Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo:
Well, daily new cases dipped below 60K, but this is still a deadly disease, killing nearly 450 Americans daily. The big news continues to be the newly modified boosters (including support for major omicron variants). So I had qualified for the second booster along with at least 2 other nuclear family members in at risk groups. So the question I had was whether I would be eligible and if so when. This Time post indicates yes, that CDC expected a fall release of the new booster and expected to extend the benefits of the tweaked booster to the high risk pool. My RN sister had heard 4 months or so after one's last booster, NBC reports:
[Can they still] get the updated booster even if they already had a booster vaccine?
The answer is yes, as long as your last booster dose was at least two months ago.
Individuals 18 and older are eligible to receive either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s updated COVID booster shot at least two months after they've received their last booster dose or after they've completed their primary vaccine series, U.S. health officials said.
While those younger than 18 years old are eligible for the new COVID booster, they aren't eligible for the Moderna dose. Only Pfizer booster doses can be administered to those aged 12 through 17.
So my RN sister and I had ours separately back in April, My sister has scheduled hers (along with her annual flu shot) early next week. She won't be the first in the family though; her second daughter, also an RN, got hers a week back. I tried to schedule mine at my local Walmart pharmacy (https://www.walmart.com/pharmacy/clinical-services/immunization/), but it's booked solid and it's not clear they have the new booster in stock (I would probably need to call). Another alternative is to search at the government's vaccine search portal (https://www.vaccines.gov/). As in the Walmart portal, you can locate by zip code. I was able to locate a nearby Walgreen's with numerous appointments and signifying new booster availability. I haven't booked it yet; I checked more for a proof of concept, but I'll likely do it by the end of the month.
Other Notes
Well, I have to rant about one of the stupidest things I've ever encountered somewhat related to my health insurance. I've recently posted how I ran into an issue I discovered where my doctor's quarterly health check claims hadn't been processed this year, which turned out to be caused by the hospital sending claims to PA instead of GA. It turns out I've run into an analogous problem with my own allocated payments post-claim. I wanted to ensure my doctor got paid ASAP, so I noticed on my insurance portal there was a third-party link to process my responsibility payment for each claim. I basically had to set up my payment method and then submitted 3 equivalent payments about 3 weeks back. I then had 2 unexpected developments: I got invoiced for my 3 payments a week back (sometimes I get an obsolete invoice, so I wasn't unduly alarmed, more annoyed at getting it 2 weeks after my payment attempts). But then Monday morning, I got 3 emails (one per payment) from the vendor indicating the hospital hadn't processed my payment yet, saying they would refund my account if the payment wasn't processed soon. What the hell? I end up having to call the hospital billing people (which is nearly impossible to contact). The vendor had indicated they had sent my payments to some PO box in Boston. It turns out the hospital processes payments sent to an Atlanta address. I get the target payment address and contact the payment vendor. Somehow in the computer age (and putting on my MIS professor hat), the payment vendor can't deal with a change of address and will have to refund my account. So then I email back one of the payment notifications and ask them to refund all 3 payments immediately. I get back a confirmation of a refund scheduled for ONE of the payments. It takes another half-dozen emails and a phone call to get closure they'll refund all 3 payments. (In the meanwhile it turns out I could pay the invoices through my hospital portal.) So hopefully my original account will get refunded for the failed payments next week; I'm sure people have worse insurance-related claims/payment issues, but running into two vendor addressing problems for the same set of transactions is unbelievable. And I'm the one who had to diagnose the problems. Where is the due diligence? I would think I'm not the first to encounter these type issues, and I have no idea why these transactions are still all dependent on snail mail.I probably haven't written more than a handful of checks per year for years. I remember being annoyed my WV landlady didn't have an automated system for rent.
WWE has improved since McMahon's forced resignation, but a big issue is they made the male championship and tag team championship unified under "the Bloodline", and I don't see a storyline yet on separating by brand. It looks like they're looking to book celebrity Logan Paul against champ Reigns, which makes no sense given the fact Paul has had only a few matches. We still haven't seen the rumored returns of Charlotte Flair, Banks & Naomi, and Bray Wyatt. Maybe they'll finally book Rousey over Liv Morgan, which would put Flair's revenge angle on Rousey back in focus. Finally, this is may be a personal preference but I dislike former NXT women's champ Raquel Gonzalez's forced smile gimmick. She's an attractive, tall woman, but the smile is annoying.
