This is so cute.
Big Bird is 6 years old and he just got his COVID19 vaccine.
His wing is feeling a little sore he says but he seems to otherwise be doing well. https://t.co/eWr1PT3pki
— Oni Blackstock, MD, MHS (@oni_blackstock) November 6, 2021
(All the usual noisy malcontents — including, of course, Ted Cruz — are predictably outraged.)
There was some discussion as to why the OSHA mandate was delayed until January. Presumably, it was so that bad-faith efforts like this can get thrashed out in advance:
BREAKING: 5th Circuit blocks Biden's OSHA-enforced vaccine/testing mandate for private businesses. Via @RebeccaARainey https://t.co/95r9BA9JQR
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) November 6, 2021
This isn’t just the same *court* that has bent over backwards to allow #SB8 to go into effect (despite “grave constitutional issues”); it’s the same *panel* that reached out to prevent the district court from even *holding* a preliminary injunction hearing in the providers’ case.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 6, 2021
NEW: 70% of US adults are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) November 6, 2021
Mandates are working. Thank you President Biden!
— metalheadCP (@metalheadCP) November 6, 2021
My social media is filled with photos of kids getting shots. My friends with under 5’s are talking about how they can’t wait for their turn.
— Ruth Shelton (she/her) (@Maggie1750) November 6, 2021
Parents of 5- to 11-year-olds in the US: you can find a vaccination site for your child and make an appointment here: https://t.co/QxNZcQkYVe
Please share widely. pic.twitter.com/gHMregJ4GC
— Edward Nirenberg (@ENirenberg) November 6, 2021
The U.S. is reopening to foreign travelers on Monday as long as they’re vaccinated. But millions of people who got Russia’s Sputnik V or other vaccines not recognized by the World Health Organization are out of luck. By @jspikebudapest https://t.co/ZV77aFqFfC
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) November 7, 2021
======
No place on Earth is accurately reporting #COVID19 deaths, but under-reporting varies widely by region.https://t.co/IXA457rmVv pic.twitter.com/D7B8QBAA2l
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 7, 2021
The ??USA under-reports #COVID19 deaths by a margin of 20%, for many reasons. But that good compared to most of the world?. You can track country by country here: https://t.co/IXA457rmVv pic.twitter.com/KR1eph7c3h
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) November 7, 2021
BREAKING: Officials in western India say 10 patients have died after fire breaks out in COVID-19 hospital ward. https://t.co/O9dO14JdlL
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 6, 2021
Sydney to further ease COVID-19 curbs on Monday as vaccinations pick up https://t.co/jD37ysDCAJ pic.twitter.com/MAu1fOYMac
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 7, 2021
Russia's COVID-19 cases hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections and deaths that has persisted for more than a month. The national coronavirus task force reported 41,335 new cases since the previous day. https://t.co/lBFV979WNe
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 6, 2021
The pandemic and funeral business corruption has seen Russia's crematorium industry surge, reports @pavlovaulianahttps://t.co/KmNHVFvBQs
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) November 6, 2021
In Greece, antivaxxers have been paying doctors 400 euros to give them shots of bacteriostatic water instead of th #COVID19 vaccine.
Except the doctors have been pocketing the money and giving them the real shot anyway: https://t.co/cAX9fbmDW6
— Kellen Squire (@SquireForYou) November 6, 2021
Latvia's parliament makes it legal to fire unvaccinated workers. The country is in the midst of a major #Covid surge https://t.co/FgawIAYUqU
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 7, 2021
Facing a spike in infections, Austria is sharpening its Covid rules. Front & center: The country is tightening rules for a nat'l vaccine-pass program, starting Monday. Officials are trying to stem an explosive Covid surge. https://t.co/fPJ6BcgnjF
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 6, 2021
Needless suffering: Britain offers a warning of what happens when a country ignores Covid. It reopened this summer allowing people to live w/out restrictions. The problem? Cases have surged, more than the rest of Europe, the US & many other countries https://t.co/dp2vqtfNmU
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 7, 2021
Covid booster jabs to open earlier for pre-booking in England https://t.co/caVxLPemg9
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 6, 2021
Costa Rica to require Covid shots for young people under age 18. Report says Costa Rica has become "1 of the first countries to implement such a mandate." Cuba has been vaccinating children as young as 2 against Covid, using vaccines developed in Cuba https://t.co/lyMxeieiqt
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 6, 2021
======
The future of SARSCoV2 vaccination — lessons from influenza.
