Over 60 years ago I had mumps and measles in the same 2 week time frame tho I do not think there is any documentation. And there’s no relative to recall that either. It’s on my list to talk to my care provider about boosters. I had several childhood diseases but measles helped me understand what being sick can really mean. And how slow recuperation can be. That’s a disease that really needs protection against.
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Sigh. I don’t even know where to start.
~25% of HSS staff have been cut, from 82,000 to 62,000. Including Peter Mark’s, who oversaw the FDA VRBPAC, among other duties.
They are pulling back all Covid allocations because “the pandemic is over”. This includes things like infection-related infrastructure that was intended to be in place for any future pandemics, Long Covid research money, improved vaccine research…so much for my hopes that Long Covid research might benefit those of us that likely have other post-infectious conditions.
Much of the “bird flu” reporting and human-risk preparation work has ground to a slow or stop and it is being treated as an agricultural issue.
USAID staff have been cut from 10,000 to 15.
I can’t even imagine the heartbreak of researchers that are having the funding pulled years into multi-year research that is now being scrapped.
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It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?! It feels like we are living in a sci-fi movie.
How are you doing?
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This happened to a coworkers fiancé last week and my daughter’s research is currently day-to day. Her quote was “it’s a wait and see situation.”
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Probably about as well as can be expected? As hard as it was to leave my kids with my ex, being able to make control of my symptoms be my primary focus has made a huge difference in my quality of life. Picking the least bad of not-great paths. 
But, yeah…my life feels surreal on sooooo many levels.
Who knew I’d be so much happier living out of my car? Yet, here I am. (Well, not literally. Just got back from 3.5 weeks on the road and am currently staying with DM for a couple of weeks to visit her and the kids before I hit the road again. Tentatively planning to be gone until September and fly the kids to visit during that time, wherever I am.)
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That’s good to hear. I know it’s a lot. Sending good thoughts, as always.
This is exciting! I hope you’ll share more of your travels on the food forum, or wherever.
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If you (or anyone else) would like to follow along, I’m treating my Facebook account as a food & travel blog, so feel free to friend me there. Just private message me here with what name to look for since I ignore friend requests that I don’t recognize. And if you’d rather friend me with a faux Facebook account instead of your primary account, that is absolutely ok. (I limit my privacy on posts to “friends” to avoid trolls.)
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TP is the only social media I do.
If I ever decide to get on there, I’ll come back here to PM/look you up 
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Wisdom
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Lazy 
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sent DM
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@motherofdaughtersthree and @davej
Bit of both
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Hi, I haven’t been on here in forever, but came back because I’m very worried about this news that they might limit the covid booster. It would mean (unless something changes) my kids definitely couldn’t get the updated boosters, and I probably couldn’t. I am still worried enough to get every booster, mostly due to long covid. I also want to protect DH by the rest of us having the boosters.
Will we still be able to get the shots if we pay? How much would it cost? How would the pharmacist verify if we’re eligible? What about medical professionals and teachers, etc? So many questions. I’ve just assumed for a long time that we’d get the shots every year, when we get flu shots…
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I can’t speak directly to the Covid booster, but recently paid out of pocket to get the MMR vaccine and it was $135.
I hope you and your kids are able to get the COVID booster. I’m worried about it too. Last Christmas (2024) the memorycare wing where my Dad lives was quarantined for 10 days because they had so many COVID cases. I don’t want to be the one who carries it in unknowingly.
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It seems some decrees are being walked back
sometimes
Definitely write to your Congress people - especially Senators - about your concerns.
Maybe the CDC director also.
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TL;DR I’m not sure that it’s a productive use of mental energy to think too hard about fall vaccines. It’s all super fluid.
I’ve been disheartened by nearly everything in federal public health recently. FWIW, I’m living marginally off-grid (just finished 11 nights camping at Shenandoah National Park with pretty limited connectivity). I have been trying to keep up with Dr Osterholm’s podcast and YLE’s emails, but both of them are fairly uncertain how this is all going to play out.
Here’s a summary by YLE:
Dr Osterholm is concerned enough that they are spearheading a Vaccine Integrity Project:
Here’s a fairly recent study on prevalence of Long Covid after repeat infections that Dr Osterholm shared:
^^^ This? Maybe? I really want to believe that our voices still matter, but…
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I don’t think they ever did, really. Our voices. I’ve spent a lot of time and stuck on a bunch of stamps and I have no confidence that we - a whole bunch of folks all over the country - made an iota of difference.
But we knew we did the work. Whatever did or didn’t transpire wasn’t on us.
And I’ve been hearing of things being walked back. So folks should write. Make signs to stand with others in front of news cameras. You’ll know you did your part.
The only constant is change.
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Sigh. Public health in the US is teetering on the abyss. I’m just beyond.
Minor bits of good news…
…weekly Covid deaths are actually at their lowest since the pandemic ramped up
…Dr Osterholm and CIDRAP at U of MN’s Vaccine Integrity Project has kicked into high gear. They’ve set these as their 2 main objectives:
- Countering mis/disinformation
- Building a coalition of support for a vaccination recommendation schedule independent of ACIP/the US govt and getting insurers on board with covering it. (For instance, American Association of Pediatrics could drive the section on childhood vaccinations.)
And it’s gaining traction. From YLE’s July 7 newsletter:
Payers start to speak up. AHIP (national health insurance association) and the Alliance of Community Health Plans affirmed their commitment to covering fall vaccines, ensuring patients aren’t left with unexpected costs, regardless of what RFK Jr. recommends. Of course, it could vary by payer. The first payer, Blue Shield of California, said that it will cover all routine vaccinations. I expect more to come out soon.
Statisically, the cost/benefits to vaccines are going to put pressure on private insurers to cover them. Insurance under the control of government policy might be a different story.
If you want to read YLE’s full recap of the first meeting of the revamped ACIP:
This quote from the above gives you the vibe:
“We fact-checked the proceedings in real time and counted (and countered) more than 50 falsehoods.”
And…for the first time in many months, both Osterholm and YLE have been mentioning a couple new variants that have caught people’s attention. YLE is speculating on whether there will be a “summer wave” but as of now, there is no indication it will be significantly alarming. Osterholm said something along the lines of “there will likely still be challenging days ahead but nothing as bad as we’ve seen”.
Since I’m 100% nomad these days and frequently off the grid, I’m probably not a consistently reliable source at this point. Osterholm does a podcast every 2 weeks. I’d recommend that and skimming YLE’s newsletters, and that will keep anyone interested pretty well in the loop on major developments.
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