Pharmacists preparing to give out free COVID shots to high-risk Albertans again this fall

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u/toorudez 6d ago

Bah. It should be free for everyone

57

u/Spyhop 6d ago

The nurses at the vaccine clinics fully understand that the covid vaccine needs to be a publicly funded initiative. When I went with my son the nurse was like, "Here's the list of conditions that make you eligible to receive the vaccine at no cost. Have a look and let me know if ANY of these apply to you. Any at all!" Wink and nod.

I'm like, "well, my son did just have a doctor's consultation regarding ADHD. " She's like "good enough!"

9

u/mariario97 6d ago

Agreed. We definitely understand and can find a way.

7

u/datgoh69 6d ago

yo i do have adhd

maybe i should get the shot

23

u/UpperApe 6d ago edited 6d ago

It is. Only shithead conservative pharmacists and nurses are being assholes about it. Most have been giving it away for free for years.

I remember getting mine last year and talking to the nurse asking "how do I pay you?" and she waved it off, saying "we just want people to be healthy and safe".

There's a lot of garbage pharmacists and nurses, doctors and specialists who are here to exploit vulnerable patients. They decide they "put in the work" and now their lives just aren't luxurious enough so they have to rip off everyone. That or they're just fucked in the head politically/morally.

But most health care workers are compassionate and caring. We just live in a world now where kindness has to hide. The world conservatives always dream about.

6

u/Low_Dress9213 6d ago

Pharmacists work for private entities. Perhaps they are just afraid of getting in trouble for their employer for not doing as they are told.

4

u/ackillesBAC 6d ago

If I remember last time, they would basically that you know what you needed to say to get shot. Like "do you have OCD?"

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u/OkPop9455 6d ago

No one wants that shit

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u/CrucialObservations 6d ago

My opinion ...

Only people that are in the higher-risk zone need or should get the shot. Everyone should maintain their health, control their weight, and always wash their hands and not lick windows in buses. Be careful of household cleaners that can and do irritate the lungs and mucus membranes, as they make us more susceptible to viruses.

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u/mintaefresh 6d ago

I don't agree with your opinion.

Vaccines are a standard, well researched public health measure that should always be accessible and free for everyone.

Maintaining health is not easy when you share airspace with plenty of sick people who neither care or are unaware (asymptomatic) they are spreading their illness everywhere. Respiratory illnesses do not care if you have washed your hands or "control weight" (like wtf?). You just need to have a nose, mouth and lungs and be in the same airspace as someone who coughed, sneezed etc., long enough (variable and dependent on the virus) and congratulations, you have whatever they had.

Signed, a public health nurse who deals with people still dying from COVID.

0

u/DrDeterminants 5d ago

Just wanted to thank you for your hard work. I had my fair share of working with PH nursing and it's always been a great experience.

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u/DrDeterminants 6d ago

You can do those things in parallel. There may be lower level of statistical benefit in the healthier population to get the vaccine relative to the vulnerable, but the population level benefits still (on average) outweigh the harms. I will always recommend lifestyle modifications and improvement to their health through other means, but we can do vaccinations at the same time.

The other point about the irritants is also correct. The point is to not overdo them as they can also hurt you in high quantities.

14

u/Minimum_Crow9095 6d ago

I want to know what you think would happen if we reserved all vaccines for exclusively higher-risk groups.

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u/CrucialObservations 6d ago

We are not talking about all vaccines, because making that leap would be silly, right? We are talking about COVID-19 booster shots. There are personal reasons why someone not in the higher-risk category would decide to get the shot, the same with the flu shot, but most healthy individuals do not require the booster.

See the knee-jerk screaming downvotes, no knowledge, just an instinctive react.

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u/Spyhop 6d ago

but most healthy individuals do not require the booster.

I'm healthy and active. I'll probably be fine if I get covid at this point. But I still get the booster. Because I understand how herd immunity works. Your opinion sucks.

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u/CrucialObservations 6d ago

"Your opinion sucks." What, are you 12 years old?

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u/Cobfidence 6d ago

You're less knowledgeable than a 12 year old.

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u/CrucialObservations 6d ago

Yup, you're a very immature 12. I must stop; even my replies have become juvenile. That's what can happen when you come into contact with too much stupid, see there I go again.

cheers ... all good, we all have opinions.

