💉 Botching even the vaccination-only strategy ⚠️
U.S. and U.K. governments both decided they had one job in the pandemic, a vaccine-only strategy — and it seems even that’s botched.
Children & Toddlers
People had to wait way too long to get their daycare exposed kids vaccinated in The US. When toddlers became eligible it was not necessarily an easy time in the US. The UK has never vaccinated under 5.
Now there’s people being refused vaccinations for their children in England. Kids 5 to 11 years old were only eligible from April 2022 and it was required the children remain covid-free for 12 weeks before they were eligible to be vaccinated, which means many children whose parents wanted vaccination were not able to get it in that window because the kids got covid. And it increasingly feels like that was actually the goal.
And in both countries there’s been a constant hounding of misinformation scaring parents about the vaccines, very light vaccine promotion if any, and a downplaying of the horrible consequences for too many children.
The Bivalent
The Bivalent Booster is available for the fall booking in the UK, but is being rolled out to prioritized eligible people first such as 75+, immunosuppressed, & frontline healthcare & social care workers. “Other eligible groups should wait to be contacted by the NHS.”
The rollout of the bivalent vaccines in the US is pretty confusing. They’re discontinuing the monovalent, but at the same time stating that the bivalent is not available as a first series. I suppose previously unvaccinated people can always just get the Novavax, but this really seems to have been poorly thought out.
And why not because they’re saying it’s just going to be up to the pharmacies in the US, who claim they’re not even healthcare yet are now going to be responsible for the entirety of the vaccine program while they already have big labor shortages.
So everyone is left to just call around pharmacies. One person told me they were able to get a bivalent booster at a Walgreens somewhere in Pennsylvania, another person said that a Rite-Aid in the Poconos wouldn’t have it until next week, and a CVS in Scranton had an automated message when you call that said they’d be announcing when the bivalent would be available.
DIY means CYA
If you’re concerned about making sure you get the bivalent vaccine at these poorly regulated and understaffed healthcare providers called drug stores, you can ask up front at the pharmacy to see the vaccine vial. And remember they’re all being overworked & put under stress so make sure to ask politely when you arrive before they prepare the syringe and throw the vial in the trash.
Getting vaccinated where infected people go to get Paxlovid is a high risk activity
There’s an absence of outdoor vaccination options, and pharmacies have no mask mandates, so it’s confusing about how people — especially the disabled & elderly — are supposed to get vaccinated safely. Drug stores can claim they’re not healthcare but we know they are essential services and need masks required for everyone’s safety & accessibility, and they’re super high risk settings because infected people are deliberately going to the pharmacy to get Paxlovid prescriptions. That they’re not required to wear masks defies sense and reason.
Political consultant galaxy-brain vaccine plans — it’s in the stars
According to “Your Local Epidemiologist” “stars need to align” in the US with the White House annual vaccine plan — so we’re just going with astrology now, who needs healthcare anyway?
This feels like it’s all being decided by political consultants hunting some mythical political middle ground between life & death, not by doctors or public health experts.
The house is still on fire in your neighborhood, but the fire fighters were just told to go home, the emergency is over they say. Good luck preventing it from coming to your family’s cherished home, all by yourself, without the help of the professionals with the big truck & water hose. Just use this sprinkler can.
Thoughts & prayers! 🤞🙏 Wish upon a star! 💫 Cya bye! 🔥