(CNN)US health officials are urgently working on a plan to allow second Covid-19 boosters for all adults, a senior White House official confirmed to CNN on Monday. The US Food and Drug Administration is making it a high priority the official said. Second boosters have been authorized for adults 50 and older, as well as some people with weakened immune systems, since late March. But younger adults are eligible for only one booster shot, which was authorized in November. Federal agencies are looking to move quickly on authorizing a second booster for all adults, the source said.

Some experts are concerned that younger adults' immunity may be waning as Covid-19 cases rise with the dominance of the BA.5 Omicron subvariant. Reinfections are more likely with BA.5 than with any previous variants because of immune escape features, Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, said on CNNI Monday.

Turns out when you have a vaccine only approach to a disease, keeping people vaccinated is important! Who could have predicted this?

  • MF_BROOM [he/him]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Any other COVID-cautious people feel worse now than at any point in the pandemic? I know it was scary when this shit first exploded and there weren't any vaccines ready. But at least there was something to pin hope on anyways, i.e. vaccines, although that was probably naive on my part. But then the capitalists naturally left the Global South suffering and without access to vaccines because of "muh intellectual property!", I underestimated how many people are dumb as rocks/antivax, and all the liberals decided "fuck you, I got mine" once they got fully vaxxed, the paltry stimulus checks ended long ago, and the unemployment benefits were cut off.

    And more recently, COVID funding is basically on life support at this point in part because harm reduction Joe decided to give it to cops instead, all the manufactured consent to live with COVID by the media, the CDC changed their transmission map to lull people into a false sense of security, the variants are getting increasingly more contagious and we have know idea the extent of what repeated infection/long COVID will do to one's body, the time between dominant variants keeps decreasing because we abandoned what shitty mitigation efforts we had to begin with, public transit and other places no longer have mask mandates, etc. This has been a fucking nightmare for me, I know capitalism is woefully unequipped to handle any kind of crisis (unless it means extracting as much wealth from working people as possible), but I didn't expect the handling to be this atrocious, my god. Meanwhile, I always feel like I'm in the twilight zone when I walk around and hardly anyone is masking in places where they should. I know most of the blame should lie with institutions for normalizing all this "we have to move on" rhetoric, but it can also be hard to resist the urge to hate anybody not wearing a mask.

    Goddamn I hate this shit, this is never gonna end, is it? :doomjak:

    • Darthsenio_Mall [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      To answer your initial question: Yes absolutely and I very much sympathize with the entire content of your post.

      To your second question: :doubt: but I hope so.

    • panopticon [comrade/them]
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      2 years ago

      I feel that remark about the Twilight zone. The worst part is that no one around me seems to take it seriously any more, absolutely no one wears a mask.

      I had a baffling conversation recently with a younger dude who just got over his first covid infection and he seemed to be unaware that you can keep catching this shit over and over after the temporary immunity wears off. Also seemed unfamiliar with the idea of manufactured consent and why the media and other seemingly innocent institutions might have a stake in downplaying the danger of this ongoing disaster.

      I feel like I'm the fuckin crazy one wherever I go because I haven't met anyone in a long time who sees how dystopian this all is. It's not helping my doomerism.

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I'm fully vaxxed, waiting on the next booster, and wearing a mask at home for everything except meals. And I'm starting to think I should take my meals outside, if that answers your question. I realize the mask offers very minimal protection but it's pretty much all the people in my life have left me with as they go off to restaurants, concerts, theme parks, and cruises.

      The thing a lot of Leftists need to get is we are watching the Adaptation strategy to Climate Change playing out; They've acknowledged the problem, they offered shittier and shittier solutions because they refused to do anything that might affect the ownership class, and now we're all gonna suffer because in the process they've neutered the minds of us all from considering there are any other options.

      :lenin-sleeping: please wake up.

    • deadbergeron [he/him,they/them]
      cake
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      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Yeah, I feel like the first summer, at least around me, cases got super low and it seemed like we might actually get over it, then after the hell that was delta the vaccines came out and last summer cases got super low again, I even got comfortable without my mask in certain outdoor spaces. Then omicron hit and this shit keeps evolving, getting more contagious, yet people are at an absolute low with taking precautions, they won’t roll out new boosters, testing has decreased. I clung to what little hope there was for the past two summers, but this is the first summer where there’s really nothing to give me hope and yeah I feel worse than ever

  • melon_popsicle [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I got the first booster super early, and wouldn't you know it, I just came down with covid yesterday. I'd been checking the status of the second booster daily, but I guess I won't need it now...

