I just got back from getting the second Covid booster shot which is now FDA approved for people over 50. Rite-Aid has a website where you can answer the screening questions and schedule your shot. As of this morning they had plenty of doses available but that may change when people become aware that it is now available.
FYI – Booster
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Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
I am going to consult with my PCM before deciding. I have been lucky thus far. I will probably get it just for further protection’s sake. But I have a good relationship with my primary and I know she won’t bullshit me.
Also, Walgreen’s and CVS have been pretty good if Rite Aid isn’t convenient. (Got my first booster @ CVS due to convenience.)
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I am due as well, but I was hoping the FDA would get on with approving Novavax. which is more effective on Omicron variants. Choosing a different vaccine with a different spectrum of antigens makes sense.
As always, the FDA is slow walking everyone other than its chosen.
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Well, we all know that you do not like the FDA but the unavailability that you are complaining about does not appear to me to be their doing. At least not exclusively. And, although Novavax has talked about a vaccine better tuned to Omicron, that is not yet being manufactured in quantity. It seems to be the equivalent of vaporware in the software business.
Novavax shares have been in freefall for months because of their internal problems in research, manufacturing, and distribution. It is for all practical purposes a start-up and has not yet found its sea legs. Its share price dropped from over $200 at the end of last year to below $100 now. It is expected by analysts to drop even further to a target price in the $60s or less. If the market is not trusting Novavax, why should the FDA? Doesn’t the market know best?
After a year of stumbles in 2021 they have focused their efforts on other countries and only applied for an EUA approval at the end of January and – truth be told – an EUA is a bit of a stretch (Emergency?) when vaccines are now going begging.
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Novavax (not to be confused with the Omicron specific version currently under test) is in use in 170 countries.
It uses a different technology than the mRNA vaccines and has shown greater cross reactivity against Omicron(though it was less effective against the original strain. )
https://ir.novavax.com/2021-12-22-Novavax-Announces-Initial-Omicron-Cross-Reactivity-Data-from-COVID-19-Vaccine-Booster-and-Adolescent-Studies
The effectiveness against Omicron is probably just dumb luck as it used a different part of the spike protein but nonetheless it is real.
Why the FDA is slow walking the application in the face of mountains of data from around the world is a mystery.
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Does Novavax even have the capability to serve the U.S. market on an Emergency basis? From what I have learned about its struggles it is not obvious that it does. But no matter. You really want to blame the FDA and nothing will convince you that it is far more complicated than that.
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Well, the FDA could easily prove me wrong. There is absolutely no reason to not approve Novovax in the US, we have more than enough documented foreign experience
So either they will be able to supply what we need or not. Since it will be half does for boosters and the primary market is played out, it should be pretty easy to meet the demand.
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It would be beneficial in Congress would quit “dicking the dog” and pass a package before them to assist with either the next wave or COVID or the next virus to come down the pike, including vaccines and testing capacity (in reserve and ready to deploy as needed). IT could go a long way for Novovax and other proven vaccines to be paid for.
And no matter how you slice it, the free market is never free.
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BTW, a free market does know best, but under the iron thumb of the FDA, our market in medicines is in no way free
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Always a “but.”
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