Jeremy writes:
Dr Griffin
Thanks for your great podcast. Do you think it is safe to reuse clean N95 masks if they are set aside for a few weeks in a bag? Thanks
Jeremy
Rebecca writes:
Dear Dr. Griffin,
My 18-yr-old vaccinated daughter got Covid in mid September and was very sick for about 8 days. She had a gradual recovery. But about 6 or 7 weeks later, when the weather started to turn quite cold here in Ohio, she suddenly developed cold urticaria: really terrible hives breaking out wherever her skin is exposed to the cold. She also seems to have developed other skin rashes and eczema-like symptoms. Have you seen anything like this in your post-Covid or long-Covid patients?
Thanks — I listen to your updates almost every week and you continue to be my main source of info for Covid and flu.
Sincerely,
Rebecca
Dave writes:
Hi Dr Griffin,
I’m a CVS pharmacist (but not an official representative of the company and don’t speak for them) so I can clarify how the paxlovid prescribing is being handled.
First, you take an at home test. If that is positive. You can go to CVS’s website and click on the section to schedule a covid 19 test. From there you can scroll down to treatment and make an appt for Paxlovid. All of those appts are handled via phone call and we have to be able to find recent kidney function test in Epic somehow (I’m still not quite sure how that part works). If you qualify for a paxlovid prescription, we send the prescription to ourself and you can pick it up thru the drive thru (or have a friend/family member come inside to pick it up). It does cost approximately $60 for the appt, and that’s not paid by insurance, as far as I know. I think most pharmacists are glad our scope of practice is expanding to be able to help do this, but we are pleading with people to understand that our computer system will allow up to 4 paxlovid appts per hour, in addition to up to 8 vaccine appts per hour, as well as our normal job duties including but not limited to filling anywhere between 500 and 1000 prescriptions (or more) per day, with very little staffing, so please be patient with us.
Hope that helps,
Dave
PharmD
Kevin writes:
Dr Griffin,
In Ontario, the Moderna multi-valent booster used targets BA.1. The Moderna BA.4/5 targeted version isn’t approved here.
The Pfizer multi-valent booster targets BA4/5 and is approved in Ontario.
I imagine that was why the doctor in question was recommending Pfizer over Moderna.
It’s a question of interest to me, since I got the Moderna BA.1 booster in October.
Just an FYI.
Thanks for your TWiV clinical updates.
Kevin
Fort Frances, Ontario,
Canada.