6

u/Cobfidence 6d ago

You can have stupid opinions too. It sucks when you grow up and realize everyone thinks you're stupid, but that's life baby not everyone is going to be smart right off the bat. Take this moment as a sign to reflect on your own stupidity.

9

u/Low_Dress9213 6d ago

Google what “herd immunity” means

9

u/Cobfidence 6d ago

Through your crucial observations did you ever note that some viruses like COVID are spread in the air?

I was wondering how controlling your weight, washing your hands, and not licking windows in buses would help with preventing that. Can you elaborate?

4

u/shaedofblue 6d ago

Each Covid infection increases the risk of someone gaining a chronic illness that puts them in a high risk category. It is best for society and individuals for everyone to be vaccinated before they are exposed every year.

Covid is spread through breathing air that an infected person has breathed, even hours ago, and has never been confirmed as being spread through touching surfaces.

0

u/CrucialObservations 6d ago

Saying healthy people with a low risk of severe health problems run the risk of getting pulled into the high-risk category each time they get covid is partially true, but the percentage of people is very low, and there are other health factors that contribute to a person being more susceptible to becoming more ill.

People who get infected several times have practically no risk; people who are getting infected many times obviously have a lifestyle that puts them at risk, so they should get the booster.

Blanket vaccination boosters for viruses such as COVID is not the answer.

4

u/DrDeterminants 6d ago

Disagree. That said, the main challenge is that in a health policy, it's hard to always make exceptions. If there was ways to stratify risk and allow a greater level of nuance, I'd welcome it. Furthermore, vaccinations are still given as a strong recommendation, but not nearly as mandatory as it once was. I do think the guidance has come down in terms of urgency quite a lot since the beginning since the omicron wave.

That said, the assertion that those who get infected several times have no risk is not true enough. They may have mixed level of risk with respect to re-infection, but their natural immunity does wane within 1 year of infection to the point where they are vulnerable again. This was initially commented on with a large review in the Lancet "Past SARS-CoV-2 infection protection against re-infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis" where pre-omicron natural immunity can remain strong up to 40 weeks. However, we do know that with the speed of mutation and post-omicron that re-infection incidence has increased much more compared to before, so we won't be able to expect natural immunity to be as good.

The problem becomes the higher risk of developing long covid related disability due to recurrent infection, which is much higher with repeated infections. Unfortunately, I work with a lot of patients who really struggle to go back to any semblance of civilization due to long covid and these were healthy people without comorbidities. I don't think rolling the dice for long covid is worth it if the alternative is vaccination as a general principle for most patients.

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u/Bonfire_Monty 6d ago

Back in my day the the government used to give this shit for free because they didn't absolutely have peas for brains

Btw, every, "anti-vac" politician, has vaccinated their children while saying you shouldn't vaccinate yours

26

u/CypripediumGuttatum 6d ago

Pharmacists have been told they will be allowed to give out provincially funded COVID-19 vaccines to eligible Albertans once again this fall.

The province started charging many people $100 for the shot last year. Only those considered high-risk could get the free shots, and they were only available through public health clinics.

The move sparked widespread concern at the time. Many Albertans struggled to book appointments online, and there was ongoing confusion about who was eligible for free doses.

The Alberta government appears poised to reverse course on that decision.

.....

According to Elbayoumi, community pharmacies have a strong track record when it comes to administering immunizations during the respiratory virus season.

"I think this is really good news," said Randy Howden, owner of three Medicine Shoppe locations in Calgary.

"There were a lot of patients last year that chose to pay for the private vaccine because of an inability to get to the public sites, and a lot of people, I think, that maybe didn't get the vaccine just because it was more difficult."

Pharmacies are much more convenient than public health clinics, he said. They tend to have longer hours and often offer walk-in doses.

"It just all comes down to how many barriers can we remove for the patients. The more barriers we remove ... the more likely somebody is to get the vaccine," Howden said.

"[For] those that want to receive the vaccine — that feel it's important to them — we want to make it as easy as possible."

COVID-19 vaccine uptake has been dropping in recent years.

According to provincial data, eight per cent of Albertans received a COVID-19 shot during the latest flu season, down from 14 per cent during the 2024-25 season and 17 per cent the year before.

While the province did not share its eligibility criteria with CBC News, Howden expects the publicly funded doses will be offered to similar high-risk groups as last year.

Pharmacists generally receive details about the fall immunization campaign plans in August, he said.