Some experts had hoped the vaccines could eliminate transmission w/ the ultimate goal of herd immunity. A more likely picture is similar to infection patterns & public health responses to the flu https://t.co/d9mfZu5L3m pic.twitter.com/VujUc8jlfg— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) November 6, 2021
So frustrating
Why do these "mix-ups" keep happening to Ivermectin studies?
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that so many of these studies highly touted on Twitter and Facebook end up getting retracted https://t.co/0ulyE7pTA0
— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) November 6, 2021
======
As of Tuesday this week, the entire Bay Area returned to the CDC’s orange “substantial” and red “high” categories of COVID transmission.
Here are the key factors that have caused metrics to hit a wall: https://t.co/lxHfaXQkR1
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) November 6, 2021
1/ Loosening restrictions
Slowly, many Bay Area counties are changing their rules for wearing masks indoors. Here’s more from @Bob_Wachter
and other experts on how that and other factors potentially are causing cases to plateau:2/ Vaccination rates
Vaccination rates in the Bay Area are high, but the efficacy of vaccines is showing signs of wearing off for people who got the earliest shots. And booster uptake hasn’t been quick…
The good news is that though cases are plateauing, hospitalizations in the Bay Area continue to trend downwards — a sign that vaccines work, experts say.https://t.co/lxHfaXQkR1 pic.twitter.com/JXzAoXDl59
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) November 6, 2021
By this summer, only about three dozen of 4,500 West Point cadets had refused to get vaccinated.
Three of these cadets, who decided to drop out instead of getting the shot, appeared on Hannity tonight. pic.twitter.com/fEBU8k2n1H
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 5, 2021
Rodgers played all the antivax hits while wearing the shirt of a guy who died at 36 of a contagious respiratory illness. pic.twitter.com/DDLKmlF4JU
— zeddy (@Zeddary) November 6, 2021
(Doc Holliday died of tuberculosis)
Seems like this dude loves lying. https://t.co/yL20oavj4Z
— Jean-Michel Connard ? (@torriangray) November 5, 2021
Aaron Rodgers said his decision to not get vaccinated was his choice for his body. He is correct—but his explanation of that choice, riddled with misinformation, will affect many people outside of his team, and that’s a damn shame. pic.twitter.com/6eLrF4TAr6
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) November 5, 2021
Perspective: Aaron Rodgers, starting QB for the unvaccinated, is really just looking out for No. 12 https://t.co/6iTsYP8UE2
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 6, 2021
Aaron Rodgers showing up for training camp next year stained blue from megadosing colloidal silver.
— Jean-Michel Connard ? (@torriangray) November 6, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
The Monroe County website takes the weekend off; NYSDOH says 362 new cases yesterday and a 5.9% test positivity.
JMG
Observations from several days in Paris. Museums restaurants, etc. are rigorously requesting to see one’s covid health pass. Mask wearing is still required indoors, on transit, etc. Even Uber drivers won’t let you in their cars without a mask. Roughly one-third to one half of persons I’ve seen on the street are wearing masks (others tend to drop them around their necks when outside). Whether that is because of covid wariness or just because taking them on and off is considered a hassle I have no idea.
p.a.
??????????Is the opposite of malpractice bonpractice?
opiejeanne
King County Washington, the most vaccinated in the state at 83.3 %, is seeing an average of 361 new cases per day, 253 since November 4, and a 7% drop in the past 7 days. Hospitalizations are up 11%, with an average of 13 daily. Deaths are averaging 4 per day, with 1 death since 11/4, a 9% increase this past two weeks over the previous two weeks.
Chris T.
I love the idea of taking the extra $$ (ok, €) and giving the real shots anyway. “Oh, I thought you were giving me extra money because you were so pleased with my services!”
Brachiator
Are people paying money to avoid getting a free vaccine?
That’s some crazy dedication to their principles.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
Gin & Tonic
I am glad we conquered smallpox in the 50’s and 60’s, or whenever it was, because it sure wouldn’t work now.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,343 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, the lowest daily number in six months, for a cumulative reported total of 2,506,309 cases. It also reports 54 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 29,256 deaths – 1.17% of the cumulative reported total, 1.20% of resolved cases.
Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.91.
518 confirmed cases are in ICU, 212 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,190 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,412,395 patients recovered – 96.3% of the cumulative reported total.
Seven new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,806 clusters. 325 clusters are currently active; 5,481 clusters are now inactive.
4,334 new cases today are local infections. Nine new cases today are imported.
(These numbers have not been updated for two days.) The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 41,391 doses of vaccine on 4th November: 2,864 first doses, 18,162 second doses, and 20,365 booster doses. As of midnight on the 4th, the cumulative total is 50,462,307 doses administered: 25,516,476 first doses, 24,625,458 second doses, and 492,054 booster doses. 78.1% of the population have received their first dose, while 75.4% are now fully vaccinated.
rikyrah
@p.a.:
I think it’s hilarious???
Cermet
So sick of hearing about the AO rogers; he’s stupid, entitled, and believes he’s smarter than everyone else – or a typical white guy, living in his mother’s basement on the internet. At least we now know that rogers has been hit in the head too many times. Just wish he’d shut up, and stop acting like a complete AO. Also, hope he get’s long covid and can’t play football ever again.
sab
@Gin & Tonic: Last smallpox fatality was in Birmingham UK. The patient worked in a lab that did smallpox research. They never figured out how she caught it. Her boss killed himself.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Ugh. That tweet about Greece. Some days, I swear, this country…
Point 1: never read the comments. I’m sorry I broke that rule.
Point 2: Greece’s numbers are higher than they’ve ever been. 5 days in a row, over 6,000 new cases a day. Sixty thousand active cases right now according to Worldometer.
Those selfish turds want to avoid the safety precautions that are in place to try to curb this pandemic, the same way Aaron Rodgers wanted to.
I went to buy some bulk surgical masks and a couple of USB cables yesterday, and yeah, there were lines outside retail stores while people were getting their medical credentials checked before entering the stores, but it’s a lot less inconvenient than the general lockdowns we went through last year.
I liked Giancarlo Esposito’s answer to such people: if you don’t want to get vaccinated, go off to some remote island and isolate yourself until the pandemic’s over.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
The official declaration of global eradication confirmation came from WHO in 1980; last documented case was a few years prior.
For a broad dramatization of the 1947 outbreak of smallpox in NYC, and the massive vaccination program immediately put into place, also see the movie The Killer That Stalked New York.
sab
@sab: I forgot to put the date. 1978.
germy
Scout211
The cold open last night on SNL was pretty good, with the blog’s new favorite a-hole, Aaron Rodgers (Pete Davidson) showing up on Jeanine Pirro’s Fox show to defend himself. TFG (played perfectly by a new cast member) also showed up to congratulate
Youngkinhimself. It was amusing.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/aaron-rodgers-trump-cold-open/602885582
Geo Wilcox
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t know about that Given that small pox is so disfiguring I think people would rush to get vaccinated. The fact that you can get Covid and not show any symptoms has added to the lack of urgency in getting vaccinated or even bothering with precautions. I think if Covid presented like small p ox, we’d have almost 100% vaxxed already. Esp. if celebrities (Rodgers) got infected and were shown to be horribly disfigured.
YY_Sima Qian
On 11/6 China reported 50 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 21 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. 21 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 117 active domestic confirmed cases in the region.
At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
Ningxia “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. There currently are 41 active domestic confirmed cases in the region.
Gansu Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild). 9 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 125 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hebei Province reported 21 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 95 active confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Hunan Province there currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (at Changsha) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Zhuzhou) cases remaining in the province.
At Zunyi in Guizhou Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed cases (3 moderate, 1 serious & 2 critical) remaining in the city. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
At Beijing Municipality there currently are 40 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 community remains at High Risk. 2 communities are currently at Medium Risk.
At Rizhao in Shandong Province did not report There currently are 14 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 residential compound is currently at Medium Risk.
Sichuan Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Chongqing Municipality did not report any new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds & 1 office building are currently at Medium Risk.
Changzhou in Jiangsu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 3 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.
Qinghai Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Tianmen in Hubei Province there currently are 2 domestic confirmed cases (1 mild & 1 moderate) in the city.
Heilongjiang Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed. There currently are 239 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jiangxi Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (mild) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 22 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Jiaxing) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Hangzhou) cases in the province.
Henan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 19 active domestic confirmed & 17 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 9 new domestic confirmed & 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 20 active domestic confirmed & 18 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 community & 1 village are currently at Medium Risk.
Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases (all at Ruili, via screening of persons in restricted movement zones). 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed & 28 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 village at Ruili has been elevated to Medium Risk. 1 zone & 1 village at Ruili is currently at Medium Risk.
Imported Cases
On 11/6, China reported 24 new imported confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic), 14 imported asymptomatic cases, 2 imported suspect cases:
Overall in China, 46 confirmed cases recovered (12 imported), 20 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (18 imported) & 6 were reclassified as confirmed cases (3 imported), & 1,362 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,169 active confirmed cases in the country (383 imported), 32 in serious condition (3 imported), 442 active asymptomatic cases (337 imported), 3 suspect case (all imported). 48,133 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 11/6, 2,322.102M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 10.476M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 11/7, Hong Kong reported 1 new positive case, imported (from the UK). The city has not registered a domestic case inn 30 days.
arrieve
Got boostered yesterday. In case I needed any more confirmation that we have the stupidest possible health care system, it took almost an hour for me to check in because they couldn’t get my insurance to go through.
They kept saying, “It worked for your last shots, but it doesn’t work now.” I explained that the insurance changed since then because I turned 65, and they should be using the insurance card I had handed them. Then they demanded to see my red white and blue Medicare card (which I don’t carry because it doesn’t cover anything. Fortunately I have a copy on my phone.) That didn’t go through either, as I knew it wouldn’t. Then they said “I don’t understand — it worked for your last shots, but it doesn’t work now.” And we’d start again.
I wanted to say, “Can’t you just pretend I don’t have any insurance and give me the shot?” It was finally resolved but I was a little nervous about trusting that the same pharmacist who couldn’t figure out my insurance could handle the syringe.
Fortunately beyond a sore arm I don’t notice any side effects this time.
Scout211
@arrieve:
Getting vaccinations is often confusing with Medicare. Sometimes the shots are paid for by the Part D (or Advantage plans) and sometimes by Medicare. Flu shots are paid by Medicare and Shingles shots are paid under Part D, for example. We have regular Medicare and a Part D but the COVID shots were paid by Medicare 100%. I tried to give the CVS clerk my Part D card and she said it was already paid by Medicare so she didn’t need that card. It does make things simpler to bring all the cards to the pharmacy. LOL
O. Felix Culpa
@arrieve: That was my experience too! The state offers free boosters, but the pharmacy staff couldn’t find my insurance info online (they obviously preferred to use the private insurance)…which was findable by my doctor’s office just the week before, so WTH??? Long story short, they FINALLY found my insurance records and gave me my booster, so all’s well that ends well, I guess.
StringOnAStick
We have appointments to get our boosters tomorrow; 7 months after our second Pfizer. I felt crappy after each prior shot but it’s a small price to pay.
Percysowner
@arrieve: I got boostered at CVS Friday. I checked in online and they had me enter everything before I got there. I did panic when I got there because I had my Medicare card, but not Part D. There was no problem, they never even asked for anything, except my old vaccination card, which I forgot, so now I have to go back.
VOR
@arrieve: In their defense, health insurance is practically designed to be as confusing as possible. The provider secretly or not so secretly hopes your insurance is denied so they can charge more. The insurance carrier doesn’t want to pay.
My local hospital’s radiology department is operated by a 3rd party. Now I’ve had the same insurance, same plan, same numbers, for a couple decades and the hospital itself always gets it right. But the Radiology company consistently gets it wrong, then claims my carrier denied the claim and bills me at a much higher rate. I’ve corrected them and they still got it wrong the next time. My conclusion, right or wrong, is the mistakes are intentional in hopes the patient will give up in frustration and pay the higher rates.
Every time I go to my clinic they ask for an updated insurance card. I tell them nothing changed but they want the card to take a scan of it. They do this even if I was in just the prior week. They also made me fill out a COVID exposure questionnaire as prep for a 100% online (virtual) visit.
