[Snowshovel]

[Joey]

Variants circulating in AK, WA, OR and ID. https://twitter.com/DocJeffD/status/1580960843067686914 I try to keep up with this by following some experts on twitter. Sure seems like the US will have another significant wave of cases.

[treeswarper]

The voices on NPR recommended making the flu shot the priority if you don't want both at once. They are predicting a severe flu season.

[grannyhiker]

My son-in-law the ER doc (SF Bay area) is already seeing a lot of nasty flu cases. Almost all type A.

[Sculpin]

Once again we are strongly encouraged to get the new booster ASAP but there are no doses available anywhere near me. Not that you can discover that without filling out a bunch of forms. The state-provided "vaccine finder" lists various pharmacies near me that have "appointments available." But you always have to fill out an online form before you schedule, and once you do, you discover that there are no appointments available. This was frustrating but perhaps understandable the first time around, and here we go around again and nobody bothered to troubleshoot the code to figure out why it lies about availability.

[Tom]

Try walk in. Pretty sure Safeway is exclusively walk in and Costco is a good bet as well.

[Sculpin]

[JPH]

Try some local pharmacies. I know in South Seattle there are a couple that you could likely get into tomorrow if you wanted to.

[treeswarper]

I guess it is good to live in the land of anti-vaxxers. There were openings galore on the RiteAid site here. I had no problems, other than filling out forms, getting either the Covid or Flu shot. They are requiring appointments.

[Sculpin]

[Bosterson]

I was able to schedule through CVS no problem. You have to answer a few questions up front to get to the point where you can choose a location and date, but not so far as to enter all your personal and insurance information. https://www.cvs.com/vaccine/intake/store/schedule-options

[camut]

I was running into the same problems trying to get my recent booster. Every place was by appointment only, except one Costco I tried would accept walk-ins but only for the Pfizer vaccine. Anyone wanting Moderna was by appointment only. One Bartells I tried would provide Pfizer on a walk-in basis as well, but they didn't even have Moderna at all. I went to vaccinelocater.doh.wa.gov/locations/my zip code, entered my filters, and got a list of locations accepting walk-ins for Moderna. I found two locations in Mount Vernon and one in Marysville. I got my Moderna booster yesterday at Skagit County Public Health in Mount Vernon. They offer a covid vaccination clinic each Wed/Thurs/Fri either by appointment or walk-in. They have all vaccines. All I had to do was walk in, fill out a very simple consent form, get my shot (no waiting), and I was done. It was even easy finding a place to park. I'll definitely go there for my next booster.

[Ski]

Wow.... three days before the cruise ship departed, we were advised by the cruise line that we had to show proof of a negative test taken no more than 72 hours prior to boarding time. (This was about two months ago.) I was instructed by someone to try a Rite-Aid. I was confused by the communication from the cruise line, which got somewhat garbled in transit. (I got it second-hand.) I thought they wanted me to get a BOOSTER. After some rather confusing discussion, the young man ushered me into a separate room, needled me up, and billed my insurance. Easy peasy. NO problem. Well, except that what I was actually supposed to get was a TEST, which presented some challenges. So I went back up to Rite-Aid, explained to the young man the mix-up, but he was unable to do the required "lab test" there, so he directed me to an "Urgent Care" facility where it was all taken care of within four hours. (That was three and a half hours waiting for them to call me to come down to get the test, two minutes to drive there, two minutes to do the test, and about half an hour for the results, which they were happy to email to me after I left immediately after doing the test. It's odd. My older sister and brother-in-law have had nothing but problems getting their vaccines and boosters, and she's right on top of all the latest dope and has all the "apps" and all that. Sends me emails almost daily about all the latest "Covid" news and stuff. (I stopped reading any of it months ago.) I'm just wingin' it and didn't have any problems at all, other than a mix-up in an email from Mom. Nobody gets out of here alive.

[Tom]

I was at the Issaquah Costco today picking up a prescription and asked about walk in availability for boosters. Sounds like they offer it from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on weekdays and availability is pretty good. They run out of moderna faster than they do Pfizer but they offer both.

[Joey]

Have you lost interest in COVID? Here is some food for thought. "You can start thinking about getting COVID almost as an accelerant to aging." https://www.kktv.com/2022/10/19/study-if-you-had-covid-several-your-organs-could-be-aging-3-4-years-faster/