Tag: Coronavirus

Coronavirus: Beware of the latest Covid strain
If you’re careful and lucky, you have yet to fall prey to the latest strain of Covid hitting people in the US, JN.1. But, large numbers of Americans are coming down with it, reports Adriel Bettelheim for Axios, so beware. Fortunately, the symptoms tend to be mild, including dry coughs and fatigue.

I recently caught Covid, for the first time, sitting next to someone who did not stop coughing and sneezing, on a plane trip to visit my 88-year old aunt. As soon as I saw that my seatmate was ill, I put on two masks, but it was too late. So, instead of caring for my aunt, she ended up having to take care of me!

I had a very mild case of Covid and recovered in a few days, though I continued to test positive for a week. My worst symptom was exhaustion. I think I slept 12 hours for the first two nights, but I had no respiratory symptoms. I’d like to believe that all the Covid booster shots I’ve gotten helped minimize symptoms, but who knows.

The experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that this latest Covid strain is likely better at getting around our immune systems than other strains because so many people are catching it. Time will tell whether more people will be hospitalized as a result of catching it. As of now, there are relatively few hospitalizations.

People in the Northeast have been most likely to be infected by the JN.1 Covid strain.

According to the CDC, people who have had vaccines should be better off fighting the JN.1 strain. And, the World Health Organization believes it poses low risks to the public health. If you end up with respiratory symptoms, you should talk to your doctor.

If you do catch Covid, you should be immune for at least a few months afterwards. Once your body has successfully fought off the virus, it is as if you have been vaccinated.

Keep in mind that Covid symptoms tend to be similar to flu symptoms. And, there are a lot of people who are catching the flu this winter. To know whether you have Covid, take a Covid test.

Here’s more from Just Care:
January 2, 2024
Coronavirus: Should you get the 2023 booster shot?
The next Covid-19 booster shot should now be available from your local pharmacy, health clinic or doctor’s office. Medicare pays for it in full, whether you are enrolled in Traditional Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan. If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, the booster shot should be covered in full from network pharmacies, but perhaps not if you go out of network for the booster. Should you get the booster shot?

The Food and Drug Administration just approved the booster as safe and effective. The booster shot protects people from the current Covid 19 variants in the US. The Centers for Disease Control panel of advisors believes that everyone over six months old should get it. Some argue that if only older adults are vaccinated, it will mean 100,000 additional hospitalizations.

Fewer than one in five Americans got the Covid-19 booster that was approved in 2022. But, the data show that people who got the booster had a much lower likelihood of getting very sick or dying.

Many people are getting Covid-19 now and more people are being hospitalized for it than earlier in the summer. More still are expected to be hospitalized this fall and winter.

The list price of the booster is $130. But Medicare pays for it under Part B. Medicaid also covers it. And, so does commercial insurance. If you are uninsured, the federal government’s Bridge Access Program covers the vaccine at Federally Qualified Health Centers and at Walgreens, CVS and some other pharmacies.

While the booster shot might only keep people from getting Covid for a few months, it still reduces the likelihood of being hospitalized and dying for a much longer period of time.

The booster was tested on monkeys and mice, not people. But, around the world, billions of people have gotten the booster safely.

Should you get the booster shot? You probably should not get the booster shot if you’ve had Covid in the last two months. Otherwise, many recommend you get the booster shot soon. If you are planning to travel over the winter holidays, you might wait until early November to get the booster. You then increase the likelihood that the vaccine protects you from infection during your travels.

Some doctors question the value of the booster for people who have had Covid-19 and have been vaccinated one or more times. They believe that this alone should keep them from getting seriously ill from Covid-19, even if they get Covid.

Should you get the Covid booster, the RSV vaccine and the flu shot at the same time? It might be smart to space them out.

Free Covid tests: The federal government is once again offering free Covid tests beginning September 25. Click here to get four free tests sent to your home.

Here’s more from Just Care:
September 20, 2023
Coronavirus: When public health emergency ends, so will some Covid coverage
The President has declared May 11 as the date for an end to the Covid-19 public health emergency. Rachel Cohrs reports for Stat that once the public health emergency ends, older adults and people with disabilities will be at greater risk of not getting needed care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers Medicare, says that people with Medicare will face higher costs for Covid-19 tests and treatments.

People with Medicare currently get free Covid-19 tests. They also get Paxlovid, a prescription drug which treats Covid-19, for free. Come May 11, Covid-19 tests will no longer be free. Paxlovid will remain free until supplies run out, most likely in the summer. But, people with Medicare could have out-of-pocket costs for other treatments.

