Seems most of the people I know have gotten sick within the past month. This is an excellent overview of the new COVID boosters, Flu shots, and vaccines. All insurance plans cover all of these vaccinations. Most will cover them at any pharmacy, but Kaiser will require you to go through them.

FLU

• Aside from good diet and exercise, the #1 thing you can do to reduce your chance of a heart attack is to get a flu shot. Flu is a common cause of heart attacks. It cuts your risk by 25%!
• Hate needles? There is a nasal spray version of the flu vaccine, just ask your doctor about it

COVID

• If you have been avoiding boosters because the side effects are rough, check out Novavax. The MRNA ones took me out for 24-48 hrs, Novavax didn’t even give me a sore arm. Just as effective. I have seen it at Rite Aid.
• Boosters will not completely prevent infection, but they make infection less likely, reduce symptom severity, and are extremely effective at preventing death. Reducing your chance of infection and symptom severity also reduces your risk of long covid and myocarditis.
• Even in cases of mild infections in healthy people, long covid can cause these symptoms for months or permanently: loss of smell, loss of mental acuity, exhaustion and fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. Your chance of getting long covid is 1-10% depending on how you define it and what study you read. The more times you get covid, the higher your risk of developing long covid.
• If you got your last booster 6+ months ago, your booster is basically doing nothing to prevent infection or symptom severity at this point. But the protection against death is quite durable.

For more information and FAQ, I highly suggest this article:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-fall-2024-vaccines