I am all caught up with my vaccinations. Shingles, pneumococcus, tetanus, covid, flu, and RSV (the last three on the same day shortly before Christmas). Unless they come up with some new disease I’m good until the next round of COVID booster and next fall’s flu shot.
I’ve got them all but RSV, which my doc suggested holding off on for now. Next year I’ll need an update on TDAP (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis).
But considering the new leadership of the Department of Health and Human services I doubt if Kansas will hold the record for long.
I hope you’ll remedy that ASAP and get boosters.
@SuntanLotion, you can get the flu shot and a Covid booster at the same time at any pharmacy that does vaccinations.
Thank you, will be on it.
Antivaxers are gleeful about a newly published study by Mawson and Jakob purporting to show that incidence of autism spectrum/neurodevelopmental disorders is markedly higher in vaccinated children compared to the unvaccinated, based on a Florida Medicaid billing review. The usual suspects are hyping it like mad.
What they won’t tell you is the study (funded by an antivax group) is poorly designed and seriously flawed, among other things not counting vaccines given outside of Medicaid funding (i.e. from free vaccine outreach programs) and failing to adjust for other confounders.
Another bad sign: the authors have experienced multiple retractions of previous work. The journal they got their study published in is run by a virulent antivaxer, James Lyons-Weiler, and its editorial board is a rogues’ gallery of antivaxers (it features other authors of retracted papers including an antivax doc who lost his medical license in Oregon for, among other things, “gross negligence”). I suppose that counts as peer review, if the “peers” are similarly biased and incompetent.
In spite of all this, expect the Mawson study to be pushed by Trumpites in Congress and in newly taken-over federal health agencies, to justify degradation of the childhood vaccine schedule.
So did mine, but I got RSV and spent Christmas (plus three more days) in the hospital, followed by a week of lying on the couch (not allowed to walk upstairs to bed), followed by several more weeks of general malaise. I’m old, and it hit me hard.
That sounds awful! How are you now?
Pretty close to fully recovered. I had a check-up about 10 days after I left the hospital, and my vitals were all bang on normal. I see my regular doc in a little over the week, but I don’t expect anything out of the ordinary. I’m just glad the cough is 99% gone!
I’m glad you’re recovered!
Thank you. Sympathy always appreciated. 
The statement that it was the biggest TB outbreak ever was mistaken, but the biggest one since the 1950s? That is correct.
The Texas Department of State Health Services is reporting an outbreak of measles in the South Plains region of Texas. At this time, 48 cases have been identified with symptom onset within the last three weeks. Thirteen of the patients have been hospitalized. All of the cases are unvaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities.
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-feb-14-2025
But I expect that before the end of the Trump administration we will be discussing outbreaks of much bigger magnitudes–in the hundreds and thousands of cases.
In a county with only 20k people, that’s a huge outbreak.
Apparently vaccination rates for incoming kindergartners is already below 80% in the county. I can only hope such outbreaks convince parents to change their minds, but I am not sanguine over the prospect.
I hope not.
But if they do occur, I hope state health departments remain responsible enough to continue publishing numbers. I imagine some of them, especially in states like Texas or Florida, may eventually find themselves under pressure not to publicly report them.
Well in a state next to Texas:
I am a procrastinator so was later getting my flu shot last year.
Then I got sick in mid-Dec. With the nonstop cough and awful feeling.
I was tested and it wasn’t flu or covid.
Just found out the local bus driver is out with covid And flu!
The morning driver said she had touched the same things he’d touched but was still okay.
Has she been vaxxed for covid? No.
I feel fine now so will be getting my flu shot next week, then a booster, as I have only had the 2 modernas in 2021.
That’s virtually certain; we know that Trump has muzzled the CDC and has a record of threatening federal funding for anything he doesn’t want done (in this case, states accurately reporting statistics).
We’ll see if the AMA can pick up the slack. (I looked for information I thought I’d seen recently about them choosing to publish information on public health–but despite a lot of search, didn’t find it. Of course Google recently adopted the slogan “Do Be Evil”, so it may be harder going forward to research topics such as Trump muzzling the CDC:
Consider getting an RSV vax too, along with the flu and covid booster. That awful feeling and bad cough a few months ago could easily have been RSV.
You can get flu and covid vaccination safely on the same day, just one bus trip. Most pharmacies do vaccinations, no need for a doctors order.
I just looked that up; was not familiar with it.
I had constant cough and no appetite ( not like me).
I am 64 with no medical conditions. I will ask my dr. My physical is coming up early April.
Thank you.