All Shot Up
Posted on September 29, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 42 Comments
I have two arms, so today I got two vaccines: On the left, this year’s edition of the flu shot, and on the right, the latest bivalent COVID booster. The latter is ever-so-slightly precipitate, as I caught COVID in June and therefore only barely inside the window for getting the booster, but inasmuch as I am traveling to New York, Kentucky, California and Nova Scotia during the month of October, I figure I owe it to myself and others to be as fully protected from both giving and getting flu and COVID as possible (and if I do get it, keeping it from messing with me too much). Simple — I made the online appointment for a local CVS in the morning, got both shots in the afternoon — quick, and no fuss. And just like that, I am all caught up. Please do the same, when you have a moment. Thanks.
— JS
Hooray! I got mine last week, expecting to get knocked down by the booster. All I got was a sore arm from the flu shot. Not gonna get sick, no way, no how!
Where will you be in Kentucky?
Yeah I got those a week ago. The RN who did my injections at Martins Point, the primary care provider I’ve been going to since 1990, noted that they’d only gotten five hundred doses. (They serve some thirty thousand clients at that location.)
No side effects but I never get any. Even when the military did en masse in basic training. In both ends. Ouch.
My appointment for the covid booster is for tomorrow. Was supposed to get it last week but it rained like crazy the night before and my road was impassable for the next three days.
I was really happy to get my updated COVID booster (plus flu) a couple weeks ago just in time for my own trip to Kentucky. I had some serious fatigue symptoms the evening after the shot but nothing more than that.
I got both of mine last week and had my kids get their flu shots at the same time. I need to schedule the Covid booster for my oldest but I need to time it for their weekend.
I did the double vax shots couple weeks ago… and couldn’t find a comfortable sleeping position that night, because both shoulders were going “throb throb throb.” Still beats dying/long-term disabling.
Got both a few weeks ago.
The week before, I got my shingles vaccine – don’t forget that one if your in the right age range. Friends who’ve had shingles are all adamant that you REALLY don’t want to get it, plus you’re contagious while you have it.
We got the latest boosters two weeks ago and will be getting our flu shots next week. Barely felt the Covid vaccine and had a slightly sore arm that night, gone by morning.
Remarkably we haven’t gotten Covid.. yet.. but we are headed to a wedding in TX next weekend so we did the CVS thing last w/e so we’d marinate and be ready for our southern adventure…We’re both over 65 and I don’t tolerate the boosters well so we will get flu shot when we get home. I have a friend who got a Covid booster in one arm and the second shingles shot in the other! Rockstar! But she was radio silent for almost 4 days!
Glad to hear you are following guidelines. We are too!!
Good for you. Hope you feel well and stay healthy. I got my double shot last week. No ill effects thankfully.
I had the exact same plan for today, but due to an executive function failure I went to the wrong CVS and had to reschedule for next week.
COVID finally hit my husband after Labor Day weekend, thankfully with mild cold-like symptoms. And I somehow avoided it still.
My local surgery is offering three jabs to those in risk groups (e.g. with asthma) this year – the flu, COVID and pneumonia. Unfortunately I don’t have three arms to have them put in in one visit :D, so I’ll have to go twice.
Very nice PSA. Thx!
Getting the flu shot and a COVID booster at the same time last year messed me up for three days, so I am spacing them out this year.
At CVS now waiting for the Covid shot!
I did the same thing two weeks ago. I had Omicron last winter and very much do NOT want a repetition of that. No side effects at all from either shot.
I always get the flu shot every year, and I’m guessing that from now on, it’ll be flu in one arm and Covid in the other every September.
Thanks for keeping yourselves protected, everyone.
Looking forward to seeing you at the Andy Weir event here in Louisville! Most people I’ve seen/heard remark upon it are as eager to see you as Weir!
Got my flu shot two days ago and have an appt to get the ba4/ba5 shot tomorrow ar cvs.
They gave you a shot? Because I was scheduled for a six-month booster last month and they said, “You’re all caught up! You’ve had the main course and two boosters, that’s all you need” even though I’m 65 now and thought six-month follow-ups were “strongly advised”.
I need to schedule my flu shot and my pneumonia shot.
Wise choice! We both got COVID a day after my partner’s semester started – wasn’t even teaching just going to faculty meetings. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t fun either.
Mask & vax everyone!
My wife and I got both about two weeks ago. Thank you for pleasantly reminding people to take care of themselves.
I did the same thing two weeks ago – third Covid booster and flu vaccine at the same time. Thanks for spreading the word!
nonny and Nancy Scalzi – yes yes yes on getting the shingles vaccine – I’m Old and had chicken pox as a kid. My mom had shingles – she was miserable! As soon as I was eligible I got the shingrix vaccine.
TimELiebe – I need to get the pneumonia vaccine too. Thanks for the reminder!