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Whatever immunity offered by getting infected with omicron doesn't reliably last very long, so you should get whatever booster you can when available.

      People are getting reinfected after a month. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-11/sa-immune-period-for-covid-positive-cases-reduced-from-12-weeks-/101226156

    • spicymangos51 [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      oh man same, but I came out positive on july 4th, like I'm doing everything I can to be safe yet still got it, but they get to drag their feet on vaccines

    • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
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      edit-2
      2 years ago

      i got mine immediately as well, and of course nothing after, and I was in CLOSE contact with someone who is covid positive like 3 weeks ago. close as in living in the same house as them and doing work together and in general breathing on each other. somehow I didn't catch it? I have no idea how this thing works. They got a positive result like a day after they left here, and they didn't get it from me because I had zero contact with the outside world and they were on multiple planes on their way here, assuming that's where it came from.

      No fucking idea. It feels random as shit. I should have had it. Tests negative multiple times, felt fine.

  • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
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    2 years ago

    I’ve been telling everyone I know for months that they need to get a second booster even if it means lying and saying you’re immunocompromised and everyone has brushed it off, half of them haven’t even gotten their first booster.

    Americans pay basic attention to the world around you and how it may pose literal danger to you challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]

  • SerLava [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    it has been SO FUCKING LONG god these fucking clowns

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      It helps, anything that keeps the antibodies in your blood high helps, it just doesn't last very long.

  • Darthsenio_Mall [he/him]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    A fun complication to consider is that there will be a ba.4/ba.5 booster in the fall (which presumably will offer better protection for longer than either of the current boosters currently do) and there will be a minimum interval of some months between the last booster you got and this one.

    I think it was initially six months after the second vaccine dose before the first booster and then six before the second booster, then it was shortened to five, and now it's been shortened to two months for the first booster and four months for the second.

    So if you set aside the discussion of how much the shortening of these intervals has been motivated by actual science and concern for public health versus the maximizing of profit, you're still left with the dilemna that getting a booster now that does only a little and for only a short time (which is still better than nothing, of course) very well may delay your ability to get a booster in the fall that offers significantly more protection and is actually designed to target recent variants.

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yeah, I have no faith that health authorities won't fuck up the rollout of the ba.4/5 boosters and deny them to people who get a booster now. I live and work around people who are highly vulnerable to getting seriously ill from covid so I'll take the booster now, and probably lie and get an omicron booster later this fall if I have to.

      • Darthsenio_Mall [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yup I'm in a similar situation and I agree that seems to be what makes the most sense

  • Des [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    at my job (grocery store) the frequency of the covid waves is ramping up. before we would all get hit during the nationwide peak. now it's been only 3 weeks and it's tearing through everyone again. meanwhile my fucking manager is trying to miscount the pitiful 5 day CDC recovery period and drag everyone back in early (he is counting the day before the positive result which is stupid). for some reason i seem to be one of those rare ones that just doesn't get sick from covid at all, even with ba 5 now and my last booster like 8 months old. it's getting increasingly difficult to function with a permanent skeleton crew. and now it seems they are pressing for "if you got the vaccine just come to work with covid and a mask on".

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      That's how it's been at my job, but it's been going on for two months. I think it's the new normal, and it's absolutely unsustainable.

  • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    wait a minute, didn't we already have a second round of boosters? I know I got a vaccine and 2 boosters

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      you weren't supposed to get a 4th shot unless you were immunocompromised or over 50. They are now a urgently trying to approve a 4th shot for everyone since the 3rd shot was approved last November. Apparently they were operating under the theory that any infection that occurs in healthy under 50 year olds would be no big deal, and boost your immunity going forward. Which was an astoundingly stupid assumption to make.

      Good on anyone who lied and got a second booster they weren't authorized for, they're throwing away tons of shots.

      • BerserkPoster [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I seriously wish I lied and got a second booster. I'm sitting here with covid and a bunch of side effects after the main sickness has subsided... and I got 3 shots so far

      • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I got that shit like 6 months ago and the only real qualification I had for it was "food service worker"

  • Soap_Owl [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Ibam trying to get my 4th as a healthcare worker

  • bananon [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Well fuck them I already got my second booster months ago :spongebob-party: