FFS Friday- FDA, blink twice if you are in trouble

Actually, don’t bother blinking.

We in healthcare KNOW that you are in trouble. As you have a bad case of the know nothings in charge of you and your vaccines and your medications.

Some of the Senators could have helped you out but they were too busy bending the knee to a wannabe fascist who is hell bent on wringing all the money they can out of their shitty decisions and actions.

You see, they are in their villain phase.

Where the only thing that matters is the green.

Of course, I write of money, moola, dough, loot, and bucks.

They are too busy stealing from us that they think that making us sick by not extending Affordable Care Act credits for those who need help with the astronomically skyrocketing costs of insurance, shields what they are doing by providing cover fire.

Forget bread and circuses, this administration is about social media lies and villainy.

Why? Because to be the lowest level they can be feels GOOD. To them at least. I would have sent myself to bed without dinner if I acted like they do. Lives are not their playthings. Did no one teach them manners as children? Or even ever told them no?

Today’s latest bullshit is a waving of a “possible” black box warning on the covid vaccine.

Yeah, that one.

The one that has saved millions and millions and millions of lives.

Worldwide.

This black box warning will be slapped on the life saving, lung saving, world saving vaccine by the end of the year, according to reports from CNBC and Reuters and CNN and other news sites.

I think this is a distraction. Of course all the news is covering it.

Of course all the healthcare workers, MDs, RNs, LPNs, CNAs, PAs, and the like are decrying it.

If true, this is big black coal letters the size of Mt. Everest BAD.

This kind of bullshit pulls the wool over the eyes of the people who don’t know any better.

And makes them doubt ALL the vaccines.

Makes them doubt healthcare.

Makes them doubt medicine.

Takes us back to when we were smashing rocks against other rocks and against each other.

I am not sure of their endgame, besides confusion, and lining their own pockets and those of their billionaire handlers.

Or are they spoiled brats who are gleefully pulling the stuffing out of America?

After all, weakening us makes us prey.

Well, I don’t feel like acting like prey. Wanna see my teeth?

We tried to warn you but you didn’t listen.

Tuesday Top of Mind 11/25/25- Just a little prick

Yes, there are multiple meaning to the phrase. No I didn’t click all the links that were shown. Be careful looking up stuff on the internet.

But it does include the time on South Park in 2019 that Cartman didn’t want to get his vaccination shot. Which leads to him almost being thrown out of school (remember those days?), and he uses this to negotiate the exclusive use of the volleyball for the next six months.

Of course, he escapes the doctor trying to give him his shots. Again.

Why do people hate shots and vaccinations?

25% of [ep[;e are terrified of the needles.

Some people are afraid of the pain.

I’ve had many, many, many, many, many vaccines and I can tell you my experience.

Many.

In fact the last 2 I got were the Shingles second shot in October, and the flu shot in October.

Let’s talk about the fear of needles. While tatted with full sleeves and choker.

Sometimes it is an irrational fear.

Sometimes it does hurt.

But the hurt always goes away. The hurt is cause by the inflammation of the immune system response to what it thinks as an invader.

The hurt is a good thing. It means that the immune system is activated and will learn the often inactive microbe that was in the vaccine.

When I was giving covid vaccine shots in 2020 and 2021 many people were afraid of the needle.

But they still rolled up their sleeves.

Often I would administer the shot and the patient would ask when would I give the shot. Only to be amazed that it was already done. For the very fearful, I advised them to close their eyes.

These vaccine clinics often led to the how much is it going to hurt question.

Fair enough question.

I would engage in conversation with these people and ask them if they had ever had a tetanus shot, specifically the Tdap, or a flu shot. When they indicated they had, I would tell them that the covid shot hurt less than the tetanus shot and more than a flu shot. With a point of reference, they would nod and allow me to administer the hot.

There is another reason for mentioning the Tdap.

Babies are dying.

According to an article from CIDRAP from the University of Michigan, three infants have died of pertussis aka whooping cough in Kentucky. They were not vaccinated. This is the loss of herd immunity as overall vaccination rates are 90%, well under the herd immunity threshold of 95%.

There have been 2 dead babies in Texas. For the same reason.

The first thing I looked for in the X location transparency that dropped this week was the location of anti-vaxxer bots.

Okay, first I giggled and then I looked.

There wasn’t a lot of information. Most of it was around the bots in the red hats. There were some bots in blue hats. All are to blame here. But the red hatted bots WAY outnumbered the blue hatted bots and from such interesting locations as Asia and African countries.

This 99% accuracy as touted by X is stunning.

But, like most things these days, take with a grain of salt.

But babies are dying because of the inaction of their parents and doctors, fueled by lies from the department of health and human services secretary. They have a new accomplice in the CDC. Which takes vaccine providers to task by not being able to prove a negative.

But babies are dying and will continue to die because of misinformation and lies that have been passed down like grandmothers’ wedding china.

Just like women who are continuing to die under draconian anti abortion laws.

This is nothing to laugh at.

After all, a vaccination is just a little prick.