Everyone – vaccines are a medical miracle! Get them all!
My wife and I had avoided Covid all this time, but Monday a week ago I got it (at my barbership, I suspect). I’d gotten booster #3 a week previous (and my wife a bit before that). We’re 10 years older than you, but for us the symptoms have been at about half-of-a-cold. That’s what the vaccines and booster are for!
Good! Thank you!
Exact same story here -went today, both shots, CVS, but all I had to do was waltz in. No appointment necessary. I live in a state where COVID’s a hoax and people rely on Jesus instead of vaccines.
Is this the updated booster or is it the same formula as the two boosters I’ve already had?
I had planned to do it this week, but I’m feeling sick this week (along with three of my kids), and I don’t want to add the otherwise tolerable side effects of the vaccines on top of that. I’d hoped to get it done two weeks ahead of a cruise I had planned, but it’s now less than two weeks away!
Oh well, I’m single boosted, and I’ll get the new booster when I get back.
I’m getting my booster on the 12th at work and then at the end of Oct we will get our flu shot after the residents get them.
I don’t really get much exposure aside from a weekly masked grocery trip, so I’m waiting on my booster for now.
I’ll be flying for Thanksgiving and then to the cruise in March, so I’m delaying my booster till late October so it can be at peak efficiency during the period I will need it most. So far I’ve managed to avoid Covid and I’m hoping to continue, but I am not looking forward to flying now that masking isn’t required on planes.
I’ve also heard having flu and Covid shots at the same time might be less than ideal, so I’ll probably space mine out given I usually get some pretty heavy soreness from the Covid shot and the flu shot typically barely affects me.
Very nice! I have an appointment for my booster next week, and my workplace is spinning up their program to provide people with flu shots in early October as well
I scheduled my second booster for three weeks before an international flight. I still got Covid about a month after the booster, but it was an extremely mild case. I had cold like symptoms for one day.
there’s one prize none of us want to win… and are collectively gladdened OGH will never qualify for… “Darwin Awards”
there’s been a nation-wide filter these past two years… killing off thousands of fools… crippling a million-plus other idiots… irony being how loudly they shout “my body my choice”
given how many copies of the virus are in play… near-certainty it will mutate into something with teeth… big nasty teeth… and I will again go back to counting refrigerated trucks outside hospitals
#VaxAndLive #MaskOrDie
I just got home from a trip to Ireland and got my bivalent vaccine just before I went. Got Covid anyway. I would have sworn it was just a cold, but the antigen test and the Irish doctor I did a video conference with said it really was Covid. So I got to deal with that in Dublin.
Fortunately for me, also according to the doctor, there are no legal travel restrictions with Covid, and if you are non-symptomatic there aren’t even any moral reasons to not travel. So I masked up and went on with my trip. So I masked up and went on with the rest of my trip and had a good time. Made it home about 1 o’clock this morning.
The moral of this story is even if you are fully vaccinated mask up, especially while traveling, because while being sick at home is no joy being sick 4000+ miles from home really stinks.
Hey, I did that same thing last Monday. Well, I got the senior flu shot because I’m an old fart, hurt more going in but by the time I got home, wasn’t even noticeable. The new variant covid shot was absolutely painless going in, but was sore up until Thursday. “It’s still sore when I do this.” “Don’t DO that.” Seriously, if I push on it, it’s still sore, but otherwise unnoticeable.
I just had a sore arm in the covid side for one day. My husband had both sore arms for one day, but not as bad as last year’s flu shot. My son took a nap the next day which was unusual, but otherwise no side effects. So basically from worst to best:
Getting covid (post booster, pre-second booster)
Second shot (moderna)
First shot (moderna)
second booster (pfizer)
booster (pfizer)
Good luck. I got my booster and flu shot together last November, and was out of commission for two days. Just got the latest booster on Wednesday, and still had to leave work early and collapse for a few hours.
Benefit of working for the state health department: I got my bivalent COVID vax today at the office. I’ll wait a week and then get the flu shot, and sometime after that look into the shingles shot. I don’t want to stack vaccines because I would like to be semi-functional over the weekend.
I also caught the COVID cooties in mid June, and had had the second booster a couple weeks before, around Memorial Day, so I’m probably going to wait a few weeks to get that one. I do need to get my regular flu shot, though, which I’ll likely do early next week.
You’re coming to New York? Is this a book tour thing?
(Dropping a dummy comment here because I messed up my email address in the last comment, and couldn’t subscribe to followup comments. Please ignore this comment.)
Got my updated booster yesterday morning. I’m a bit draggy this morning, but I can’t be certain it’s all from the booster — gaming with friends ran late last night.
I’m holding off on the flu shot until I find out if work will be sponsoring a flu shot clinic this year.
And I really should get a shingles shot, but I don’t know if my insurance thinks I’m old enough for them to pay for it. Around here, that one’s pricey.