Happy new year: I collected my 0.3 milliliters of the monovalent XBB.1.5-targeted booster shot – either Pfizer or Moderna, I can’t remember – on Dec. 20th, one month after contracting a nasty cough and fever over Thanksgiving for which I tested COVID-negative. It’s a great time to get vaccinated.
Live conversation, which I engage in more these first three boosted months of the year, can be so expositive. Someone I talked to suspects a sore neck one day was a side effect from their late-December jab, which prompted me to pull up a San Francisco Chronicle Novavax news item I thought nothing of at first. Knowing this alternative exists, my friend told me, “makes it more likely I’ll get the annual shot.”
Amplifying this information may block my prospects as a future Pfizer or Moderna “in-house journalist.” But I’m taking a faith-leap and featuring two items about the alternative vaccine made by Novavax corporation.
Also included in this brief issue are two sections on advertising.
🎁 = Free “gift” link bypasses subscription paywalls
🗄️ = Repeat item
Contents:
Alt-Vax Novovax
Advertisements During American Football Broadcasts
COVID News Business in 2023
A Method to Organize Long COVID Stories
Alt-Vax Novavax
🎁 Dec 07 2023 Is Novavax, the latecomer vaccine against COVID-19, worth the wait? | The protein-based shot seems to have fewer side effects than mRNA types from Pfizer and Moderna. But has it come too late? (San Francisco Chronicle) - “A testament to this season’s struggle to get vaccinated is that at least one do-gooder has created an online tool to find open appointments for Novavax. Buoyed by anecdotes of relief from others with long COVID, Hayley Brown, a researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research who has the condition, opted for Novavax recently. Unfortunately, her symptoms have flared. She said a temporary discomfort will still be preferable to risking another infection.”
Nov 15 2023 The Moon Shot (Vanity Fair) - “The Warp Speed team’s first task was to decide which vaccines to support. A meeting to discuss the issue quickly bogged down in arguments, with [Deborah] Birx in particular continuing to raise objections about mRNA, according to several participants…” Moncef Slaoui “announced that they were going to hedge their risks by supporting three different vaccine development platforms: mRNA; viral vector vaccines, which use a modified version of a different virus to deliver instructions to peoples cells; and protein subunit vaccines, which contain pieces of the problematic virus along with another ingredient that helps the immune system respond to that virus. He then told the others which companies Warp Speed would be supporting: Moderna and Pfizer which had cut a deal to partner with BioNTechfor the mRNA platform; Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and AstraZeneca for the viral vector vaccine; and Novavax and Sanofi for the spike protein platform.”
My medical insurance only covered Moderna and/or Pfizer, to which I had no objection.
Advertisements During American Football Broadcasts
People really care about news3. And the COVID news business went through some turbulence last year. To ease into 2024, I’m highlighting this item from the world that funds news: advertising.
Featured below is a dilatable media-literacy2 story. This type of covertly-targeted ad now served by Amazon corporation during American football1 games – like the humiliating Christmas-day 2023 game when the Baltimore Ravens demonstrated no understanding of the meaning of Christmas and achieved four pass-interceptions4 against the San Francisco 49ers5 – has traditionally been called a dark ad. But is “slot-splitting” an example of a dark ad technique?
Maybe it is.
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