Did US health insurance end up deciding to cover the new COVID boosters?
There was a lot of mixed messaging there for a while about how the prices were going to be like 10x as much and coverage was uncertain. That uncertainty can't have helped getting people in to get that and their other seasonal vaccines, even if it ended up getting resolved.
I don't think flu has a big pay time between becoming infectious and becoming symptomatic though, like COVID does. That makes it easier to avoid (if I'm right.)
Edit: Looks like people average one day infectious before they themselves show symptoms.
True, but these people are the same ones who don’t stay home when symptomatic, or even cover their cough or sneeze with their elbow. They’re probably still out and about infecting people.
Yeah I totally get that. But apart from forcing these people there's no reasoning with with anymore. So if they are gonna go without vaccines (and they definitely will) I'm not gonna lose a lot of sleep over them landing in the ground when it's all over with.
I say boomer specifically because they're the age group most likely to die from covid or the flu. Definitely know there's plenty of dumbass younger people too.
But it’s not just them it affects unfortunately. I’ve personally seen previously totally healthy kids die from the flu. It’s a nasty virus anyone is better off without. And there’s many people out there of all ages who are immuno compromised or at increased risk from the flu through no fault of their own, or can’t be properly vaccinated for a variety of reasons.
I live this every day. I’ve had a United Medical Director tell me that being able to feed yourself was “not an essential skill” worthy of rehab because it could be performed by staff or a family member.
This man tried to tell me that my patient in their late 60s was unworthy of a rehab stint for strengthening their upper arms to be able to feed themselves because someone else could do it for them for the rest of their lives.
Stay the hell away from Medicare Advantage plans. No matter what they promise, it’s irrelevant because they won’t actually provide it when the time comes.
For anyone who just wants to know what component: they want to drop the influenza B/Yamagata variant of the flu virus since it appears to have gone extinct in the wild.
And it didn't just go extinct by luck. It's a good case study of how to control and/or eliminate a virus (e.g. COVID):
"The rapid and global implementation of social distancing measures, masking, and the profound early reduction in international travel resulted in a substantial reduction in flu transmission."
I was all in for social distancing and so on for the time when covid was new and we didn’t have vaccines etc., but it also did a lot of damage to young people, me somewhat included. That idea has a good intention, but it will do more damage in other sectors than it does good in that sector.
These seem like skills that can easily be caught up on. I would be worried more about the social anxiety the isolation brought to children in early puberty. It’s heartbreaking to see them like that.
Much as I agree that more could and should have been done, I don’t think there is any way to contain this particular coronavirus (unlike the original SARS, which did go extinct from similar measures). SARS-CoV-2 transmits readily between people and animals. It would be impossible to avoid transmitting it to pets and farm animals, and from there impossible to avoid transmitting it to wild animals, and back again.
We absolutely can slow it down to avoid healthcare systems collapsing under the strain but I don’t think it is possible to eliminate it and there probably never was a time when that was realistic, given how infectious it is and how many people are infectious but asymptomatic for at least a day or two if not longer.
The only reasonable way to mitigate the risk in the long-term is proper ventilation/filtration in all enclosed public spaces, schools and workplaces. Plus ongoing six-monthly vaccinations at least until a vaccine which provides durable immunity is developed.
Unfortunately it looks like influenza B and C aren't actually all that common in the first place with A being in animals and causing most pandemics. This dead virus is a half of influenza B. It's neat if we killed it off, but probably not any benefit to public health.
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