This is the saddest comic strip I’ve seen in quite a while.
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And if someone explained that to me in a polite way and they were wearing a mask I would ask if it would help if I lowered my mask and then I would.
But that’s a different situation than shaming someone for wearing a mask so everyone around could hear them.
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I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to doubt your experience. I mentioned it only to offer a good-faith reason why someone might struggle to hear someone wearing a mask who everyone else can hear, which is what you described.
I usually don’t bother explaining my situation to anyone. I just end up guessing at what I think they might have said (usually wrong), or by asking them to repeat themselves a lot.
It’s never occurred to me to ask someone to remove their mask for me, because I don’t think I would do it for them.
Less than 2% of eligible people have gotten updated Covid booster shots, 3 weeks into the rollout.
“The fact that this booster came out days before Biden said the pandemic is over is a huge mixed message," he said. "Now it’s going to be that much harder to convince those at risk who are on the fence to get a booster.
Thanks, Joe.
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Public communication about availability of the new booster has been sadly lacking where I am. I tried for months to get a second booster but kept getting told it was only for people over 50 or 55, either way, not for me. I kind of gave up, figuring I’d hear or read about it when it was available.
Just learned today from an acquaintance, not the newspaper or anything, that I could’ve gotten the latest booster by now. 
I think the low numbers might be a lot of people like me: eager but discouraged by months of denial.
I don’t mean to vilify the CDC or anything, but they’re so shit at this stuff. 
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my healthcare provider doesn’t even offer them. and apparently i’m on my own for a flu shot as well. yet it’s one of the giant national healthcare providers
i suspect, like me, people got used to the fact the companies were so involved these last few years, and suddenly they’re not. having to make an appointment for an important vaccine at my local, run down looking pharmacy. it’s unexpected, and feels… wrong
eta,: @ClutchLinkey: same. ( i should’ve scrolled down!)
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Try Costco. 
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Is “Costco” the secret cheat code for getting health care in America 
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We were waiting for the updated booster but then in July we were told we shouldn’t wait so we got the current booster at that time. Now we’re waiting until closer to the holidays.
I wonder how many other people are like us and the closer it gets to the holidays we’ll see more people getting the booster.
We will be getting the flu shot in a couple weeks.
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People are still dying of COVID in Canada, more so than even last year. So far in 2022, the country has seen 14,727 COVID deaths, more than 350 more than in all of 2021.
…
Navarro [of University of Michigan’s Center for the History of Medicine] points out that several U.S. jurisdictions, such as San Francisco, lifted their restrictions too soon during the deadly Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. While largely spared by the first wave early that year, and despite plenty of warning, San Francisco got slammed with more than 4,000 cases by mid-October, less than a month after the virus is suspected to have arrived in the city.
I have to wonder if (and it may be sub-conscious/emergent property of the larger political animal) the political angle here is to let the anti-mask/vax go unopposed until the public turns decidedly against them.
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It seems like it for vaccine availability. 
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I agree there’s a political (and profit-driven) calculus beng figured by the corporate Dems, but I doubt it’s that subtle.
I think it’s more like, The more we can get people thinking that things are getting back to normal, the more likely they are to vote for Dems.
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never having gotten life saving medical care at costco - or any other big box store for that matter - are these, you know, medical professionals? or are people just plopping themselves down on the register conveyer belt to be treated, scanned, and bagged up by the cashiers?
oh god. don’t tell me it’s self checkout. what do you even do with the needle afterwards?
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From what I understand, it would likely be a separate office next to the store, like they do with the optometrist. Am I close, Costco shoppers?
(Technically, I could have a membership here in TJ, but my bicycle isn’t big enough to haul that amount of cargo halfway across town)
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It’s a dedicated pharmacy inside the store, with trained pharmacists and phlebotomists.
I wouldn’t suggest them for re-attaching a toe, but they are perfectly capable of administering a vaccine.
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Until they accidentally cut off your toe while administering the vaccine… /S
I kid…I kid.
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That’s the hardware department. 
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Costco has a pharmacy, which by legal definition must have appropriate medical personnel staffing it.
ETA: Dammit, I need to run a bar tab for you, @DukeTrout!
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it is strange though. my provider has their own pharmacies, their own phlebotomists ( not to mention optometrists and dentists. ) and i can’t go to them for this.
meanwhile, if i get hit by a car and rushed to some random hospital it’s out of network costs for each pair of gloves the staff uses during my stay
it’s odd. and definitely contributing to the slow uptake
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