Are we meant to be getting COVID booster jabs?

[Blondiebeachbabe]

Posting here for traffic. Have googled, but it's unclear.

Me & DH both have covid right now. I feel okayish, but DH feels awful. Are we meant to be getting booster jabs? I'm sure it's been over a year since we had one, but the NHS App doesn't work any more, so I can't check.

We are 54 & 51, with no health conditions.

Thanks

If I have covid symptoms then I test as I don't want to pass it on to other people. I bought a pack of 25 tests on Amazon for about £15.

We aren't regularly testing at all. DH was feeling really ill and he got a text from a colleague to say he was positive. Cue us searching in the back of the cupboard for old testing kits, which had actually expired in April! He tested positive yesterday and I was negative. But tested again today and I'm positive. I honestly would have just written it off as a mild cold, had DH not tested positive.

I tested dd because she was complaining of the light and had a whole range of symptoms and I was fretting about meningitis so I was actually relieved it was Covid

Some of those people are still testing - fine. But how does Jenna know so many of them? That was a big part of my question. There certainly aren't a lot of people paying money to routinely test themselves for covid, as beneficial as that may be for some other people.

The same people who get boosters also get boxes of tests in the post when they need them. It's so they can get the antiviral drugs straight away.

If anyone thought you needed a booster, they'd have told you. Hope you feel better soon.

It's quite easy to know a few people with COVID.

All it takes is one person to catch it and spread it around their friends/family/workplace

I know of two other cases which are unrelated to each other and mine. One will probably have tested because she’s potentially vulnerable herself and one because there is a vulnerable child in the family. Or perhaps people just want to know! I don’t see why anyone needs to justify testing themselves, not wanting to spread it around should be reason enough.

@PinkTonic not nausea, but I had stomach ache (very rare for me) for 2-3 days last week and lost my appetite. Tested positive for covid. I'm not coughing much now but I'm still so tired, and still don't have my senses of taste and smell back (shame as I bought some cake to try and I can't tell if I like it or not 🙄😄)

I've just had it, and it certainly wasn't mild for me!! I couldn't get out of bed for 10 days straight, had a BLINDING headache and had severe nausea too, amongst other things. This was my third time having it and was the worst by far, presumably because the vaccine has had a couple of years to wear off. I've just been signed off for my fifth week and am nowhere near ready to return to work, but I do seem to have had it worse than anyone else around me, despite not even being immune suppressed.

I'll be paying privately for a booster in the autumn for sure.

I have covid currently and have been wondering the same as it's absolutely wiped me out, I feel so ill and fatigued. I'd really like a booster before going into the winter season, can't face going through this again. Good to know boosters will be available privately, last time I looked into it there were no private vaccines available.

@PinkTonic yes nausea and vomiting for first 48 hours this time

The jabs are only effective for a matter of months. There's really no point.
It's not like trying to prevent a childhood illness.

You should be able to get one late fall/ early winter as will be 6 months after you had it

It's flying around the building where I work and a chunk of them are off with it, a couple are in masked up. I know them all by name oddly. There's a stack of tests in the cupboard.

without researching how I don't think I could even find a Covid test

There are piles of them for sale in Boots, and obviously Amazon. They’re not free any more but not expensive, I think it’s about £1 a test. Intensive research isn’t really required here.

I don't think you are due one now. Everyone over 50 (I think!) will get one around Autumn/October-November time. I could be wrong though @Blondiebeachbabe It MAY only be those who are vulnerable, and their live-in partners/spouses. (Happy to be corrected by someone if I'm chatting shite.)

I had a booster today. I'm immunosuppressed. DH is 74 and doesn't get one. Mind you he seems to have good immunity as he didn't get covid from me when I had it earlier this year.
Agree it's a nasty one. I was unwell for a month and that's despite boosters every 6 months.

They're by the till in Boots and you can get them on Amazon. Not exactly difficult to find...

We test when we have flu-like symptoms because we have elderly parents. They get boosters regularly and live life normally, but we don't want to infect them.

I had mine 10th May but I'm immunocompromised so had about 8 now

They do offer boosters for vulnerable groups. Elderly and immunosuppressed , for example, had a Spring one in April/May, those under 75 with underlying health conditions last had them in Autumn.

They've stopped giving boosters because current strains are much less likely to be fatal than the initial strains. Yes, you might feel like shit, but that doesn't mean you're in any danger of dying.

Current strains of Covid are treated like any other mild to moderate respiratory virus.

Snap

I (54, overweight but otherwise well and not eligible for the NHS Spring Booster) bought myself a private vaccine in a pharmacists / chemists in early May and will likely do so again in the Autumn (or an NHS one if the criteria expand to include me).

They ask you a few questions to ensure a vaccine is appropriate (e.g you'd need to wait a few weeks for a jab if you've recently had Covid) and I ended up with the newer 'Novavax' one which is slightly cheaper than another one they were offering (see guide price below). I wasn't sure whether to go with Comirnaty that I'd had before (no side effects other than tender arm) or try the new type of vaccine as a sort of immuno-scattergun approach ;) I think I've had them all now.

From Pharmadoctor.co.uk's website
Price list - guidance only
Comirnaty Omicron XBB.1.5 (Pfizer/BioNTech) - £75-£85 <-- mRNA
Nuvaxovid XBB.1.5 (Novavax) - £45-£55 <-- protein based
https://pharmadoctor.co.uk/patient/service/covid-vaccination

As others have also said Boots offer a Covid vaccination service.

Here's the UKHSA's data dashboard for Covid-19 https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19

Hope you're all feeling better soon :)
Jo

I tested because I felt ill. Still had some out of date tests in the cupboard which came up positive. Then confirmed it with a new test. I tested because it's still something I'll try not to pass on, definitely more than I would a normal cold. Luckily I'm able to take myself out of circulation for a few days without it affecting my work etc. But would be selfish of me to go spreading it around unnecessarily.

My mum has had about 10
Invited over and over as v vulnerable

Wish more people had this attitude