#// covid

[covid-safer-hotties]

"Just a cold" that has set muscle/neural development milestones for infants back by 4 months.

[susanoos-wife]

[dinosaurwithablog]

If you get covid, please, take paxlovid. You can only take it for the first 5 days you have covid. On the first day with covid, I took it, and I felt so much better that same day. It's miraculous. Volitile diarrhea is a side effect, but it's worth it. I took it in the morning and by the evening I felt great. They give you pills each day for 5 days. I took them all. I suffered symptoms from covid for only half a day, and then I felt wonderful. I couldn't believe it. I'm old and I have breathing issues so I was worried. Paxlovid took all my worries away. I'd be happy to be the poster child for this medication. Thank you, OP, for sharing how to get this med with everyone.

Opinion Here’s how to get free Paxlovid as many times as you need it

When the public health emergency around covid-19 ended, vaccines and treatments became commercial products, meaning companies could charge for them as they do other pharmaceuticals. Paxlovid, the highly effective antiviral pill that can prevent covid from becoming severe, now has a list price of nearly $1,400 for a five-day treatment course.

Thanks to an innovative agreement between the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Americans can still access the medication free or at very low cost through a program called Paxcess. The problem is that too few people — including pharmacists — are aware of it.

I learned of Paxcess only after readers wrote that pharmacies were charging them hundreds of dollars — or even the full list price — to fill their Paxlovid prescription. This shouldn’t be happening. A representative from Pfizer, which runs the program, explained to me that patients on Medicare and Medicaid or who are uninsured should get free Paxlovid. They need to sign up by going to paxlovid.iassist.com or by calling 877-219-7225. “We wanted to make enrollment as easy and as quick as possible,” the representative said.

Indeed, the process is straightforward. I clicked through the web form myself, and there are only three sets of information required. Patients first enter their name, date of birth and address. They then input their prescriber’s name and address and select their insurance type.

All this should take less than five minutes and can be done at home or at the pharmacy. A physician or pharmacist can fill it out on behalf of the patient, too. Importantly, this form does not ask for medical history, proof of a positive coronavirus test, income verification, citizenship status or other potentially sensitive and time-consuming information.

But there is one key requirement people need to be aware of: Patients must have a prescription for Paxlovid to start the enrollment process. It is not possible to pre-enroll. (Though, in a sense, people on Medicare or Medicaid are already pre-enrolled.)

Once the questionnaire is complete, the website generates a voucher within seconds. People can print it or email it themselves, and then they can exchange it for a free course of Paxlovid at most pharmacies.

Pfizer’s representative tells me that more than 57,000 pharmacies are contracted to participate in this program, including major chain drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens and large retail chains such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. For those unable to go in person, a mail-order option is available, too.

The program works a little differently for patients with commercial insurance. Some insurance plans already cover Paxlovid without a co-pay. Anyone who is told there will be a charge should sign up for Paxcess, which would further bring down their co-pay and might even cover the entire cost.

Several readers have attested that Paxcess’s process was fast and seamless. I was also glad to learn that there is basically no limit to the number of times someone could use it. A person who contracts the coronavirus three times in a year could access Paxlovid free or at low cost each time.

Unfortunately, readers informed me of one major glitch: Though the Paxcess voucher is honored when presented, some pharmacies are not offering the program proactively. As a result, many patients are still being charged high co-pays even if they could have gotten the medication at no cost.

This is incredibly frustrating. However, after interviewing multiple people involved in the process, including representatives of major pharmacy chains and Biden administration officials, I believe everyone is sincere in trying to make things right. As we saw in the early days of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, it’s hard to get a new program off the ground. Policies that look good on paper run into multiple barriers during implementation.

Those involved are actively identifying and addressing these problems. For instance, a Walgreens representative explained to me that in addition to educating pharmacists and pharmacy techs about the program, the company learned it also had to make system changes to account for a different workflow. Normally, when pharmacists process a prescription, they inform patients of the co-pay and dispense the medication. But with Paxlovid, the system needs to stop them if there is a co-pay, so they can prompt patients to sign up for Paxcess.

Here is where patients and consumers must take a proactive role. That might not feel fair; after all, if someone is ill, people expect that the system will work to help them. But that’s not our reality. While pharmacies work to fix their system glitches, patients need to be their own best advocates. That means signing up for Paxcess as soon as they receive a Paxlovid prescription and helping spread the word so that others can get the antiviral at little or no cost, too.

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[lucytheplantwitch]

hey if you're sick and intend on using public transport,,, please wear a mask?? i bet you still have some from the plague. just put it on and make everyone less uncomfortable, cus i don't wanna catch whatever you're having

[danaris112]

I'm so sick of people saying that Covid is just a cold.

It's not. Unlike a cold, Covid targets your nervous system, i.e. your brain, your nerves and spinal cord.

That is terrifying. It has the ability to mess up the signals your brain sends to the rest of your body. Best case scenario, you're more likely to have changes in smell and taste, cognitive dysfunctions such as memory problems and brain fog, as well as being more likely to have strokes and seizures. Worst case scenario, you become permanently disabled.

In my case, I got infected with Covid and developed a chronic illness. There is little to no chance that I will ever recover. Every day, I deal with fatigue, pain, headaches, brain fog and so many other symptoms that make me unable to complete even the most basic tasks. I can't go to school. I can barely leave the house. It's very likely that I'll never be able to get a job and support myself. My life, and the lives of millions of other people, were ruined by Covid.

So no, it's not just a cold.

[wat3rm370n]

Unmasked and making everyone sick.

I’ve been hearing about people showing up to work sick, testing positive for covid, and not wearing a mask and working sick, despite the CDC’s recommendation that people “Stay home and away from others”, and even after feeling better they say to mask when resuming normal activities.

CDC - Respiratory Virus Guidance March 1, 2024 Preventing Spread of Respiratory Viruses When You're Sick When you go back to your normal activities, take added precaution over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses. Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.

All year long I keep hearing stories about people who are actively sick and coughing and refusing to mask in confined spaces like subway trains and crowded workplaces. And even people refusing to mask when asked to by trapped elderly people in airplanes and healthcare settings. This is a very dicey situation with the coming American public health dark age and the threat of bird flu and mask bans.

[angryrdpanda]

telegraph.co.uk

Not surprised after Rwanda's impressive curbing of Covid 19 early on, but sad that a swift, smart response will never be replicated in the U.S.

[unveilandresist]

The last few years have been so harrowing for me as a person with postviral illness from an infection I got 15 years ago. postviral illness is real and your chance of getting potentially lifelong disability goes up with every infection you get. 70% of people with long covid do not recover.

[nicuveo]

better than i feared, so much worse than what we need.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Guess what time of year it is again

[susanoos-wife]

[willowreader]

Great video to view on Twitter.

[greersarchive]

(art from Mathisnt_My_Thing on Reddit)

[bookwormstarwarsfan]

I wonder how the people feel today, who were screaming through 2020-2021 that this is just the start, and in a few years, government poisoned masks will be mandatory 24/7 even in your own home, and people will be legally shot down if they break this rule.

I know that conspiracy believers always find a way to avoid controversies in their theories, but the way every government almost tripped over to lift bans sometimes too soon is so extremely against all those 'covid dictatorship' ideas, that I don't know how did they resolved this in their heads lol.