firecat: red panda, winking (Default)
([personal profile] firecat Sep. 18th, 2025 12:12 pm)
From the “You don’t say!🙀” files
(Content note: The article uses language that frames ADHD as a problem)

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/adhd-advantage-hypercuriosity
I am happy to see that "should receive" the covid vaccine or booster includes infants; children and adolescents who haven't already been vaccinated; anyone with a medical condition that puts them at higher risk of severe covid; and all household contacts of anyone at higher risk.

Everyone aged 65 or older should receive two doses, six months apart.

All healthcare workers "should" receive the vaccine, as should anyone who is pregnant, contemplating pregnancy, or has recently been pregnant, and a few other groups.

Everyone else "may receive" it.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-2025-2026-respiratory-illness-season-covid-19-vaccine-recommendations/download

What I saw is Massachusetts-specific, but it says it is aligned with the recommendations of the new Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which includes New England except for New Hampshire, plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
([personal profile] redbird Sep. 16th, 2025 04:43 pm)
I just got this year's covid booster, as a walk-in at CVS. I'm glad I called first, because the CVS closest to our house doesn't have the vaccine; the one where I get most of my prescriptions does.

The pharmacist asked me if I wanted to get the flu vaccine at the same time, so I told her I'm waiting, on my doctor's advice. The actual injection was faster than I expected and didn't hurt much, so that's good.

The pharmacist gave me a coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase (with the usual list of exclusions). Kitchen trash bags were on the shopping list, so I picked those up, then added a box of envelopes and a bottle of dish soap to get the total up to $20. I got home and saw we may have too much dish soap, given limited storage space, but we will use it.
firecat: red panda, winking (Default)
([personal profile] firecat Sep. 13th, 2025 05:04 pm)
The New Yorker is trying to convince me that Bluesky has become annoying and everyone’s back on Xitter. Not linking because it’s paywalled. True or false?

I never got the hang of Twitter. I have similar problems with Bluesky. I don’t need a social site to deliver me more links. I want conversation. Is conversation dead? Where is it? (I know there’s some here…)

I miss Usenet, lol
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
([personal profile] redbird Sep. 11th, 2025 02:50 pm)
[personal profile] siderea points out that you probably have >a href="https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1882720.html">"at least one underlying condition" for which the covid vaccine is (still) recommended by the US government, because most people do: the list includes being overweight, high blood pressure, depression, former smokers, and "physical inactivity." She speculates that the list may have been drafted to be as inclusive as possible, by someone who didn't have the authority to say "just give it to everyone."

The current official announcements, widely echoed, sounds as though most people can't get the vaccine, because the FDA is now being run by anti-vaxxers. That is almost certainly not an accident: if you think you can't have the vaccine, you won't ask for it.

Siderea also points out that even if you aren't on that list, a doctor can prescribe this, or almost any approved medication, to anyone they think it's appropriate for. In other contexts, this is what they mean by "off-label" use of a drug.

Note, however, that this may affect whether you have to pay for the vaccine yourself, rather than it being covered by insurance.

It has been pointed out elsewhere that you can always lie to them: nobody has a complete list of former smokers, for example.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
([personal profile] redbird Sep. 9th, 2025 02:53 pm)
I just had a follow-up appointment with the GI doctor, a few weeks after finishing the course of budosenide. Based on what I told her -- that I'm feeling basically better, even if my gut isn't quite back to how it felt a couple of years ago -- she said to keep doing what I have been, just add a second fiber capsule, and see her again six months. Or send a MyChart message if I need to see or talk to her before then.
redbird: apple-shaped ice on a tree branch (ghost apple)
([personal profile] redbird Sep. 6th, 2025 11:01 pm)
We bought a few Swiss gourmet apples at the farmers market on Thursday, because [personal profile] adrian_turtle likes them, and I like trying new (or new-to-me) apples.

I tried one this afternoon. It was OK, but nothing special: crisp, moderately juicy, and tarter than I generally like. I thought [personal profile] cattitude might like it, because he likes tart apples, but his verdict is that there wasn't enough flavor there, though what there was, was good.

I'm going to leave the other two for Adrian, and eat Zestars; we bought some of those yesterday.
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