100 Million Americans Eligible for Booster Shots

The CDC approved Covid-19 booster shots for the Moderna and J&J vaccines Thursday night. Approximately 100 million Americans are now eligible for a booster. Example news coverage: CNBC article 23 Oct 2021; CNN.com article 21 Oct 2021.

Eligibility differs by which shot or shots a person got originally, though. For the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines it's:

• All people 65+
• People 18+ with underlying conditions that increase their likelihood of Covid complications
• People 18+ who live or work in a long-term care facility, homeless shelter and prison or other congregate setting
• People 18+ with front-line jobs that put them at higher risk of Covid exposure

For J&N recipients the list is simpler:

•  Everyone 18+.

Presumably this corresponds to the J&N single-shot initial vaccination having been less effective overall than the others' two-shot regimen.

Hawk started looking for an appointment to get a booster shot Thursday night. I got mine 2 weeks ago since I had the Pfizer shots initially. Hawk is on "Team Moderna". Clinics weren't offering Moderna appointments yet. I figure they need a few days to get organized around the new policy. I recall it taking several days after the Pfizer booster approval before clinics got their stuff together to start delivering additional shots.

Update: It took persistence but Hawk got her shot today. Previous updates to this blog entry are in this new entry linked.

The Sopranos Pulls Out of its Season 4 Slump

Ironically just 1 episode after I complained about The Sopranos season 4 hitting a slump the series picked up its pace again. In s4ep9, "Whoever Did This", Ralphie become distraught after his son is injured in an accident. He shows some character growth by reckoning with some of the bad ways he's treated people... but in his grief he also starts losing control and does something awful that enrages Tony.

( Spoiler: what happens between Tony and Ralphie )

In the next episode, "The Strong, Silent Type", the picked-up pace continues. We see another scene of Christopher's heroin use— one of the things that made the mid-season episodes tedious— but now this arc of the story reaches a climax. Christopher hits a new low with his fiancee, Adriana. ( Spoiler: Christopher's creepy rock-bottom )

Christopher's friends and family stage an intervention. They enlist the help of distant associate of the gang who's a recovered drug addict. He's actually a good guy who's very patient and tries facilitate a positive, "by the book" intervention. It's humorous, though, that he thinks these gang thugs never confronted anyone about a problem. They threaten and beat people frequently! The intervention starts out gently, but gangsters Paulie and Silvio predictably lose their cool and start beating Christopher up in front of everyone, including his mother— who eggs them on! (Christopher and his mom have a strained relationship. That was shown at the end of the episode where he learns who killed his father.)

Christopher enters a drug rehab clinic after Tony makes it clear to him it's that "or else".

Hawk Gets her Shot

After writing this morning about how Moderna and J&J Covid-19 vaccines are now approved for booster shots in the US I reminded Hawk to check for appointments to get her booster. When she looked Thursday night it was too soon after the CDC's approval; clinics hadn't updated their systems to provide shots under the new policy yet.

This morning (Saturday morning) appointments were available at CVS, a local pharmacy/drug store chain we've been customers of for years, but they were being snapped up quickly. When I checked availability there were appointments available throughout the day Tuesday at local stores. Ten minutes later, in the span of time it took Hawk to enter her insurance information, those were all gone and the earliest date available was the following Monday. In the time it took her to click to a different store to see if they had anything sooner and click back, Monday was all booked up. She booked for Tuesday— 10 days away!

Hawk checked back on CVS's website throughout the afternoon to see if anything sooner opened up. It seems like CVS was releasing new appointments all day. She traded up to an appointment late next week then again to an appointment Tuesday night— only 3 days away. Finally, as she kept looking late this afternoon she found one just before dinnertime. She booked it, hopped in the car 30 minutes later, and got her shot. Now we're both boosted!