then light cough, then big congestion. I could tell as it moved from my nose to my lungs. It was probably 3 weeks before I was back to normal.
I would totally get the RSV vaccine if I could
Ryan
I have to wait until I’m 50 to get the shingles vacc.
I want it all!
I want it now!
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: RSV vaccination for pregnant people
Mai Naem mobile ¹
@raven: Glad the MS treatment is working out okay. I hope the no side effects continues!
Ruckus
@Eunicecycle:
It does not.
Some people are just more susceptible to a disease and often the vaccine is a (best word I can use) subset of the disease, that protects you from the disease. So some get an effect from a vaccine and some do not. Lots of little issues between getting an after effect and not. And of course some diseases are worse for some than others so the reaction can be different. I’m just thankful that for the most part we have a lot of vaccines that keep us from getting all the diseases that used to be normal or even some newer ones. It has changed life for the better a dramatic amount.
frosty
@Quinerly:
Get the Shingles. Period, the end.
PS I owe you an email response.
WaterGirl
Thanks for all the RSV replies.
frosty
@Quinerly:
Look into docs in ABQ. Granted, it’s 60 miles but we’re still seeing our docs in Maryland, 30 miles away.
FDRLincoln
I’m 56. Had all the normal childhood vaccines for my age.
In 2021 I did a booster series with TdAp, MMR, and shingles just to be safe. Up to date on covid boosters. Will get flu shot next week.
I’ll see what else I am eligible for.
Another Scott
And Pasteurization. The monsters will try to make it optional. Don’t you know? Orange juice is supposed to be fuzzy.
And Refrigeration. The monsters will say: Chunky milk was good enough for President Andrew Jackson, it’s good enough for you – or are you some kind of godless communist hoidy-toidy liberal who hates America?
Etc.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
FDRLincoln
If Putin could design a cabinet to ruin American standing in the world, cause domestic unrest and cripple our health, it would look exactly like what Trump has done so far.
Kayla Rudbek
@WaterGirl: RSV isn’t as readily available for people under 65; I think that I may have had it because I am considered immunocompromised thanks to my breast cancer diagnosis. I need to pull my Walgreens shot records and MyChart records to see what I have had.
RV in NZ
I got the initial COVID vaccine as soon as it came out, then got the mandated boosters. I have since gotten boosters on time every six months without fail. My next shot is in about 5 weeks. Apart from the very first jab, I had never had a sore arm as a result of the booster. I don’t even feel the needle, as it is so fine.
I have not had a dose of COVID, I think I am one of the very few.
Kayla Rudbek
@FDRLincoln: the Russians will blind their inventors to prevent them from creating more new things, this has been a tradition since at least Catherine the Great (the Orenburg lace shawl legend, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/orenburg-shawls-classic-of-russian-folk-art/)
raven
@Quinerly: I got to bed at 9:30 now!
raven
@bluefoot: The next one isn’t for 6 months.
bluefoot
@raven:
Ah, then I can guess which medication you’re on. Top tier for efficacy, and safer than the other infusion alternatives. I will continue to send good thoughts your way.
Bill Arnold
@different-church-lady:
Accurate.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@CaseyL: if you can get TDAP now get it. The whooping cough part wears off sooner then some vaccines and there is a couple of outbreaks in the U.S If you have any contact with infants or children definitely get the booster The youngest ones are very vulnerable. Something like 1200 cases in Washington state so far this year. Due to non vaxxing parents, their kids spread it to babies too young to be fully vaxxed and others whose resistance has waned. My daughter got the booster in her third trimester with both pregnancies.
stinger
I saw this post shortly after it went up, but didn’t have time to comment as I was just then called in by the nurse for my COVID shot!
Got my flu shot last week. Getting everything I can during the current administration, in case the anti-vaxxers ban insurance coverage for the shots.
bcwbcw
@Lapassionara: a vaccination threshold is how high the percentage of vaccinations has to be to prevent a disease from spreading in a population. For example, if a person with measles typically infects ten people who then each infect another ten , everybody gets sick. In this example, If more than 90% are immune then most of the people a sick person encounters are immune and infect at most one person or no one and the disease spread stops. Above the threshold, people without immunity are protected by the fact they never encounter a sick person.
raven
@bluefoot: Thanks!!!
sab
@prostratedragon: AARP says the A in TDAP is for “and.”
Quinerly
@frosty:
Kinda resigned myself to all medical care in Albuquerque. Great experiences with ophthalmologist for eye surgery and a non judgemental dermatologist who addressed my spots. Albuquerque.
Next up! Finding a PCP. Wasn’t impressed with the NP with his own shingle here in Eldorado.