I just left a comment.
If you are concerned that RFK Jr.'s FDA chief Marty Makary is limiting the Novavax COVID booster to those over 65 or with underlying conditions, and may do the same for Pfizer/Moderna as well, consider leaving a comment as well.— Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) May 21, 2025 at 12:05 AM
======
This is absolutely terrible news.
With the shifting regulatory climate (i.e., antivax ratfuckery), Moderna has withdrawn their application for their eagerly anticipated COVID-flu combo vaccine. This vaccine offered better protection than getting each shot separately.
h/t @merz.bsky.social— Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) May 22, 2025 at 2:46 AM
=====
I can guaranfuckingtee that Moderna has market research that proves this is a lie
— Chris Labarthe (@chrislabarthe.bsky.social) May 22, 2025 at 11:10 PM
=============
I've never seen it so well put before.
— Mary Pezzulo (@marypezzulo.bsky.social) May 22, 2025 at 8:02 PM
=====
GOP attacks on public health are attacks on public *life.* It is becoming increasingly risky to participate in big events and enter public spaces
We’re already seeing these headlines about measles exposures at airports. We’ll see thee from sporting events, graduations, 4th of July parades, etc.— Dr. Katherine Haenschen (@drkath.bsky.social) May 22, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Manyakitty
Is this the future pharma companies and manufacturers paid their bribes to get?
rikyrah
This is just horrible 😡
Spanky
@Manyakitty: “Everything Trump Touches Dies” has been tested and proven over and over again. I don’t see why this time should be different.
CaseyL
To tell the truth, I’m not sure I’d trust a vaccine approved by HHS anymore. Not sure what to do about that.
Manyakitty
@Spanky: as I’m bitter about the pharma industry right now (fired from a CRO a couple of weeks ago), I hope they burn. However, they’re also trying to bring useful drugs to market (for those who can pay for them, but I digress).
Another Scott
Sent my comment.
I stressed that billions of doses of COVID-19, influenza, MMR, and other vaccines have been given around the planet. The vaccines are safe and effective and prevent death and damage to health, and protect the public and the economy from unnecessary economic losses. That I am strongly opposed to anything that restricts access, makes them more expensive for the population, or interferes with the science and technology of their development.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Van Buren
I’m 63, I teach in an urban community, I’m exposed to germs all day. I sure as shit want the vax.
jonas
Right now, all current COVID strains are descendants/variants in some way of the 2021 Omicron virus. Virtually the entire population either had omicron Covid or has been vaccinated against the strain, so right now, questions about vaccines and availability and recommendations are not getting much attention because there isn’t an outbreak. But what happens in the next couple of years if/when a new strain emerges that is substantially different from omicron and we’re back to square one in terms of resistance? Will HHS/CDC allow new vaccine development/distribution or will we all just be told to rub some cod liver oil on it and put our affairs in order? Shit’s gonna get real then.
DonnaK
Tens of millions of Americans voted to become a poorer, sicker, stupider country. Well done, y’all.
David Collier-Brown
Come to Ontario. See https://stepstojustice.ca/questions/immigration/i-dont-have-status-in-canada-or-a-health-card-can-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-or-proof-of-vaccine/
rusty
I submitted a comment too. In 2020, before vaccines became available, our 12 year old was hospitalized with pediatric cardiac inflammatory syndrome that was the result of exposure to COVID. I sure as hell want approval for kids too. No one else should have to go through that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@DonnaK: Yeah, I’m bitter too
Enhanced Voting Techniques
See if the EU approves it. The FDA is not the only regulatory body on the planet; the EU, Brazil, India, China and Russia all have their own version of the FDA.
jonas
@CaseyL: The vaccines will probably still be safe. What they’re mostly going to do is recommend a bunch of woo for stuff that will funnel both public and private funds towards MAHA grifters selling the equivalent of patent medicine for serious diseases.
frosty
@Manyakitty: I looked it up. CRO = Contract Research Organization. Supports biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies by providing a wide range of early-stage research and development (R&D) offerings.
I’m sorry about your firing. Everything sucks.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
A week from today, I am leaving the United States and flying back to the Free World. While Greece’s vaccination master website is geolocked, I strongly suspect that I will be eligible for the next round of COVID vaccines when I get there.
And if anyone asks why I’m getting my healthcare in Europe from now on, now that my surgery is in my rearview mirror: well, a plurality of Americans voted to kill me.
cmorenc
If only instead of a vaxx-skeptic, RFK Jr was a gravity skeptic who spent his off-time hanging out at the edge of cliffs instead of wading in pathogen-polluted streams.