Comprehensive coverage of Covid-19 tests and treatment is critical for people with Medicare; older adults are more likely to die of Covid than working people or any other age group. Paula Span reports for the New York Times that in January alone, 10,600 people with Medicare died of Covid, which represented 90 percent of all Covid deaths last month. Overall, people with Medicare over 75 represent 75 percent of Covid deaths–8,500 deaths in January.

People with Medicare are also five times more likely to be hospitalized because of Covid-19 than younger people. Hospitalizations and deaths are higher than they should be for people with Medicare because six in ten of them have not received the bivalent booster.

What Covid-related services will Medicare cover after the Covid public health emergency ends? After the public health emergency ends, vaccines, lab tests, and antigen tests that a physician or other health care provider orders will remain free for people with Medicare. If there are monoclonal antibody treatments that are effective, they will also be covered through the end of 2023.

Insurers covering working people have yet to determine how much their enrollees will pay for Covid-19 tests and treatments once the public health emergency ends.

People with Medicaid will continue to get free vaccines once the public health emergency ends. But, they will not have protections against out-of-pocket costs for Covid testing and treatments beginning January 2025.

People who are uninsured are most at risk at the end of the public health emergency. States will no longer have funding through Medicaid to cover their Covid-19 tests, vaccines and treatments.

Here’s more from Just Care:
February 13, 2023
Coronavirus: Get your booster shot as soon as possible
Fall is in the air and the new Covid-19 booster vaccine is ready to be administered. This new booster shot is designed to protect you against different strains of the coronavirus. Get your booster shot as soon as possible.

Pfizer and Moderna both offer updated booster shots, which target omicron variants. The new booster vaccine gives you better protection against variants of the original virus. You should be able to get your shot from your doctor, at your local pharmacy or health clinic.

Covid-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives already. The vaccines and boosters available to date have worked best on the original Covid-19 virus. But, they are not as good at fending off new strains of the virus. That’s why it is so important to get this new booster shot.

How will the booster shot help? The booster will reduce your risk of hospitalization from Covid-19 as well as your risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19. It also reduces your chances of getting long Covid.

When should you get the booster? Right away, if you haven’t had Covid-19 recently. It’s excellent protection against what could be a new surge of the virus this fall or winter. If you have had Covid recently, talk to your doctor. You have antibodies in your system, so it might be ok for you to wait a couple of months before getting the booster.

Are there safety concerns with the booster? The CDC says there are none.

Are there side effects from this booster? Side effects are said to be similar to side effects from the original vaccine and boosters, pain, fatigue, headache, chills, nausea and fever.

Can you get the booster at the same time as the flu shot? Yes. And, if you’re over 65, ask about getting the high-dose flu shot.

Here’s more from Just Care:
- Coronavirus: Booster shots and Paxlovid
- Covid-19 roundup: What you should know
- Reconciliation bill reduces Medicare drug costs, covers all vaccines in full
- 2022: Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage and costs
- Coronavirus: Get your flu shot early!
September 14, 2022
Coronavirus: Get your flu shot early!
It’s important to get the flu shot every year, no matter how old you are. It’s particularly important for older adults. And, it is all the more important during this coronavirus pandemic. With summer coming to a close, it’s time to get your flu shot!

Talk to your doctor about getting the flu shot and about whether you should get a special vaccine available for people over 65. The good news: Medicare covers the full cost of a flu shot.

You likely do not need to go to the doctor’s office for your flu shot. More pharmacies are offering drive-through and curbside flu shots, in addition to in-store vaccines.

Why get the flu shot now? That’s how you best protect yourself, the people you love and your community. The flu, like the novel coronavirus, can be lethal. It kills tens of thousands of people each year. In 2018, 80,000 people died of the flu. And, older adults are more likely to die from the flu than younger people.

The flu vaccine takes between two and four weeks to become effective. So, even if you get it now, it might not protect you from the flu until mid-October. It will not protect you from the novel coronavirus, though the symptoms can be quite similar–a cough, a cold, sore throat, fever.

Unfortunately, sometimes the flu shot will not keep you from getting the flu. However, even if you get the flu, the flu shot reduces the odds that it will be a severe case. The flu shot may keep you from being hospitalized for the flu or, worse still, from being in the intensive care unit of the hospital. It also reduces your risk of death.

You should not wait to get the flu shot. No one knows whether the flu season will begin this month or next. You want to protect yourself as soon as possible.

