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/
Carbon dioxide concentration isn't just a proxy for covid risk in a given location: higher levels of CO2 increase the risk of covid infection.

The explanation is that adding CO2 to the room air makes it more acidic, and the covid virus survives longer in more acidic air.

When I mentioned this on a Discord server, someone else noted that carbon dioxide concentration is not always a useful proxy for covid risk. In particular, the air on commercial airline flights is recirculated and well-filtered. The filtration removes airborne viruses, but not carbon dioxide. This doesn't change my analysis, that if I need to unmask briefly to do something like take a pill, the safest time is during the flight, not in the airport or on the tarmac.


(via Ruth Anne Crystal's "covid news and more" newsletter.)
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
( May. 2nd, 2024 09:08 am)
Misc. comments 66: terminology, the river Thames, recipes and ingredients, family trees, classifying fruit, covid precautions, learning math, subscription prices, reasons for blogging )
covid vaccination and masking )



[personal profile] minoanmiss was talking about kids at the place she works trying to get out of math class. [personal profile] amaebi talked about her son's math classes, and I wrote:

Reading this comment, I think part of why I came out of high school still liking math may be the teachers, and another part may be the slightly odd curriculum they were using. It was the "experimental" math track per my high school, and "unified" according to the university that promoted it; we got a lot of the standard material, up to calculus, but also propositional logic (in eighth grade), Cartesian geometry (instead of Euclidean), and combinatorics. The school also had a "regular" math sequence, and students who found experimental too difficult (or, I would guess, whose parents thought it was too weird) could move into those classes, which also led to calculus).




In response to [personal profile] brithistorian wondering about weird magazine prescription costs:

My guess, beyond late stage capitalism being weird, is that they're somehow still selling advertising to companies based on the number of people who are reading, or at least getting, the print edition.

If so, it benefits them to be sending out more paper copies, even to people who read the digital version and will throw the paper magazines away without opening them. It sounds like the prices of daily newspapers increased when they were selling fewer ads. What I paid at the newsstand in the morning was about enough to cover the paper and printing costs, and the reporters' and editors' salaries, the fees for syndicated comics and columnists, and any profits all were paid for by advertising.

It's not quite "if you aren't the customer, you're the product," but it's a little bit in that direction. At one point, my daily English-language newspaper options in New York included several that cost about 50 cents, plus two free papers given out at subway and railroad station entrances, and the Wall Street Journal and Women's Wear Daily.


[personal profile] finch was talking about "why do I blog anyway?" and I said:

Part of why I post here is for my own later reference, which includes both things I hope will be interesting to others, and minutiae of stuff like starting on new meds. I made a bunch of posts early in the pandemic because I could feel time just slipping away, then.

My posts here are also about talking to people, which is sometimes conversation and sometimes "here is information I think you might find useful.".

There's a pinned post at the top of my Dreamwidth account page, which says this is [partly] an online substitute for a paper journal, and also invites new readers to introduce themselves.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
( Oct. 5th, 2023 09:43 pm)
My four-per-household free rapid covid tests have arrived. There's a sticker on the outside of the envelope about extended expiration dates, and a card inside linking to the FDA website. What they sent us is two boxes of BinaxNOW tests rapid tests, with expiration dates extended from July 2023 to February 2024. I have labeled the boxes accordingly.

These are from the US government, and the offer only applies in the United States, but it's based on address, not citizenship--all they ask is your name and address. Six tests total isn't a lot for three people, but it's enough that we can hold off on buying any, or asking the city of Boston to give us some free.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
( Sep. 7th, 2023 02:11 pm)
There's a proposal to limit the new covid vaccine booster to people over age 75 and immune-compromised people. This is on very short notice and not getting a lot of attention, but the proposal is open for comments until tomorrow.

The comment link is https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/CDC-2023-0060-0001

My own comment, if anyone wants a model (please don't copy it exactly, distinct comments get more attention):

The up-to-date booster should be available to everyone, not just elderly and immune-compromised people.

Because I am immune-compromised, I need other people to also be boosted, for my own protection. Like most immune-compromised people, I live with other people, and they are not immune-compromised. For my health and safety, I need my housemates to also be immunized against covid and other serious diseases.

I also leave the house, including for medical appointments, other errands, and sometimes even to spend time with friends. All of those things would be more dangerous if younger people could not receive the booster. For example, my primary care doctor, my dental hygienist, and the doctor who treats me for my immune disorder are not immune-compromised. I wear a mask indoors, almost always--but the CDC acknowledges that masking alone is not sufficient to protect me from covid infection.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
( Apr. 11th, 2023 06:45 pm)
So I can find it again in case I need it, current/possible covid treatments:

Paxlovid
dexamethasone (steroid)
metformin
low-dose naltrexone (off-label)

remdesivir (thank you Pamela)

convalescent plasma? (not currently available, but Carmen said research has resumed) -- ETA: the Infectious Disease Society of America is recommending against it for almost all patients: https://redbird.dreamwidth.org/3052630.html

??? anything that neither I nor my doctor have come across

I have no current symptoms or evidence of recent exposure, this was prompted by an email conversation with [personal profile] rysmiel. Also, [personal profile] cattitude went to Walgreens today and got more covid tests with our health insurance card. I'd rather go somewhere else, but CVS is no longer in the Tufts Health Direct network for this, and the other options range from maybe in plausible transit distance (Rite-Aid) to definitely not (Bartell's).
The pandemic is not over. We can't just "declare victory and go home" (a misquote of a senator's suggestion for the Vietnam War*).

masking and the pandemic )

The reasoning is backwards, because the virus isn't the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, and if the virus had anything resembling a point of view, I think it would be pleased to have potential hosts when you're playing cards.

*I know this is a misquote because I just googled to get the exact phrasing and attribution.
signal-boosting [personal profile] dreamshark's post:

The US government's test-to-treat website is live, and looks excellent. You can find
information and participating locations at:

https://aspr.hhs.gov/TestToTreat/Pages/default.aspx

It looks like every pharmacy, clinic, and hospital is listed. Searching by location returns a list of places where you can be tested for covid and get Paxlovid or molnupiravir if you test positive, and a much longer list of pharmacies etc. that will fill your doctor's prescription for one or both of those treatments.

The search returns sites that are within X distance of your location, and it's fine-grained. It defaults to ten miles, but you can increase or decrease that radius, in tenth-of-a-mile increments. They only list sites in the US, including Puerto Rico but not, as far as I can tell, Guam or the US Virgin Islands.

The treatments available at each location are listed: both Paxlovid and molnupiravir are available, although not necessarily at the same locations.

This is a HUGE leap forward from the convoluted and unworkable procedure that was in place 2 months ago when I asked my doctor about it.

The Federal Government has a Test-to-Treat program. You can find
information and participating locations at:

https://aspr.hhs.gov/TestToTreat/Pages/default.aspx

There's at least one, possibly two, anti-virals specific to COVID
available. The sooner you start taking them, the better.
Test-to-Treat is basically 'walk in, get tested, get treatment if
you're positive'.
.

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