Covid 2024 Vaccine

R

RetMD21

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Dec 25, 2017
Messages
1,781
The wife and I got the new 2024 Spikevax yesterday. I'm fine except for a mild muscle and joint aches and fatigue. This one and the Pfizer are targeted to the KP.2 variant. Novavax has a non mRNA vaccine against JN.1 It's hard to know exactly when to get the new vaccine. We didn't get the booster in the spring this year and didn't get infected this summer so we decided to just go ahead. I know that some people are delaying vaccination with the idea of timing it closed to the anticipated seasonal increase in cases.
 
We got ours a couple weeks ago. We are normally homebodies without much exposure risk, but will be headed up to see family soon and wanted to build some immunity. I got Pfizer and had a day of arm soreness, DW got Moderna and then had 36 hours of fever and aches.

We had gone in to get both COVID and flu shots, but the COVID shots hadn't come in when we first tried, so got flu shots one day and COVID shots a couple days later.
 
Her Majesty and I were just having this discussion.....

We are getting the flu vaccine the end of September.....We've always gotten the flu shot and we've never gotten the flu.....Same for Shingles shot...got that also.

We have had 5 Covid vaccines and we've each gotten Covid (bad stuff) twice.

I'm wondering......What is the purpose of the Covid vaccine?

Is it to keep me from getting Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccines and following the timeframe.

Is it to keep me from spreading Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccine and I'm sure I spread it.

Is it to keep me from getting a bad case of Covid? Possibly. Is that the sole purpose of the Covid vaccine? If so, that does not seem to be enough of a reason given our past experience.

What do I not understand?
 
Last year when I was at my PCP the nurse said the hospital chain they work for was no longer requiring them to get the shot and I thought welp, can't be too important then right? (I'd already had it), IDK.

If I understand correctly this shot is already somewhat out of date since it is not targeting kp.3.1.1 though there might be some crossover?
 
Last edited:
I agree with others trying to figure what the purpose of the shot is. 5 shots and I've had it 3 times now. Pretty much a one bad day and a couple days to recover. However, I'm going to get another this fall, in the once a year camp. Wondering if we should wait till later in October so the effect will last through Jan or Feb when we have travel plans. I have a "wellness" visit with primary doctor tomorrow and will discuss with him. I plan to get flu tomorrow if it is available at Kaiser.
 
FlaMariner said:
I'm wondering......What is the purpose of the Covid vaccine?

Is it to keep me from getting Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccines and following the timeframe.

Is it to keep me from spreading Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccine and I'm sure I spread it.

Is it to keep me from getting a bad case of Covid? Possibly. Is that the sole purpose of the Covid vaccine? If so, that does not seem to be enough of a reason given our past experience.

What do I not understand?
Click to expand...
I think the common understanding is this:

  • It may reduce your risk of catching covid, if you only have a small exposure
  • It reduces the severity of your illness, including significantly reducing risk of hospitalization or death
  • Similarly, by being less ill, and for less time, you will reduce your ability to spread it as easily
It's not a magic barrier - no vaccine is - but the reductions are meaningful.
 
And, as a mod note, as with all threads on Covid vaccines, if you aren't interested, there's a back button.
 
I got my updated Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine on Saturday. My arm increasingly hurt thru the day and into Sunday to the point I could barely lift it over my head. I was also very sluggish and tired all day Sunday so I took 2 naps of 2-3 hours each. But today (Monday), I'm back to normal except a small ache in my arm. In the past, I also got chills about 12 hours after getting the shot. If that happened this time, I slept through it. This is my typical reaction to these vaccines. It has happened every time I get one. Glad to have the vaccine in my system before I leave for Ireland in one week.
 
FlaMariner said:
Her Majesty and I were just having this discussion.....

We are getting the flu vaccine the end of September.....We've always gotten the flu shot and we've never gotten the flu.....Same for Shingles shot...got that also.

We have had 5 Covid vaccines and we've each gotten Covid (bad stuff) twice.

I'm wondering......What is the purpose of the Covid vaccine?

Is it to keep me from getting Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccines and following the timeframe.

Is it to keep me from spreading Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccine and I'm sure I spread it.

Is it to keep me from getting a bad case of Covid? Possibly. Is that the sole purpose of the Covid vaccine? If so, that does not seem to be enough of a reason given our past experience.

