On top of everything else I’ve got going on today, I got both my yearly flu shot and the COVID booster a few minutes ago. My survivability score just went up a good bit.
Only bad news is that my previous vaccinations have flattened me the day after. This one will be fine, right? Still worth it if it wasn’t, I’d happily trade one day of fatigue for the opportunity to not die wheezing my lungs out.
I’ve heard that getting both the flu and COVID booster together can be problematic. One friend spent a couple of days “as sick as I’ve ever been” as he put it. I had the new COVID booster anticipating a similar reaction as to the previous one’s, but hardly had any reaction at all. Your mileage may vary, as they say. Hopefully you’ll be good. At least you’ll be better protected.
Got my flu shot last week. I still need to get the COVID booster. Maybe next week.
Got my fifth anti-Covid vax yesterday. Eagerly awaiting this year’s flu vax. I wanna be around for a bit.
That’s good news. We got both, too. Not a guarantee. But, decreases the odds of serious illness.
NOW, I’m want to get our entire organization (and anyone else with a rational mind and a caring conscience) vaccinated against the raging rtwing repugnantcant pox that seems to be sweeping through the populace!
There are few things in this world most people wouldn’t trade for that particular outcome.
I am not yet old or infirm enough for my fourth vaccine dose (over 65s and those with underlying conditions only), and they can’t be acquired here outside the NHS vaccination programme.
Sadly, what with the NHS being a heterosexual-run government department, they don’t recognise the standards of ageing equivalency that we gay men work by. As someone over 35, In gay years I’m so old I might as well already be dead.
I know they say that getting Covid and flu at the same time(the shots that is), is well tolerated and an acceptable regimen. I´m not entirely convinced. Know plenty of people, including my elderly parents, who had eg herpes zoster reactivation after the Covid shot, so it obviously takes the immune system quite some effort to deal with that spike protein. There might be some aggravating factors in people who had Covid before and suffer T cell exhaustion, this is not clear yet.
I had the bivalent wild type/BA.4/5 booster last week, sore arm for 2 days nothing else, wifey had a night of sweats. I would wait a couple weeks tho before getting a flu shot right now.
Those that administer the vaccines just got that job because they want to ‘stick it to people’. (groan) I’ve gotta get this warped sense of humor straightened out.
Got 3 COVID shots and COVID (dammitalltohell), sore arm was about the worst of the side effects. Getting my flu shot tonight, but have yet to hear jack shit about updated COVID shots in the region.
Oh, our youngest daughter now has it for the third time and is still a “long hauler” from her first infection. Our eldest has had it 5 times. From my milder infection, I’ve acquired a moderately leaky mitral valve. Feel at liberty to imagine a very long string of multilingual profanity…
shermanj, stop needling us!
One member of our org. had to have a heart valve replaced. Then a month later had a stroke. I won’t expose myself to any of that if I can help it. Most of the rest of us are still masking, avoiding people indoors and getting fully vaccinated.
By the way, masking up serves multiple purposes: it protects you from disease and allergies, protects others from whatever you might have, pisses off the rtwing antivaxxer imbeciles, and helps prevent facial recognition by the millions of spy cameras everywhere. I think I’ll continue to wear a mask for years at least.
@9 moarscienceplz, I your reply is great! We have some yarn here, anyone for ‘needlepoint’?
O.K, O.K. I promise to stop!
FWIW, my husband and I both got COVID boosters a few weeks ago, and flu shots at the same time, and we had an easier time than previous shots.
Take it easy anyway.
Still can’t get the fourth shot yet as have at least 2 weeks to go before meeting the CDC 3 month mark post-Covid. Got three shots and got the damn thing anyway. Still, 2.5 years dodging the damn disease wasn’t a bad record.
No way am I getting the flu shot and the fourth Covid shot at the same time. Every time I get the shot, I am sick for 3-4 days and miserable & dragging for 2 weeks following the shot. Having had Covid, I can truthfully say that the side effects from the shot are a far better deal than actually getting Covid, which was hellish even with vaccination protection.
We got the updated Pfizer vaccine (good for omricon) here in Sweden in September, I and many of my co-workers have already taken it.
Silverhalide @ 13
Have you checked which vaccine they are providing locally?
I did the same yesterday. No side effects so far. (Of my now five Covid shots, only one left noticeable effects, for about a day.) Still need my second Shingrix.
I’m planning to get both COVID booster (bivalent, 3rd booster) and flu shot tomorrow. Since I’m the one that has to get the local grandson off to school in the morning, and the local district isn’t in session on Monday, I figure it’s the best time I’m going to have in case of a bad reaction. That said, I haven’t reacted at all to previous COVID vaccinations, including last Fall when I got a COVID booster and a flu shot at the same time.
