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Entry tags:

covid vaccines

covid vaccine and "underlying conditions"

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.

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GI doctor follow-up

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.

Entry tags:

apples,
food

apple: Swiss gourmet

We bought a few Swiss gourmet apples at the farmers market on Thursday, because

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

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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Wednesday books

cattitude and

adrian_turtle finished reading The Prisoner of Zenda--the original swash-buckling Ruritanian romance-- aloud to me and each other. We all had a lot of fun with it. We may (or may not) go back and read the sequel at some point, but not right away.

I also read The Birding Dictionary, by Rosemary Mosco: a humor book about bird and bird-watching, in the format of a dictionary. Cattitude, who borrowed this from the library, seemed to find it funnier than I did.

Current reading:

The Winged Histories, by Sofia Samatar. This is eight loosely connected stories, each with a different narrator. I'm enjoying it, but having trouble settling in to read much at a time. The ebook is now overdue at the library, so I am carefully not synching my kindle until I finish reading it.

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Covid vaccine access in Massachusetts

Governor Healey has overridden the CDC restrictions, and authorized pharmacists to give the covid vaccine to everyone over the age of 5 (younger children will have to get it from their pediatricians).

I heard about this first from my state senator's office: I emailed over the weekend to ask him to work on fixing this, so his staff knew I was interested. There's an article in the Globe, but pay-walled: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/03/metro/healey-covid-booster-massachusetts-trump-kennedy-vaccine/

Entry tags:

unexpected excitement

First: we're all fine.

I got a phone call this afternoon from someone at the company we rent a storage unit from. She was calling to tell me that a construction crew doing something on the lot next door had last control of one of their machines, which breached the wall of our storage unit.

She was calling to tell me that, and to ask my permission to cut the lock on the door, so they can go inside and move everything to an undamaged unit. She wanted that ASAP, so they can start work tomorrow at 7 a.m.

I was on the bus when my phone rang, so while I could give her my approval right away, when she asked for my drivers license/state ID number, I told het I'd call her back, the information was hard to read on a moving bus

So, our plans for tomorrow now involve getting up early(ish) and going to Medford to look things over, and so the company can give us keys for the new lock.

I'm glad the phone was in my pocket when she called: otherwise I might not have noticed and listened to the voicemail before their office closed for the day.

Current Mood: worried and angry

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Covid vaccine heads-up

Because Bobby Brainworm is out to get us:

RFK Jr blocked CDC approval of the updated covid vaccine. There are three states where pharmacists can't legally give a vaccine without CDC approval: Massachusetts (where I live), Nevada, and New Mexico. In another 13 states, pharmacists can give the vaccine but only with a prescription, and CVS isn't shipping the vaccine to pharmacies in any of these 16 states.

Note: the vaccine is legally available in every state, because the relevant FDA committee did approve it, but some of us will have to get it from a doctor's office, which will be more of a hassle even when it’s possible.

P.S. Walgreen’s too, per a comment at Universal Hub.

Those are state laws, so call your state representatives and governor and tell them to change it.

( “Massachusetts )