You need the flu shot even if you have not gotten the flu before. (The only exceptions are people who are allergic to the flu vaccine.) There is only benefit from getting the flu shot. The flu shot cannot give you the flu.

Here’s some good news: Everything you are doing to protect yourself from the novel coronavirus–social distancing, wearing a mask and regular hand washing–should also minimize your chance of getting the flu!

This post was originally published on September 9, 2020.

Here’s more from Just Care:
September 12, 2022
Coronavirus: Booster shots and Paxlovid
As much as we might wish for an end to the coronavirus, it continues to rear its ugly head, mutating along the way. What’s new? A booster shot better suited to new versions of the virus, along with some evidence that a dose of Paxlovid to treat the virus may lead to a Covid recurrence.

As for the new Moderna and Pfizer booster shot, millions of doses should be ready for prime time in mid-September, reports The New York Times. And, they claim that it is better able to fight the Omicron BA.5 variant than the original shot. So, if you have not yet been boosted or are ready for yet another booster, you might consider holding out another month.

This new booster is expected to better strengthen your immunity to the virus. And, this is important. Scientists are expecting a new Covid-19 wave beginning in the Fall.

This all said, the administration’s position appears to be that if you are over 50 and have not yet gotten a booster shot, you should get it now. Covid infections are on the rise. I assume the administration is trying to keep Covid-19 infections at bay.

N.B.: Officials are warning against getting two booster shots in close proximity. If you get one now, don’t get one in September. There is a rare heart disease, myocarditis, that can be a side effect. Getting two shots in a row increases the risk of this side effect.

Experts also say that getting a second shot soon after the first is of no benefit. You already have your antibodies from the first shot. Those antibodies keep the second shot from working.

If you do get Covid, talk to your doctor about getting Paxlovid, especially if you’re over 60. Paxlovid, an anti-viral, is intended for people at risk of serious illness from Covid. It is designed to reduce the likelihood of hospitalization. It’s the drug President Biden took to treat his virus. It should quell your symptoms, but with a big catch.

Some people who take the drug, and then test negative, experience a Covid rebound–they get Covid again a few days later!!! That’s what happened to President Biden, who tested positive, after taking Paxlovid and testing negative, but had no symptoms the second time round.

The government says not to be concerned if you take Paxlovid, test negative and a few days later test positive. And, no one is suggesting you need to take another round of Paxlovid if that happens.

Here’s more from Just Care:
August 2, 2022
Coronavirus: Older adults without booster shots are still at significant risk
The latest COVID-19 data reveal that vaccines are not enough to protect many older adults from serious illness if they have the virus. Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating report for The Washington Post that a higher proportion of vaccinated older adults are dying. Apparently, over time, COVID-19 vaccines do not work as well as you might hope; to minimize risk, older adults need booster shots.

In January and February, more than four in ten people who died of COVID-19 were vaccinated. Most of them had not received a booster shot. Last September, just 23 percent of people who died of COVID-19 were vaccinated.

Researchers who analyzed the data found no meaningful difference between people who had had the Pfizer vaccine and people who had had the Moderna vaccine. For both, it appears that the vaccine’s full protection lasts for about three months after the second vaccine. That said, one CDC expert said that Moderna appears to offer a somewhat more effective vaccine against hospitalization than Pfizer.

For people over 65, Moderna is 87 percent effective against hospitalization versus Pfizer, which is 77 percent effective. And, the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine appears to increase over time.

Some people are mixing up the types of vaccines they receive. But, they do so at their own risk. There is no data on whether that is either safe or effective.

Note: People who are unvaccinated are most likely to die from COVID-19. In fact they have a 20 times greater likelihood of dying from a COVID-19 infection than people who are vaccinated and boosted. Still, two-thirds of deaths from the omicron variant of COVID-19 were people over 75. Most of those deaths, among the vaccinated, were people who had not gotten a booster shot.

Here’s more from Just Care:
May 3, 2022
Coronavirus: A new pill treats the virus
A new pill, Paxlovid, treats the novel coronavirus after you become infected. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved it for emergency use. Three infectious disease experts at Yale Medicine explain that Paxlovid is an antiviral pill that can prevent older people and immunocompromised people from being hospitalized and dying as a result of COVID-19.

How do you get Paxlovid? Your doctor must prescribe it for you and can do so if you test positive for COVID-19. Anyone over 18 who weighs at least 88 pounds can get a prescription if they are at “high risk” of getting a severe case of COVID-19, either because of age or a serious underlying medical condition, such as diabetes or cancer.