Re: Nemo @ #15…
My insurance won’t cover the shingles vaccines (go figure), so the co-pay is $175 per shot. HOWEVER…Congress to the rescue. They passed a bill in August requiring no co-pay on vaccinations if you’re on Medicare (which I am) so I’m just waiting for that the become effective. I think that coverage kicks in on 1 Jan, but I haven’t seen anything concrete about the timing.
Comes to that, there was very little coverage of the vaccination part of the bill during all the fuss about it in August.
So…when it kicks in, first Shingrex and a TDAP booster are on the agenda.
I got both at the same time on Monday and had only slightly sore arms, a bit of fatigue and headache and some perverse insomnia on the night after I got the shots. No big deal. The lovely spouse, however, felt a little bit worse than that. Your mileage may vary. See local store for details. Not available at all locations.
Man, but I got that first Shingrix last month and it absolutely kicked my butt. I felt awful for a couple days. But shingles was much, much worse when I had it. That laid me up for two weeks.
I had my second booster (Pfizer (the first booster was Moderna (my decision))) in, ironically, the same week France announced the bivalent vaccines would soon be available. Same reaction as to my first booster, and the second jab of the initial Pfizer: Slightly sore arm for at most a day. Nothing else. The flu vaccine is now(?) available — combined with a booster if required — albeit I don’t believe I am eligible (yet, under France’s phased approach (as I understand it)).
I got this year’s flu shot a couple of weeks ago and had only a slightly sore arm that was gone by morning.
I got my fourth Pfizer jab in July and had no ill effects from any of them, not even a sore arm. My doctor says that I should wait a couple more months before I get another COVID shot.
When I go out, I hardly ever see anyone besides myself wearing a mask. It’s Missouri’s Second Congressional District, but they can’t all be Trumpistas. I guess the mask business isn’t entirely common sense vs. conspiracy theories any more, but I still don’t get why so few folks care.
Heh heh… Funny thing. A few weeks back I stopped into Costco to get my annual flu shot and the pharmacist offered me a COVID shot. Now I got the J&J shot when it first came out and a booster so I suggested that. Unfortunately, they’re no longer making it and I didn’t know how the other vaccines would affect me. I was a week day and just got back to work. I didn’t want to have an adverse reaction and lose several days recovering. I told her I’d just have the flu shot and think on the COVID shot.
Well, I waited to long it seems. My father had come down with what I thought was a cold and I eventually started to feel stuffed up. To be safe, we took an OTC test and they were both positive. Dad’s fine, but it hit me hard on Tuesday. I’m on antivirals, hoping to recover so I can get back to work as quickly as possible.
Congratulations. Prior to visiting family in Australia in January they all caught and recovered from Covid and I had my first booster. While I was in Australia my family here caught and recovered from Covid. I had my second booster when I returned in May. Then it was Covid roulette until an idiot family member who was symptomatic and didn’t bother testing turned up to a family gathering in July. I caught it and quarantined for a week. Only symptoms were a slight fever, tiredness and one day of nausea. Vaccines work and so do masks. One relative, a doctor at the front line of the fight is diligent about masking and hand washing he has remained Covid free even though his wife caught it when she took a sick relative to the hospital he works in.
I got my updated COVID booster (Spikevax) and flu shot at the same time several weeks ago. The flu shot arm got sore first, so in drag racing terns it got the hole shot. But the COVID arm caught up the next day and blew the flu shot off the track. Ouch it started hurting and stayed that way for several days. The day after the COVID shot I felt bad overall but not quite to the extent of previous COVID shots. I didn’t get as bad a rash either.
In less than a week after that I got my Shingrix and polio shots. The Shingrix shot may have made my arm hurt, but after my COVID shot it was a joke really.
I’m going to get my second polio shot in a few weeks then Shingrix 2nd a few weeks after that.
Not sure if I will go for 3rd polio in 6-12 months. I got the oral attenuated series a bit over 50 years ago, so should still have some residual immunity (hopefully mucosal). The shots now are for making sure I have systemic immunity to prevent a worst case scenario of paralysis if my childhood immunity had waned. The third IPV is supposed to bring the percentages up a bit more, though is probably overkill.
I’ve got my 4th shot/second booster scheduled for next week, and am planning on hitting a walk-in flu clinic right after. I didn’t really have any notable reaction for the first two, but was a bit tired and slightly “off” after the third, so I’ll see how this one goes.
