Ask your doctor

I saw my doctor recently and she said, “you are eligible for another COVID vaccine booster”.  I, like many of you, have had 4 doses of the current vaccine.  But my last dose was in February! 

I had planned to wait until fall for a new version of the vaccine.  But, with the FDA stating that the next vaccine needs to cover the current Omicron variants, fall just turned into LATE fall (IMO).

So, I am out there without much in the way of current protection from the vaccine.  And, to my knowledge, I haven’t had COVID 19. BA.5 seems to be wreaking some havoc and cases are rising across the country and it looks like hospitalizations are now rising too.

So, I said to myself, self I said, self, maybe I do want to get another booster in the near future.  I asked my doctor if I should stick with Moderna or make a switch to Pfizer.  She said that I should get another Moderna booster if it is readily available.  She strongly agreed with my plan to go ahead and get another booster soon. 

She also urged me to contact her office if I test positive at any point.  She has been prescribing Paxlovid on a regular basis and says the supply is now plentiful (at least in the Seattle area). 

With my various risk factors, I am a candidate for Paxlovid and at high risk for hospitalization if I do get sick.

I have been carefully following the science during the course of the pandemic and felt pretty comfortable making my own decisions on when to get vaccinated and boosted. 

But, yet again, we are in uncharted territory.  Cases are up, a new variant is dominant, and we don’t yet have a new vaccine.

There doesn’t seem to be agreement on the benefits of additional boosters.  My husband’s doctor isn’t recommending a booster of the current vaccine for him at this point.

Here is an article from a recent Washington Post coronavirus update about boosters.

“Safety doesn’t appear to be an issue,” (Dr. Anthony) Fauci told The Post, listing other considerations too, like expiring supply. “We got a lot of doses, if we don’t get them into people soon, they’re going to be wasted.”

The Washington Post, 7/8/22

So, my advice is that you ask YOUR doctor about YOUR best course of action.  And bring up Paxlovid while you are at it.

I will be getting a booster this month 😊.

Allene

P.S. On a side note, our drugstore shelves are pretty bare in the cough drop area.  That tells me a lot of people in my neighborhood are coughing these days (symptoms of BA.4 and BA.5 include cough, fatigue, headache, and muscle pains)