How quickly must I take Paxlovid for it to work? You must take Paxlovid within five days of getting COVID-19 symptoms. If you wait longer, there is a high likelihood that COVID will have already affected your system, and Paxlovid will not be able to erase its effects.

How well does Paxlovid work? You take a three-pill dose two times each day for five days. Nearly nine in ten fewer people who took Paxlovid in a clinical trial were hospitalized than those who did not.

How much does Paxlovid cost? It’s free so long as the COVID-19 public health emergency continues. As of now, the public health emergency will last at least until July.

Is Paxlovid the only drug that treats COVID-19? Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) also treats COVID-19, but its efficacy in terms of preventing hospitalization is not nearly as good as Paxlovid. Paxlovid is also far easier to take than remdesivir, which is administered through an IV.

Does Paxlovid have side effects? It’s too early to know all the side effects of Paxlovid. The FDA has a fact sheet of known side effects. As a general rule, you should not have serious side effects. But, your taste buds might change slightly or you could get diarrhea. In addition, your blood pressure might increase and you could develop muscle aches.

Can I take Paxlovid if I am taking other medicines? It depends. There are interactions if you are a transplant patient taking organ anti-rejection drugs, or if you are taking certain drugs for heart arrhythmias, or if you are taking blood thinners and cholesterol-lowering medicines.

If I cannot take Paxlovid, are there other drugs I can take to reduce my risk of hospitalization? If it is too risky for you to take Paxlovid, you might be able to take sotrovimab (a single IV injection) and remdesivir (a three-day IV injection,) or molnupiravir, another oral medicine.

Why should I get vaccinated and get booster shots if I can get Paxlovid? As efficacious as Paxlovid is, you are still at risk of hospitalization if you get the coronavirus. Getting the vaccine and booster shots reduce those risks.

Here’s more from Just Care:
April 20, 2022
Coronavirus: BA.2, the next variant
Brenda Goodman reports for CNN.com about the latest coronavirus variant, BA.2, which has already surfaced in multiple countries and 47 US states. Just at the point at which we are seeing a decline in Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations, BA.2 is rearing its ugly head. And, some experts believe that it’s uglier than the Omicron variant.

BA.2 is both spreading more quickly than the Delta variant and likely to be causing more severe illness. Vaccines appear not to work well to combat it, though booster shots do protect people. The data suggest that people with booster shots are 74 percent less likely to be ill after being infected with the virus.

What’s also concerning about BA.2 is that sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody which works against Omicron, does not appear to work against BA.2.

The World Health Organization reports that BA.2 is 30 percent more contagious than Omicron. Still, hospitalization rates are significantly higher for people who are not vaccinated, particularly elderly Americans and immunocompromised individuals.

BA.2 is not fully understood yet. In Denmark, where most people with Covid-19 have BA.2, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise. In other countries such as South Africa and the UK, where BA.2 has emerged, hospitalizations are declining.

What can you do to protect yourself and those around you? Keep wearing a mask, preferably a K95 or KN95, even if it is not required, whenever you are in enclosed spaces with others.

Here’s more from Just Care:
February 22, 2022
Coronavirus: Medicare should pay for at-home rapid tests
The conundrum: Older adults, even those who are vaccinated and boosted, are most prone to getting Covid-19. Yet, as of now, Medicare is not covering at-home rapid tests. Michelle Andrews reports for Kaiser Health News on why the Biden administration is requiring corporate insurers to cover these tests but not Medicare.

The Biden administration now requires all corporate health insurers, including those offering coverage through the state health insurance exchanges, Medicaid and CHIP, to cover eight monthly at-home rapid coronavirus tests. But, people with Medicare do not have coverage for these tests. Medicare laws prevent Medicare from covering self-administered diagnostic tests, like the rapid tests, even though they are so important for containing the pandemic.

As you likely know, the Covid-19 tests are hard to come by. They are not available at most pharmacies. And, when available, quantities tend to be limited. So, coverage of these tests might not help much for many people.

Still, everyone, including people with Medicare, are able to get four free rapid at-home tests through the Biden administration. They need only go to covidtests.gov. They also can get free tests community health centers. This web site has additional information on where to get free Covid-19 tests.

Medicare covers rapid antigen and PCR testing if performed by a lab at not charge to patients. However, be prepared: In order to get more than one free test a year, you must have a doctor’s order.

Here’s more from Just Care:
January 24, 2022