What do I not understand?
Click to expand...
I haven't taken a Covid shot since getting the first round of boosters offered almost 3 years ago. My main reason is subsequently having Covid 3 times: May 2022, June 2023 and August 2024, all confirmed by home tests. I'm not anti-vax, but TBH the published reasoning for continuing boosters of this particular vaccine aren't compelling for my situation.

My individual experience has been that Covid disease isn't any worse or even as bad as mild flu but the vaccinations are the worst of any I've ever experienced. I'm guessing that I got good benefit from having immune exposure by vaccination when I hadn't had immune experience with the virus. I've now had multiple exposures and TBH I don't think the risk/reward of further vaccination for me pencils out. If a more virulent variant appears or I get co-morbidities then I'd re-evaluate. Certainly not advice from me for anyone else, just a parallel line of thought to your post. The immunity from this particular booster is extremely short lived, it doesn't appear to do much for preventing passing the virus on and it certainly is not perfectly safe.
 
Anecdotal evidence is evidence of nothing. But I totally understand why we all think that way.

For example, 5 vaccine doses for my wife and I, but we both got a mild case back in February which was knocked out quickly with Paxlovid for both of us.

Our brains look for patterns in the noise and will see patterns that aren't actually there. It's natural for humans. In our case, we always had the Moderna Vaccine but the last vaccine we had before contracting Covid was Pfizer. So it must mean that Pfizer is less trustworthy as a vaccine than Moderna is, right? One single data point is evidence of nothing.

Cheers.
 
I checked my local drug stores and there are tons of openings so I don't think it will be a problem to get one near me if I choose to do so.

I've not ever had covid as far as I know. I think that is due to low exposure but could the the shots are helping me IDK.
 
I've scheduled my flu and COVID shots for this week, since I'm going to be doing a lot of socializing in October and November.
Aerides said:
I think the common understanding is this:

  • It may reduce your risk of catching covid, if you only have a small exposure
  • It reduces the severity of your illness, including significantly reducing risk of hospitalization or death
  • Similarly, by being less ill, and for less time, you will reduce your ability to spread it as easily
It's not a magic barrier - no vaccine is - but the reductions are meaningful.
Click to expand...
100% right. (I spent many years in public health.) And I'll add that there's 0% chance of getting long COVID from the vaccination, so even if it made me as sick as COVID, I would still get it. I have a dear friend who has long COVID, and her everyday life is severely impacted by it.
 
DH and I have scheduled early Oct. appts for annual Flu and Covid vaccinations, give us three weeks to build immunity before our cruise Nov 1.
 
Aerides said:
I think the common understanding is this:

  • It may reduce your risk of catching covid, if you only have a small exposure
  • It reduces the severity of your illness, including significantly reducing risk of hospitalization or death
  • Similarly, by being less ill, and for less time, you will reduce your ability to spread it as easily
It's not a magic barrier - no vaccine is - but the reductions are meaningful.
Click to expand...
I think those are good enough reasons but it's fine with me if people don't want to get it for some reason,

The vaccine will always lag the most current circulating strain of the virus but the current vaccines are closer than the old vaccine and likely than infection unless you have been infected quite recently.

There was a big push over several years for hospitals vaccinate against the influenza with the idea that it would be better if the generally younger healthier staff to avoid infecting the generally older less healthy patients. It was a nice thought but it isn't practical currently to consider extending that to Covid.
 
I had to wait longer than I intended; hadn’t had a booster for 2 years but was leaving for Europe 9/2 and knew COVID was going around. Finally was able to get one 5 days before I left. Sore arm the only symptom.

I wish I could have gotten it earlier but I’m on a shop between Estonia and Latvia and so far, so good.
 