Sloane Ranger
Saturday in the UK we had 30,693 new cases. The rolling 7-day average is down by 10.8%. Although the number of cases per day has been reducing recently so the trend is probably accurate, the number here should be taken with a pinch of salt due to weekend office closures and Wales not reporting on Saturdays. New cases by home nation,
England – 26,250 (down 2240)
Northern Ireland – 1194 (up 30)
Scotland – 3249 (up 860)
Wales – Does not report on Saturdays.
Deaths – There were 155 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday. Weekend warning applies. The rolling 7-day average is up by 8.1%. 125 deaths were in England, 6 in Northern Ireland, 24 in Scotland and Wales does not report on Saturdays.
Testing – Not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.
Vaccinations – As of 5 November, 50,199,371 people have had 1 shot of a vaccine, 45,812,839 have had 2 and 9,653,041 have had a 3rd shot/booster. This means that 87.3% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot, 79.7% have had both and 16.8% have had a 3rd shot/booster.
In regard to the UK’s figures, the article AL lacks some nuance. England had opened up without restrictions but there are restrictions in place in the other 3 nations. While these seem to be having an effect in depressing case numbers in Scotland, England currently has fewer cases per 100,000 of the population than Northern Ireland and Wales. While it could be argued that England is exporting cases to Wales by people crossing the border in both directions, this is not the case as far as Northern Ireland is concerned.
Also, even when England had restrictions, they were being regularly ignored by people and not enforced by the authorities. I can’t count the times, I had to catch a bus and the driver was unmasked, despite both a legal and company requirement that they wear one. Also, a lot of people, even older ones who might be expected to be more cautious, seem to have become tired of the restrictions. I am the Secretary of our local u3a group (an organisation run by retired people for retired people) and a lot of members keep asking me why we haven’t re-started in-person meetings yet, plus I have heard comments from members to the effect that they have only a few years left and they want to enjoy them, even if it means they die sooner “I want to live, not just exist”.
Another issue is that, despite the Health Minister regularly exhorting us to wear a mask, wash our hands, get tested regularly and maintain social distance, his words are undermined when his own Tory colleagues ignore him, particularly Jacob Rees-Mogg (Leader of the House and MP for the 18th century), who sneered at an SNP MP who asked him why he wasn’t wearing a mask by saying he knew and trusted his colleagues, going on to say that if the SNP didn’t trust each other, that was their problem. This is a safe Tory seat and I’m sure that a lot of our members are taking their lead from him and the others.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I didn’t notice the quotes around the word principles.
And was thinking that the word selfishness would likely be more appropriate.
Ruckus
@Geo Wilcox:
We took our shots and sugar cubes because we’d seen the damage that all those diseases cause. I have 2 friends my age that had polio. Went to school with one of them, currently live in the same complex with the other. 2 others were friends moms. That’s 4 that I personally know that lived within 5 miles of each other. That’s one disease. And the smallpox vaccine was so recent and the disease so recently eradicated (the year I was born) that I still got the shot, along with my classmates. The site is still visible 7 decades later. Did you have chickenpox? That was the last of the vaccines for all the childhood diseases that threatened or infected most everyone my age (and for far longer), because of no vaccines. Mumps, measles, polio, chicken pox, small pox, covid, shingles. I’ve had 4 of this list. You don’t want any of them.
What gets me is that some of those diseases had really bad results for some and we all knew that. Covid has really bad results for a lot of people and we know that, but idiots don’t get that and our politics are so fucked up that the people they look up to lie to them for reasons that defy any kind of logic whatsoever.
J R in WV
This is great!! And no way this is immoral, either!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Going by the county I live in Covid reporting the current uptick in COVID cases in SF Bay Area is mostly in rich white area codes. So, were these people really fully vaccinated in the first place or just lying about and isolating tell they thought it was safe?
J R in WV
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
My program is make them go home, nail the doors up shut, deliver food thru a window. Mandatory home quarantine for everyone not vaccinated barring a serious, real medical condition, cancer chemo, immune system disease, organ transplants.
No consideration to “religious” convictions at all. You don’t have to take the vax shot, but you can’t be out in public without it.
Ang
Just wanted to say thanks for compiling these updates – I really appreciate them!
sab
@Scout211: Hmmm. I have been getting charged a lot more for basic medications and also I was charged for my shingles shot. I wonder if the pharmacy has somehow lost my Plan D info. They are also running shorthanded with the pharmacy techs.