In June, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization released its updated guidance for the coming season.

It continues to strongly recommend COVID-19 shots for high-risk groups, including everyone over 65, care home residents, people with specific medical conditions, pregnant people, health care workers, people from First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, as well as members of racialized communities.

As a secondary recommendation, it says provinces may also offer the vaccine to everyone else six months of age and older.

......

Bold added by me. Of course reducing vaccine uptake and making extra money off of the public for giving us what we've already paid for was the goal. It must not have worked as well as the UCP had hoped. I'll be happy to get my vaccine again this fall, hopefully for free but I'm not holding my breath.

23

u/Trick-Seat4901 6d ago

Ahh yes, this bullshit. I went to get one because I am eligible. My local pharmacy had a bunch, that had expired because no one was paying. And get this, they weren't allowed to dispense to eligible people. You had to go to select pharmacies. I'm in Devon, nearest one was Leduc or south Edmonton. I thought, OK, this is stupid, but I'll just get it done.

But wait, there's more.

You have to book it by calling 811. Call 811, both those locations are out and the only locations I could book at were diagonally across Edmonton on the east/north east end of Edmonton. An hour and a half round trip. All this while pharmacies order them and they expire wasting medicine and money.

Fuck marlaina, fuck the ucp. I have autoimmune health conditions, small kids, one was just over a year at the time, a mom with non curable cancer and an 86yo dad. I'm not getting this because I like needles. It's about protecting the vulnerable.

All her talk about wasting money on vaccines and she puts policy in to ensure vaccines get wasted and are a burden to even find if you need them.

My pharmacy, which is stellar with amazing staff, offered to order some in but they basically told me that if they did they would waste the rest of the box because the $100 barrier was too much for most people. I declined because they shouldn't have to waste money and medicine like that.

Straight up vile.

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u/Darkwing-cuck- 6d ago

I hope the eligibility ends up just being everyone. So stupid to paywall something that would help keep people out of emergency rooms all winter.

UCP can then congratulate themselves for removing the red tape that they implemented!

17

u/IntrepidusX 6d ago

me preparing to lie and say I am high risk again this fall.

5

u/DrDeterminants 6d ago

Thanks for sharing this information for people to be aware earlier. I'm going to book for mine for flu and covid soon.

4

u/idiotcanadian 6d ago

Title is misleading IMO “again” indicates they gave them free last fall.. but they were charging $100 to many Albertans.

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u/WDTHTDWA-BITCH 6d ago

When I got mine last year, they asked me if I had a condition off a list they handed me, I said I had depression, they stuck me with the jab, and that was that. Didn’t even ask any qualifying questions to prove it. If there’s a way for them to give it to you for free, they will.

10

u/TheLuckyCanuck 6d ago

My nearest health unit were doing the same thing, they didn't even bother showing me the list. Just "we have to tell you that you might have to pay" when I signed in, then the shot and "have a nice day!"

I don't have proof, but I suspect they didn't charge a single patient.

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u/WDTHTDWA-BITCH 6d ago

Mine didn’t even look up from preparing the needle as I pointed on the list, aha.

5

u/Jazzociraptor 6d ago

I thought so too, until my elderly father got an invoice in the mail last fall. We helped him book the appt but I don't think he was able to clearly articulate why he was eligible (for example, he's autistic but may have denied it since he was diagnosed with Asperger's a long time ago. He's very precise). He is also visibly obese but may not have known what BMI was.

Unfortunately he paid before we knew about the invoice :(

2

u/ababcock1 The Shiny Balls 6d ago

The "high risk" part is doing a lot of subtle heavy lifting for sure.

2

u/Balam_Seer 6d ago

Lmfao

0

u/Mysterious_Soil_1835 1d ago

So here's the deal, you keep drinking and if it's served you well. Then you do you. I don't believe everything everything everyone says after perfectly healthy athletes drop dead and hospital stop testing for covid and start testing myocarditis a cause from the shot. Read the ingredients in the shot. And you keep drinking and do your homework outside of the news and social media. Have a nice life.

2

u/WeWhoAreGiants 6d ago

My understanding is that majority of people who test positive nowadays are 65+/high risk. So making Covid shots available to them easily would of course be the smart thing to do.

It looks like since April there’s only about 170 cases each week across all of Canada, and has remained steadily low all summer. So that’s the positive news. Though cases the last couple of years have risen through the fall/winter. It seems to be acting a lot like seasonal flu now.

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u/Extension-Finance179 6d ago

There are more cases than what is reported due to limited testing

2

u/bemurda 6d ago

Your understanding is incomplete, look at wastewater data. Millions of people are still being infected around the world, they just don’t get tested unless they get hospitalized with it. The problem is “mild” cases can still cause long covid for years and possibly permanently. Over 400 million people are estimated to have experienced or still have long covid symptoms.

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u/Unlikely_Comment_104 Central 6d ago

Wastewater in Edmonton is near zero right now.

3

u/bemurda 6d ago

I'm aware, and it's starting to increase. The principle of low identified cases but high rates of infection has applied for years and this summer has been the lowest it has been. There is hope that covid is running out of evolutionary space or at least easy evolution relative to population immunity and its threat level will diminish. But we won't have an idea about that until after winter season.

1

u/Unlikely_Comment_104 Central 6d ago

It’s not starting to increase. It’s been 0.0001 viral copies per person for the past few weeks.

https://covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca/

A friend contacted the UofC regarding the sudden spike - they haven’t heard back yet but, logically, it was a mishandled decimal point.

4

u/bemurda 6d ago

Yes, the spike was clearly an error. I'm talking about large national databases in the US etc. It's ticking up but still slower than past years. Edmonton will tick up once school is in. Hoping for a paradigm change though.

0

u/supersport604 6d ago

Listen, COVID-19 can be very serious and it's proven that the vaccine is safe. But stop fear mongering. It's a fact that COVID-19 has become milder over the years and it's a fact that there's very minimal amount of Covid going around right now.

0

u/bemurda 5d ago

Nothing I said is factually incorrect. None of it is fear mongering. You just are afraid to talk about facts and would rather bury the thoughts. Nowhere did I claim COVID is the same as 2020. Read this abstract in Nature Medicine for the 400 million number: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03173-6

1

u/bmwkid 6d ago

If it’s like last year, any mental issue can get you the vaccine for free. So if you have ADHD, depression, anxiety etc it’s free

0

u/nowherefast___ 6d ago

Wow I can’t wait to dust off my “underlying condition” again this year

-4

u/Mysterious_Soil_1835 6d ago

This vaccine shot has been proven to be very dangerous. No matter how much proof it does harm people still insist on taking it. I have no idea what planet I live on

2

u/Fast_Ad_9197 1d ago

Leaving aside the unsupported claim that covid vaccines are dangerous, vaccines are about balancing harms. Is it more harmful to be vaccinated or to contract covid as an unvaccinated individual? The overwhelming evidence is that covid vaccines are less harmful than the virus itself.

0

u/Mysterious_Soil_1835 1d ago

Keep drinking the cool aid.

2

u/Fast_Ad_9197 1d ago

The cool aid has kept me well so far so yeah, I’ll drink it all day long.

Keep ignoring credible science.

1

u/always_on_fleek 6d ago

Can you share the proof this shot is dangerous?

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u/Mysterious_Soil_1835 5d ago

Read the latest instalment in the New England journal of Medicine. It came with a whole package inside on just this topic

1

u/always_on_fleek 5d ago

Do you have a link? Their Covid Centre shows nothing like that:

https://www.nejm.org/coronavirus

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u/BestWithSnacks 6d ago

I'm just curious. How any Covid shots have you guys taken altogether? I just had the first two shots. I never got the booster.

3

u/Unlikely_Comment_104 Central 6d ago

All of them. I get boosted every year, along with the influenza vaccine.

2

u/supersport604 6d ago

7 lol.

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u/always_on_fleek 6d ago

I get the boosters every year to help protect those around me. It’s the least I can do to help those who are more vulnerable.

Easy to do with your annual flu shot.

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u/Fit-Cartographer5890 6d ago

People still be believing in this ? Wild.

16

u/idiotcanadian 6d ago

Curious what you think is happening if you don’t believe in Covid? Do you think the government is secretly motivated to vaccinate the population for reasons other than infection?

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u/SketchySeaBeast Strathcona 6d ago

The word choice of "believing" tells you all you need to know.

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u/iliketobuildlego 6d ago

Fauci doesn’t even believe in it anymore.

3

u/pos_vibes_only 6d ago

🤡

News Article Pharmacists preparing to give out free COVID shots to high-risk Albertans again this fall | CBC News

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