One of my coworkers has had pretty bad reactions to all of the vaccinations, and recently got both flu and covid booster, and then also got covid around the same time/shortly after. They were pretty miserable for a few days or so, but I think they made a better/quicker recovery from that then they did some of the side effects of their previous vaccinations… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I also want to see about getting an updated TDAP (especially with polio becoming a thing again (wtf, people?)), and I hear they now have a chickenpox/shingles vaccine, so I guess I should see about getting that too, maybe it will confer a slight resistance to monkeypox, and I want to see about a monkeypox vaccine, but so far all I’ve heard of is a clinic through an LGBT center, and I don’t want to take one earmarked for a demographic I don’t belong to… so I’m just waiting for a general public clinic or through my insurance megacorp…
I’m not too concerned personally, I think I’m pretty low risk, what with not being very social, and actually washing my hands and all that, on top of being lucky enough to rarely get sick/injured (whoever drew up my character sheet dumped all the points into CON, thought that wasn’t enough, emptied CHA and transferred to CON, still thought that wasn’t enough, also emptied DEX and piled them into CON, and then went and pulled a few from WIS to shore up CON just a bit more…), but I don’t want to contribute to being an asymptomatic carrier/spreader even if I don’t suffer from it, and also, vaccines are like the easiest/cheapest lifehack/real-world-upgrade out there.
And, even if the side effect symptoms from the vaccine were as bad as the disease itself, I’d still be interested in a vaccine, because at least that’s easier to schedule and plan around…
It’s patently absurd that people are discussing how to colonize Mars or design interstellar generational ships, when it’s looking like we might not survive the next century or two…
…not survive the the next century…
Check out William Gibson’s Jackpot trilogy.
Disaster capitalism thriving while the human race is decimated.
One of the three time lines has experienced the worst, while two alternative time lines are trying to avoid the same mistakes.
Just back home from getting 5th shot/3rd booster for COVID, the bivalent version. Plus the flu shot. So add me to the group of “up to date”.
@26- whheydt
Have “fun” tomorrow. If in different shoulders side sleeping may get very interesting.
Re: hemidactylus @ #27…
I haven’t had any noticeable reaction to any of the prior shots, including last Fall when I got a COVID booster and flu shot at the same time. So I’m not really expecting any reaction this time. I’ll post tomorrow, either way (unless it’s really bad and I can’t stand to be up and on line).
Re: hemidactylus @ #27…
Follow up on Saturday…no reaction/side effects.
Got a flu and bivalent Covid shot 3 weeks ago. One in each arm. Arms were sore for a few days, Covid arm was sorer than flu arm, in contrast to previous 2 Covid boosters, each of which felt like a real flu infection for a day.
Good thing I got them 3 weeks ago. Last Wednesday I went to a restaurant with coworkers to celebrate one of the guy’s 40 year anniversary with the company and got Covid. Wife tested negative, so I was the one who brought it home. Now we’re masking at home and trying to stay apart. Only 9 more days. On the bright side, yesterday was the worst and wasn’t as bad as the worst booster.
Akira MacKenzie@21, Sorry to hear that! Please recover.
I will not criticise you for deferring on the Covid booster — I understand the thinking and concern — nor on the “procrastination” (if I may call it that, and something I’m “expert” in doing!), but do have a question: In some places (from memory, this includes where I am, France), employers are required to allow employees a (usually-extra?) day(s?) off in the case of apparent adverse vaccination reactions. I know you are in the States, which, with exceptions, is not so enlightened, but perhaps your employer (or their relevant insurers?) have a policy? Or your boss is willing to look the other way? That is, maybe there’s a contingency plan to deal with possibility without serious consequences.
In any case, as soon as possible (3 months, I think, in the States), get the fecking booster! That also gives you time to verify with employer what to do, and (as needed) make plans for a few days off to “recover” (if necessary or prudent). What I would not be too worried about is a (very) bad reaction, it depends: I’ve had nothing serious at all (and have had both Moderna and Pfizer boosters), others (including poppyhead) have apparently had annoying, albeit not serious, reactions. Yes, you are correct to be concerned about the possibility of a non-trivial reaction, but please, Please, PLEASE don’t let that stop you from getting boosted ASAP — and now you have time to prepare (albeit for an unfortunate reason).
Study that came out the other day, people who had primary vaxx series with 2x Astra plus a mRNA booster, had essentially no vaccination effect to recent variants past week 20. If that’s you, even more urgent to get a 4th shot.
Although technically, these current variants BA.5 and onwards, are so different from the wildtype-Delta lot that you could argue a full vaccines series against BA.5 should be 3 shots, not one. I do believe though that the BA.1 bivalent shot is coming one major mutation/recombination wave too late, and is essentially obsolete.