Manyakitty
@frosty: thanks.
Sorry, I should have spelled out the acronym.
MattF
So, I’m well over 65… but I guess the Feds now want to be sure there’s a large reservoir of viruses to infect everyone, in case we old ones start to think there could be an issue with being anti-vaxx. Herd non-immunity.
eclare
@Manyakitty:
I’m sorry too. There is so much awfulness all around.
Miss Bianca
Left a comment. Thanks for the reminder!
Manyakitty
@eclare: thanks. It’s all so frustrating and needlessly destructive.
Gloria DryGarden
@Van Buren: similar, assisting with littles in city schools, as a substitute, rotating around the schools. Such exposure! I was holding off on working out of terror that I might get Covid a third time.
Each subsequent case the odds go up for long term troubles. I got my Moderna booster in February, but now I think I need a measles vax too. A friend just had Covid again, it blew out her immune system and now she has rheumatoid arthritis. Jeepers. And another adult friend just had a long bout with measles.
oh dear.
Gloria DryGarden
@Manyakitty: I’m sorry you lost your job.
since you felt in coming, is it a relief to out if there, or just horrid to be out of work? Anyway, sorry, it’s a hard thing.
MattF
@cmorenc: There’s an OGLAF comic about that concept. Note that OGLAF.COM is generally very NSFW. You have been warned.
Bunter
Left a comment the other day and sent the link to a friend who has gotten every Covid shot/booster. I got everything that I thought necessary before Jan. 21. DTAP, Measles, pneumonia, shingles, last Covid booster and flu (may have forgotten something). My Duane Reade were practically greeting me like a regular at a bar I was there so often.
Manyakitty
@Gloria DryGarden: it’s a combination. I’m glad to be out of there — it became miserable. That said, I need income and insurance.
trollhattan
@Another Scott: By the time covid caught up with me in ’23 I’d had every jab I could get and being a human pincushion meant I suffered less than a week before the fever broke, then a couple of crap weeks recovering, Most Importantly, no hospital, no treating the symptoms, no secondary infections, nothing approaching what the first couple covid years routinely did to victims.
The mRNA vaccines are a miracle.
eclare
Left a comment and got a friend to comment too. I’m up to date on everything except pneumonia and DPT, need to get those. I went through IVF around 2008, and got boosters for pretty much everything on Dr’s orders.
Gloria DryGarden
My last Covid booster didn’t even make me sick for a day like the previous ones did. I hear shingles vax people get pretty sick…I should do it, though.
Kent
I have Kaiser Permanente insurance out here in the Pacific Northwest.
I’m pretty sure they will implement this the same way they did the original vaccine back in spring 2021.
When you go to schedule a vaccine appointment on the Kaiser app there will be a checkbox asking if you have one of the following pre-conditions and if you check yes it will bring you to the next screen to schedule your vaccine appointment. In other words, it will be entirely self-implementing and no one at Kaiser is actually going to read your medical record to verify.
So basically any Kaiser patient who wants the vaccine will still be able to schedule and get one. I don’t know how it will work with generic pharmacies and such.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: Thank you, Scott. I riffed off your comment.
Billions of doses of COVID-19, influenza, MMR, and other vaccines have been given around the planet. The vaccines are safe and effective and prevent death and damage to health, and protect the public and the economy from unnecessary economic losses. Restricting COVID vaccine access to those over 65 and with pre-existing conditions ensures that that very class of patients is constantly exposed to others who are not vaccinated, but would have been, were the vaccines made available and affordable (free to the public is good).
Vaccines save lives, from those that eradicated smallpox and polio, to those that protect us from diptheria, measles, mumps, rubella, Covid, influenza, and other diseases. I am strongly opposed to anything that restricts access, makes vaccines more expensive for the population, or interferes with the science and technology of their development. I believe in proven science, and vaccination has been an enormous factor in improving the health and length of life of millions around the globe. It is a tragedy that we have anti-science anti-vaxxers in charge of public health. Please listen to the better informed public, and make the right decision. Thank you.
The Audacity of Krope
Heh, Marty Malarkey.
WhatsMyNym
@Gloria DryGarden: I only felt tired for couple of days after the first shingles shot. The second made my arm sore for several days (couldn’t sleep on that side) and the tiredness lasted longer.
JaySinWA
@Kent: I am sure that will be true that there will be an honor system of sorts, however it is less likely that we will have mass vaccination events, and fewer PSA’s about vaccination.