Tuesday Top of Mind 9/2/25- Kudos to the pediatricians out there denying the DHHS over the covid boosters for children or why covid is still trying to kill you

I will be frank- Covid is still circulating and still killing people, including children. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) 194 people died of covid weekly in August 2025. Of course this number is highly suspect as many states stopped reporting covid deaths. I suspect that the true number is higher.

To many people, covid is dead and none of the protections need to happen anymore.

Vaccine? Yeah, I got one three years ago and then I stopped getting them.

Yeah, I got covid four times last year but I’m okay.

Other people are not okay after getting covid-19.

To think that covid no longer affects the US or you is highly privileged. This means it hasn’t affected you personally YET.

I think that a lot of the conversations about covid are missing the qualifier “YET”.

I think you mean to say that covid hasn’t given you long covid symptoms YET. I think you mean to say that you got the first vaccine series and don’t think you can get covid YET. I think you mean to say that covid hasn’t impacted or killed your child YET.

See how easy that was?

The CDC finally came out with its covid recommendations in the beginning of June. The recommendations are for adults 18-65 to have an optional covid vaccine but for those over 65 it is highly recommended. They said that they were not recommending the covid vaccine to children or to pregnant women.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said “Bet” and did not change their vaccine recommendations to reflect what the CDC says. The AAP recommends the covid vaccine to children over the age of 6 months. In order to decrease the likelihood of serious illness and covid complications.

Because, and I cannot shout this enough, covid is still out there and still killing.

The most current FDA recommendation is that adults greater than 65 years of age continue to get the vaccine. The vaccine is not recommended for anyone under the age of 65 unless you have one medical condition that puts them at higher risk of a serious covid complication.

But, Kate, that is awfully vague, what kind of medical conditions?

The list I pulled from the FDA website was cancer, obesity defined as BMI greater than or equal to 20, or greater than the 95th percentile in children, diabetes I and diabetes II, asthma, cerebral vascular disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, chronic liver disease, cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, mental health conditions, dementia and Parkinson’s, physical inactivity, pregnancy, smokers current and former, TB, those who have had a solid organ or stem cell transplant, use of corticosteroids such as prednisone, and being unvaccinated or not up to date on your vaccinations (interesting). This is not an exhaustive list.

The point is you are going to have to fight and justify your need for the covid vaccine if you under 65. If you can find one, if you can afford it. But that’s an issue for another day.

I think they are playing Russian roulette with people’s lives. Especially children who are still growing and don’t have the mature respiratory system.

Tuesday Top of Mind 6/10/25- It’s okay to lie to the Senate under oath, I guess. Noted.

This headline can mean so many, many things and so many, many lies. <Cough cough> Brett Cavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett Neil Gorsuch and the settled law of Roe v Wade. <Cough cough> Michael Cohen and the plans to build a Trump tower in Moscow. <Cough cough> W. Samuel Patten and the little matter of being a foreign agent.

Man, I should really see someone about that cough.

But I will not see RFK Jr. as he is the latest one to outright lie in order to get confirmation.

He told the Senate that he would leave in place the vaccine advisory panel at DHHS. This is a board made up of outside experts on illnesses that can be mitigated by vaccines. You know, people who have been working for literal YEARS in the fight against illnesses that we have a vaccine for.

By this firing and attempting to ram in the anti vaccine zealots and toadies in their place, RFK has come out soundly against science.

Well, we knew that.

He says that to re-establish faith in vaccines this is a step that must be taken. Collectively the entire research community rolled their eyes so hard they could see their very big brains.

Um, dude, the person who broke the faith in vaccines was you. Just you. Also anyone who professed anti vaccine rhetoric for the ‘gram and for the views. And for the money that thrown at them.

It is always the money. The money and the power.

The call is coming from inside the house. And we should all be afraid.

The kicker is we warned you. And warned you. And warned you. We did everything except sky writing. But since we aren’t pretty blond trad wives we were ignored.

People are gonna die. I feel like I say that all the time. Let me check real fast the last several months/years of Tuesday Top of Mind.

Yes, I say it all the time and no one is listening.

Are you paying attention yet?

Covid 4 years later

March 11, 2020, was the date that the WHO declared covid-19 a pandemic. I remember where I was; do you?

It was Wednesday and I was on shift. The lockdowns were not to start for over 2 weeks, the operating room schedule was normal. Little did we know what was to come.

I could not let this day go unrecognized.

So much has happened in the past 4 years. People have died and continue to die of covid. Long covid is the boogieman underneath the bed for many people. Symptoms can last for years. We are continuing to learn how dangerous long covid is and, really, how dangerous covid is. The virus attacks many systems: heart, lung, liver, brain. It can also cause extreme fatigue. I mean the kind of fatigue that makes life unbearable and very hard to survive. There are reports of long covid around the world.

And the world shrugs.

Conflating covid with the flu is dangerous. One is more virulent than the other.

And the world shrugs.

Vaccines and updates to vaccines are ready and willing to go into arms. According to a March 8, 2024 report from the CDC, the population reporting having the updated 2023-2024 vaccine is THIRTEEN POINT FIVE.

And the world shrugs.