Should I take the latest booster?

[ClemFandango1]

I took all jabs offered so far, even whilst pregnant and all has been largely fine.

However, I have to admit I've read many reports of post Vax nastiness and I chickened out of the last booster.

Should I just take it? Am I being daft?

Me too. It's horrid having something so damaging in such high circulation all the time.

OP, I personally would take it if I was offered, although people make good points about trying to hold off until winter when cases will probably be even higher. I have LC with lots of issues now - anything that can reduce potential for more complications with the next infection is something I'd grab with both hands.

For those with vaccine injuries, I'm sorry. It must be very tough for you.

Who knows how many posters have explained this to you (and how many usernames this has been repeated under!) @Nousernamesleftatall

RCTs reported exactly what happened. Vaccine efficacy at preventing infection was incredible high (~95%) - 100% in some sub studies. I'm not sure why people take issue with statistics being reported as they were derived.

The "tune changing" as you refer to it, were updates on vaccine effectiveness at preventing infection and transmission which did indeed quickly drop due to the rapid mutation rate of SARS-COV-2.

I find it depressing that people are so taken in by disinformation online, it's an escalating problem which is only going to get worse.

When is the next booster due / available. I haven't even been offered one.

You only get offered a booster if you are unlucky enough to fall into an at risk group .

If you've been asked to attend a Spring booster, it is because you fall into very specific risk categories, including very immunocompromised. If you fall into this category, I would take advice from your consultant, rather than random people off the internet with an agenda who know nothing about your risk or health condition.

I think, in my area at least, they started early May.

I was CEV due to not having my spleen and had notifications from my GP for all but this and the previous one.
I follow the group on Facebook who organise the vaccines locally so found out the dates that way, sent a message explaining and asked if I was still eligible seeing as the GP surgery hadn’t notified me and was told that I was and to go along.

I’ve had Covid twice, in January 2022 and then again in Sept 2022. It was worse the second time, like a bad cold with exhaustion. Barely noticed it the first time.

Bumping as a few have queried here.

New omicron variant circulating- gryphon. Nasty one. Been fighting it almost 5 weeks here. 😢

@alpenguin that is actually pretty cool. If I can find one available I'm leaning towards taking it. Otherwise I guess I'll have to wait til autumn.

Both my partner and I had covid the same time. He is vaccinated, I'm not. Guess who was much worse?
My partner. My mother is vaccinated and was very ill with covid, much worse than me. The vaccination does nothing but cause health issues. They want everyone to believe otherwise, and sheep will follow. Carry on, I say ;)

It's not due to vaccine! Covid is unpredictable. There is no way to tell how it will manifest person to person. Vaccination helps your body fight it becoming serious disease.

I reacted badly to my first one but I've been fine after all the others. I've had seven.

I've also had covid nine times (two pre-vacccination). I'm immunosuppressed so the vaccines don't work quite as well for me. However I've never been particularly unwell and twice was asymptomatic post vaccination.

The vaccines work brilliantly, in my experience. Before them, people with my condition died from covid (including a man in his 40s with a young family who I knew personally). Now, very very few do. They're a literal lifesaver.

You can have vaccines 8 weeks apart.

If you're vulnerable enough to have been offered your seventh vaccination, the risk of complications from covid is considerably higher for you than for the general population.

Those of us who have health conditions which make us more vulnerable to covid aren't only concerned with dying. The long term effects of covid are likely to exacerbate current conditions or add to our list of health concerns, both things we'd like to avoid.

Also @Nousernamesleftatall those of us who are immunocompromised understand that ALL vaccines, not just covid ones, do not achieve a perfect immune response for us. What they can - and do - achieve is some reduction in severity of illness when we do catch it, as we inevitably will. That's why I've had covid nine times but have not been as ill as family members who have had fewer vaccinations, longer ago. And why I've had it nine times and they've only had it three times, despite us living together.

Have a you tried to book one in the NHS website? If you're eligible it will let you. The criteria is much narrower now than previously - the last round it was over 50s, care workers, people who live with vulnerable people etc. Now it's just the most vulnerable patients.

8 weeks was between the first and second doses. We're well passed those early days now.

Nope. When I went for my last one a few weeks ago I was given a leaflet which said doses must be given at least 8 weeks apart. It was the updated Omicron specific cominarty (Pfizer) vaccine which was unavailable in early 2021, when the first doses were given 8-12 weeks apart.

I had six doses doses between March 2021 and October 2022, demonstrably less than six months apart even not taking into account the first two.

Either way if you have one now, you'll be absolutely fine to have one in September/October.

im due another now and I’ll be getting it as soon as I’m off steroids. The alternative is too great. Colleagues are all getting covid again now. I can’t afford to be ill again like that.

@alpenguin I’m on steroids too and will be for the foreseeable, and I do wonder how much of an immune response I even mount with the vaccine.

I've been left with permanent and very painful health issues after Pfizer. I personally would never touch the stuff again.

I’ve had the maximum 7 vaccinations. If I’m offered another in the autumn I’ll have that as well.

I have now had 7 vaccines and had slight flu like symptoms after the Oxford vaccines which were the first two but nothing since.
I had treatment for breast cancer last year which is why I’ve been offered the extra vaccines. After surgery, chemo and radiotherapy when you weigh up the the drugs and side effects from that lot a covid vaccine seems very low risk.
I just don’t want to be unwell Ive been there enough and certainly not if I could have avoided it, so will be taking my vaccines if offered.
it’s difficult sorting through what’s true and what isn’t and unfortunately there are a raft of people who link anything that happens after having a vaccine to the vaccine, things that would have or could occurred regardless.

The FDA recently (last week) recommended a monovalent booster for the coming season, using the XBB 1.5 variant, so moving on from the bivalent type. I expect the UK will follow suit, and recommend boosters for the elderly and immune-compromised. I'm not sure that the rest of the population of the UK will be offered it (contrasted with the US where everyone will be).

There's a lot of T-cell immunity now throughout the population, due to the number of infections and/or vaccinations. Not enough importance is being given to this, it's the T-cell immunity that will help prevent more serious symptoms setting in during week 2 of an infection.

Whoever said these vaccines 'don't work' is very wrong. They do work, the death toll would have been far higher without them. Also comments such as 'my partner was vaxxed and got sicker than I did!' are not meaningful. This is why we have proper trials, so statistics can be compiled in a way that is meaningful, not just n=1 anecdotes. Also 'Omicron is milder' - no it isn't. For populations exposed to the previous variants, people have built up a level of immunity both from vaccinations and/or infections, so that on encountering Omicron they experienced a milder infection. If they had not done so, Omicron would still hit hard, indeed has done so.

Most healthy people would likely not need to carry on getting boosters annually as they ought to have enough T-cell immunity now to be protective. The exceptions to this would be the elderly and people with immune issues or other serious illnesses. The only reason this would change is because the virus mutates enough to be sufficiently different to warrant a new vaccine.

There's just so much disinformation about it is very difficult for people to get any sort of clear picture. I do worry that if and when another pandemic happens, people will simply refuse to be protected based on this disinformation and will die as a result.

I've been for mine, sore arm and felt a bit off overnight
They said I'll be contacted for a winter one so it's looking like twice a year boosters

The majority of us on here are taking advice from our consultants
You're only being offered a booster if you're immunocompromised so what happens with other people and immunity isn't really relevant
I was very unwell with covid, off work for 3 weeks, the antivirals had side effects and I can't afford to be off work again for that long
If I hadn't had the vaccines I would have been in deep trouble so I'll have one like the flu jab, as often as needed which looks to be twice a year

Unless you're a consultant haematologist, you can't advise on whether I should have it or. It