bada bing said:
I haven't taken a Covid shot since getting the first round of boosters offered almost 3 years ago. My main reason is subsequently having Covid 3 times: May 2022, June 2023 and August 2024, all confirmed by home tests. I'm not anti-vax, but TBH the published reasoning for continuing boosters of this particular vaccine aren't compelling for my situation.
Click to expand...
Same, except only DW has contracted COVID since then, none for me (tested negative, no symptoms) - in spite of the fact that we both lived in an RV at the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
bada bing said:
My individual experience has been that Covid disease isn't any worse or even as bad as mild flu but the vaccinations are the worst of any I've ever experienced. I'm guessing that I got good benefit from having immune exposure by vaccination when I hadn't had immune experience with the virus. I've now had multiple exposures and TBH I don't think the risk/reward of further vaccination for me pencils out. If a more virulent variant appears or I get co-morbidities then I'd re-evaluate. Certainly not advice from me for anyone else, just a parallel line of thought to your post. The immunity from this particular booster is extremely short lived, it doesn't appear to do much for preventing passing the virus on and it certainly is not perfectly safe.
Click to expand...
We're both very healthy and active so zero co-morbidities. Dad (92) had COVID not too long ago and did fine in spite of his obesity and pacemaker.
 
DH and I have had all our shots/boosters for COVID. We both contracted COVID last year: I got it near the end of a trip to Europe and ultimately passed it on to him. I did a course of Paxlovid and recovered quickly, he started Paxlovid but had to stop after it interacted severely with a BP med he was on. Still, he recovered fairly quickly and we both have had no long term effects as far as we can tell. We both got the new Pfizer vaccine a couple of weeks ago primarily because he was going for a week to visit his elderly father. No side effects apart from a slightly sore arm for a day.

It's become clear to me that long COVID is a real risk and, especially for us older folks, multiple COVID infections can leave behind long-lasting or even permanent damage. Yes, the vaccines aren't perfect but they do greatly reduce the risk of hospitalization especially for the elderly. At my age, staying out of the hospital is a worthy goal in itself. Since I tolerate the COVID vaccine as well as I do the flu vaccine - which is also imperfect as a prevention - why wouldn't I take both?
 
DH and I got our Covid and flu shots last Friday. First time to get them together, no issues besides the usual sore arm, maybe a little more tired than usual. I have lost count of how many Covid vaccines I have received.
 
We are going to get the new COVID and flu vaccines in October to last us through the peak season.
 
DGF and I leave on Sep 27 for another Alaska cruise so she went to Kaiser today receiving a flu shot and the new Covid booster.

I'm on traditional Medicare so since it looks like the local Kroger mini-clinic has the new 2024-2025 Covid booster, I'll get that and a flu shot just as DGF did. My last Covid booster was Jan of this year but with the long airline trip and the cruise I figure better safe than sorry. Checked with the VA first but don't have it in me to go to the local VA hospital to deal with a walk-in clinic with no parking. Kroger is just down the street.
 
iloveyoga said:
DH and I got our Covid and flu shots last Friday. First time to get them together, no issues besides the usual sore arm, maybe a little more tired than usual. I have lost count of how many Covid vaccines I have received.
Click to expand...
Ditto here--some arm tenderness at injection site main side effect. We chose the Pfizer version having had good experience with previous five
 
FlaMariner said:
Her Majesty and I were just having this discussion.....

We are getting the flu vaccine the end of September.....We've always gotten the flu shot and we've never gotten the flu.....Same for Shingles shot...got that also.

We have had 5 Covid vaccines and we've each gotten Covid (bad stuff) twice.

I'm wondering......What is the purpose of the Covid vaccine?

Is it to keep me from getting Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccines and following the timeframe.

Is it to keep me from spreading Covid? No. Because I've gotten it after getting the vaccine and I'm sure I spread it.

Is it to keep me from getting a bad case of Covid? Possibly. Is that the sole purpose of the Covid vaccine? If so, that does not seem to be enough of a reason given our past experience.

What do I not understand?
Click to expand...
You say you got Covid twice (hard stuff) with vaccines. Chances are that those two cases would have been much, much worse without the vaccines, so I think you got your money's worth. Much better than spending 3 weeks on a ventilator...
 
We will definitely the newer covid shot and a high test flu shot for certain. Will have take direction from our physician on any others.

As above...not just to avoid a harsh covid virus but even more so to keep us out of the overcrowded hospital ICU's to make room for those who desperately need the beds and the medical attention.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

L
Lung cancer vaccine starts testing
VanWinkle
VanWinkle
B
Hep B vaccine? Do I need it?
2
Koolau
Koolau
Dash man
Vaccines Fall 2023
2
westpac
W
Ronstar
Driveway Dilemma
Texas Proud
T
R
Automakers (especially GM) may be reporting to your insurance co
2 3
REWahoo
REWahoo

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom