Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

BillyGr
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 18th, 2023, 7:56 pm When the vaccine first came out the corporate office would punish pharmacies for wasting even a single dose of COVID vaccine. It was awful. You had to make sure all the doses were used by the end of the day rather than expire. You would end up begging people to get the vaccine.
There is some logic to that, or at least was at that point in time. When there were many people trying to get one, and some were booking an appointment to do so that was weeks into the future, it makes sense to at least ask those who are in the store for something if they might be interested, as you are more likely to find someone who has an appointment a month away that is happy to get it today instead, rather than having something in such limited supply go to waste while people are wanting it but can't get it quickly enough.
One the initial demand was filled, then it became more of an issue, and should have reverted to simply making people aware that they could get it but not having to try and use it if no one was interested.
storewanderer wrote: February 19th, 2023, 10:53 am What I have seen is the problem is people who have the COVID Vaccine during 2022 were constantly getting COVID the same way other people who have no vaccine were. I am regularly around people with a vaccine and people without any vaccine. People from both groups have had COVID multiple times and there was little to no difference in their experiences.
The question with that (which is probably impossible to answer) is what would have happened to the people who took it if they had not.
Given that at any time (no matter which version was going around at that point), two people could catch it and one would be very sick (maybe even die from it), while the other wouldn't even know they had it unless they were tested (due to needing that for something), it seems very difficult to know if those who did get a vaccine and had similar symptoms to someone else who didn't get one would have had the same reaction without the vaccine, or if they would have instead wound up in the far more serious category.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: February 19th, 2023, 12:20 pm
storewanderer wrote: February 19th, 2023, 10:53 am What I have seen is the problem is people who have the COVID Vaccine during 2022 were constantly getting COVID the same way other people who have no vaccine were. I am regularly around people with a vaccine and people without any vaccine. People from both groups have had COVID multiple times and there was little to no difference in their experiences.
The question with that (which is probably impossible to answer) is what would have happened to the people who took it if they had not.
Given that at any time (no matter which version was going around at that point), two people could catch it and one would be very sick (maybe even die from it), while the other wouldn't even know they had it unless they were tested (due to needing that for something), it seems very difficult to know if those who did get a vaccine and had similar symptoms to someone else who didn't get one would have had the same reaction without the vaccine, or if they would have instead wound up in the far more serious category.
Broadly speaking this is the whole challenge with everything health care. For instance with a 100% vaccine rate, would COVID have been eradicated in 2021? We will never know. It seems like mentally most people have moved on from COVID. Even if someone is sick lately, suggesting they do a COVID test, I am just getting laughed at. These are people from every group- 2 vaccines, 3-5x boosted, and no vaccine. I don't really understand, lots of tests are sitting around, they don't even have to go buy the tests.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by veteran+ »

Most people forget the most important part of all this.

Time and mutation.

Death amongst the unvaccinated vs death amongst the FULLY vaccinated.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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veteran+ wrote: February 19th, 2023, 12:35 pm Most people forget the most important part of all this.

Time and mutation.

Death amongst the unvaccinated vs death amongst the FULLY vaccinated.
The numbers are also somewhat muddy at this point based on percentages. For instance some reports I can go read are saying it is all unvaccinated dying of COVID. That is simply not true. On the other end of the spectrum I can go find reports that say the death count is higher among vaccinated than unvaccinated in (insert country name with a 70%= vaccination rate here). Of course the "death count" is higher when the "count of vaccinated people" is much higher... what about percentages?

The bottom line is people need to do what they see fit to protect themselves and watch out for themselves. If someone is visibly sick, they should not be working around others and they need to stay away from others. And people need to stay away from them. Since early January, I had someone who was really sick, could not stop coughing, completely congested and just seemed out of it, no sore throat, tired (5x boosted so insisted it wasn't COVID and wouldn't take a COVID test). 2 weeks in due to the coughing not stopping, went to an urgent care, were given a COVID test there that came back negative, and was told they had RSV, and were no longer contagious. After that since they were "no longer contagious" they no longer kept their distance from people. 3-4 other people they were around became sick the following week with the exact same symptoms but got rid of the symptoms within 5-7 days (combination of no COVID vaccine and 2x COVID vaccine in that group), meanwhile the first one with the RSV asserted the whole time "the doctor said I wasn't contagious so none of you got this from me."

Still doesn't make any excuse for the topic that started this discussion. Rite Aid screwed up not blocking off the appointment slots.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

At the beginning of the pandemic a small percentage of people got really sick and died from COVID. Some people react severely to COVID. After 3 years the weakest and most vulnerable have either died or gotten vaccinated. So now we have the survival of the fittest.

These days everyone is either immune to some extent or vaccinated. Everyone is about equal with regard to immunity.

Now COVID is less fatal due to the levels of immunity that most people have obtained.

Are vaccinations necessary now? Since everyone either caught COVID or has been boosted, perhaps it is no longer necessary. Maybe a once a year booster is enough. Or perhaps immunity may last several years.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2023, 6:25 pm At the beginning of the pandemic a small percentage of people got really sick and died from COVID. Some people react severely to COVID. After 3 years the weakest and most vulnerable have either died or gotten vaccinated. So now we have the survival of the fittest.

These days everyone is either immune to some extent or vaccinated. Everyone is about equal with regard to immunity.

Now COVID is less fatal due to the levels of immunity that most people have obtained.

Are vaccinations necessary now? Since everyone either caught COVID or has been boosted, perhaps it is no longer necessary. Maybe a once a year booster is enough. Or perhaps immunity may last several years.
I think the other big issue at the beginning of the pandemic was since it was so new and there were a lot of moving parts that in some cases the treatments being utilized were not always the best treatments but they were the best available treatment at the time per treatment protocols. I don't hear people are getting hooked up to ventilators anymore then dying, not sure what they are doing now to treat COVID that is different that prevents that from happening, or if the current versions of the virus simply don't cause the same issues that were calling for that treatment before. I read recently about 500 people per day are still dying in the US of COVID.

I'd like to say we learned something from the COVID period but I am not really sure.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

These days we have Paxlovid pills to treat COVID. Doctors are prescribing it like crazy to anyone that even thinks they have COVID. Some doctors even write prescriptions for patients to save for future use.

Once you feel sick these days doctors push people to take Paxlovid. From my experience most of my customers say it makes everything they eat taste terrible.

Pharmacies are filling many prescriptions for Paxlovid. Luckily insurances are covering it free of charge to customers. However, uninsured customers are also going to pharmacies to pickup Paxlovid. Pharmacies are forced by the government to provide the medication free of charge to the uninsured. So the pharmacy loses money on filling Paxlovid prescriptions for the uninsured.

Paxlovid prevents people from getting severely sick from COVID. However, many people are still dying from COVID in China. The Chinese vaccines don't work as well. Some say that after 3 months people who received the Chinese vaccine had no antibodies to COVID in their blood.

My pharmacist coworker said people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for Paxlovid smuggled into China. China still has high death rates for COVID where people have never caught COVID and where you have a difficult time trying to get Paxlovid.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2023, 6:25 pm Are vaccinations necessary now? Since everyone either caught COVID or has been boosted, perhaps it is no longer necessary. Maybe a once a year booster is enough. Or perhaps immunity may last several years.
Not sure that everyone is - for instance, a couple of us here just had it in January, and as far as I know that was the first time we ever had it. We also had boosters, but not since the end of 2021 (just never got to doing one after that with other things going on).
Alpha8472 wrote: February 20th, 2023, 11:22 pm These days we have Paxlovid pills to treat COVID. Doctors are prescribing it like crazy to anyone that even thinks they have COVID. Some doctors even write prescriptions for patients to save for future use.

Once you feel sick these days doctors push people to take Paxlovid. From my experience most of my customers say it makes everything they eat taste terrible.
That also must depend on the doctor - in the case I mention above, my Mom did get something (the name they gave was remdesivir, not sure if that is different or just the generic vs brand name thing) as she wound up in the hospital and had some more serious symptoms (but nothing that some oxygen through a tube wouldn't solve).
When mine hit a few days later, after contacting the doctor they said that what I was reporting sounded mild enough that they wouldn't prescribe anything, as the side effects from that would probably be worse than what the virus itself was causing.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

Remdesivir is not used anymore. They switched to Paxlovid pills which are the best these days. It is very effective and keeps people from going on ventilators.
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Re: Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

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Alpha8472 wrote: February 21st, 2023, 4:14 pm Remdesivir is not used anymore. They switched to Paxlovid pills which are the best these days. It is very effective and keeps people from going on ventilators.
Well, that is what the HOSPITAL stated, so I think they should know what they are providing?
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