Thursday-Monday reading, mostly

I did a lot of reading while I was visiting rysmiel, and on the trips there and back (there's not much else to do while waiting at the airport).

( cut for length )

Currently reading (and enjoying):

A Half-built Garden, by Ruthanna Emrys

bivalent covid booster

I just made an appointment for a bivalent covid booster, Friday afternoon in Central Square.

If you get a covid vaccine booster in the US now, it will be bivalent: the older ones have lost their emergency use authorization and should no longer be available. This fact has not been well-publicized, and in fact I had trouble finding anything official about this after seeing it mentioned on a Discord server. Places it wasn't mentioned included the CVS and Walgreen's vaccine appointment websites, and the official Massachusetts vaccine finder website.

I'll be getting another Pfizer booster; while I have a vague preference for Moderna, I have a stronger preference for getting the vaccine in two days rather than two or three weeks. I'll be getting a flu vaccine at the same time; it may not do any good, but I'll be there anyway. (When I saw my neurologist last week, he said I should get a covid booster, despite the effects of the MS medication, but that he doubts the flu vaccine will do anything for MS patients who are taking Ocrevus.)

Since my last booster, CVS has added two new questions to the vaccine appointment process: have I had monoclonal antibodies against covid in the last 90 days (no, it's been more than 90 days since March) and have I had a monkeypox vaccine in the last four weeks.