Vaccination rates are down all over already, including at KP. This adds another barrier to prevention
ETA I made a comment last night. I stressed that there was no evidence that there would be better outcomes for the under 65 group without continued vaccinations.
Ruckus
The only thing I can say is that as an old, born before most vaccines and knowing people with polio, the concept that some diseases can massively hurt or kill you has lost some of it’s strength, along with the concept that some people are just as selfish as possible, along with being as ignorant as possible.
I have a neighbor my age – old, who had polio and lives in a wheelchair, with one useless leg. I went to school with another woman who had polio and kicked it’s ass. But I also know of some who didn’t make it. But we are now in a world with far more communications possible, such as we are doing here, and far more people with their heads located far up their exit chutes, who, with the advent of what we are doing here, communications, spreading their bullshit, such as vaccines will kill or maim you. And of course it is possible but without them, could becomes WILL. And there were far fewer of us then so transmission of a disease was quite possible in a big city, but far less otherwise. But today?????
Ruckus
@Gloria DryGarden:
It depends on the person. I’ve had the shingles shot and zero negative reaction. To be honest I can’t remember a negative reaction I’ve had to any shot I’ve gotten in my lifetime. And there have been a few. Polio, Covid, shingles, flu shotS, some I don’t remember what they were for. I was in the USN and in first week of boot camp they gave us a lot of shots, so likely I’ve had some twice.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
THIS. A million times this. I’ve known/know people with polio and as an old, born before the vaccine am acutely aware of how fast diseases can spread and that for example polio can affect your breathing. Long ago I knew 3 people with iron lungs in their front rooms. Friends of mine’s parent or parents used them because of polio not just in the legs but in the lungs. If you don’t know what an iron lung is, it’s a big tube that was used to pressurize air to make it easier to breathe for someone with polio in the lungs, or any disease that restricted breathing. They have been replaced with other, better concepts of assisted breathing.
dnfree
@Gloria DryGarden: Schedule your shingles shots with a few days afterwards when you aren’t obligated to do something. My first one was fine, but the second one had me in bed with what felt like the worst flu I had experienced in many years—chills, temperature, the whole bit. I was still working at the time and glad I had the shot on a Friday. Not everyone has that experience but it’s wise to be prepared. Some people feel worse with the first shot.
TaliesinWW
Hey-Long time lurker, just wanted to say thanks for posting the link to public comment again, I put in something short and unusually couth by my standards and have sent the link to friends and family.
TONYG
@DonnaK: Yes. The problem with stupid people is that they make stupid decisions, and those decisions lead to outcomes that make them become even stupider. USA!!!!!!
sab
Late to the thread. I am reading our own Tom Levenson’s latest book A Very Small Thing about the development of germ theory in modern medicine. It is fascinating, and also, unfortunately, quite timely.
When I went to buy the book for my e-reader I couldn’t find it until I searched for Thomas Levenson.
sab
You do not want to mess with Covid.
My niece, 48 years old and very healthy, got it before the vaccine. She never fully recovered, and then a couple of years ago she went into a big decline. Woke up one morning and her hands and feet didn’t work. Later her arms and legs. Eventually even her digestive track. She had to be fed through her stomach. For years. Cleveland Clinic could do nothing. She died at age 51.
She was hoping to hang in until her oldest reached
high schooll. College. Not to be. Never saw either kid married.So I am wary of Covid and always get my vax.
She had it, then sort of recovered, then had a long lingering decline, which eventually killed her. Horribly.
Gvg
@Gloria DryGarden: the shingles vax was no problem for me. No special reaction. I think people generally only speak up if some thinking bad happens and don’t bother when it’s routine. But I see that some people are anticipating trouble or dreading it, so I thought I should say, it really wasn’t a problem. I had a sore arm. I should have moved around more the day after.
I also don’t really react to any other vaccines either.
Lyrebird
@Gvg: Thank you for posting this and reminding me to go comment!
Ella in New Mexico
Measles finally made it’s way west from Texas-NM border and we’ve had our first outbreaks here in the Sandoval-Bernallilo county. Exposures included the UNM Hospital’s Pediatric ED and Floor, several restaurants and even an ED in Santa Fe.
For folks living in areas with measles outbreaks:
If you are an adult and didn’t get two measles vaccine shots, check your titers and/or get a booster if needed. Kids are not fully protected until they get both shots at 12-15mos and 4-5 yrs so check with your pediatrician to see if you need to speed up their second shot. If you have a kiddo under 12 mos and are close to an outbreak you can get them vaccininated at 6 months so they have some protection, but they will need two additional vaccine boosters for full immunity.
This sucks so bad.