Don't have health insurance for an updated COVID-19 vaccine? Here's how to get one free

BrandPoint - While COVID-19 activity is still below the levels seen last year at this time, COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly. There is still time to get yourself and your loved ones vaccinated. Getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to stay protected against serious illness from COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months and older stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccination also lowers your risk of getting long COVID - a wide range of health problems that can last weeks, months or even years after COVID-19 infection.

Most adults can get a free updated COVID-19 vaccine through their private health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid plans. However, some health insurance plans don't fully cover the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine, and an estimated 25-30 million people living in the U.S. don't have health insurance.

To address this concern, CDC's Bridge Access Program is offering adults who are uninsured or whose insurance doesn't fully cover COVID-19 vaccination a free, updated COVID-19 vaccine. This program will end by Dec. 31, 2024. To date, more than a million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided through the program.

Bridge Access Program

There is no enrollment process or application to qualify, and you don't need to provide identification or proof of insurance to get a vaccine through the Bridge Access Program. If you are 18 years or older and don't have health insurance, or your plan doesn't fully cover an updated COVID-19 vaccine, the Bridge Access Program can provide one for free at participating CVS, Walgreens and eTrueNorth-partnering pharmacies, local health centers and health providers.

How to find a vaccine through the Bridge Access Program

Follow these steps to find pharmacies and health care providers participating in the Bridge Access Program near you:

* Visit Vaccines.gov.

* Select "Find COVID-19 Vaccines."

* Enter your 5-digit ZIP code in the search bar and select which vaccine option(s) you're interested in finding.

* Select "Search for COVID-19 Vaccines."

* Select the option "Bridge Access Program Participant" to show participating providers and pharmacies.

When you find a convenient location, call ahead to confirm that they can provide you with a free updated COVID-19 vaccine through the Bridge Access Program. If you can't find a participating pharmacy or provider near you, check back later because new locations are still being added.

Why get vaccinated now?

Viruses constantly change through mutation and sometimes these mutations result in a new strain (or variant) of the virus. It's important to know that the updated COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against the variants spreading throughout our communities right now.

The cold winter months are a time when people spend more time in crowded indoor settings, where respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, may be more readily transmitted. Getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine will help protect you from serious illness.

Don't let cost stop you from getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine this year. Free COVID-19 vaccines are still available. If you are uninsured or your plan won't fully cover it, visit Vaccines.gov today to find a Bridge Access Program provider near you.

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Don't have a standby generator yet? Here are 6 things you will want to know before you buy

Brandpoint - Every day on the news, it seems, there's a report about another extreme weather event. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2023 was a record year for extreme weather. The U.S. experienced 28 separate, billion-dollar weather disasters last year, the highest number ever. That averages out to more than one every two weeks.

Last week, the NWS Storm Prediction Center issued a warning that severe storms capable of damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes are on tap for tomorrow. The affected area stretches from the Ozarks into the Lower Great Lakes.

Widespread power outages, like this one expected to roll through central Illinois on Tuesday evening, are one of the byproducts of these mega-storms, but it doesn't take a once-in-a-century flood to cause them. Blackouts happen regularly due to more "mundane" causes, like power grid glitches, ice storms or high winds, even lightning in a garden-variety thunderstorm taking out a power pole. And you're left in the dark. Depending on the severity of the outage, that darkness could last awhile.

Remember that storm that produced nearly 80mph windspeeds passed through the area last June? In its wake, the storm left over 28,000 homes without power in Champaign County and more 170,000 homes in Ameren's service area.

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A branch from a large tree was peeled away from the trunk by strong winds last June near a condo at the corner Broadway and Vermont in Urbana.

Sentinel photo

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When the power goes out in your home, so does the heat. And the internet. And the electricity needed to keep food at a safe temperature in the refrigerator. All of your "smart" electronics and appliances that talk to each other (and to you) go silent.

Owning a standby generator is the best way to keep your household humming during a power outage. Because of all of the extreme weather we've been experiencing, it's moving from the nice-to-have category into a necessity. Here's what you need to know before buying one.

A standby generator is different than a portable generator. Most people are familiar with the type of bulky generators their fathers kept in the garage, noisy contraptions that needed to be hooked up to cough to life when the power went out. You could run the refrigerator or a space heater, but not both. We've come a long way since then. A standby generator is a back-up electrical system that kicks in automatically when the power goes out. These sleek, permanently installed units are a bit like having a power plant on reserve. Some models are able to power the electricity to your entire home. The switchover from the power grid to your generator is completely automatic and usually so seamless, homeowners don't even notice a disruption.

You must own your home to install a standby generator. Standby generators are permanently installed outside of your home — just like an AC unit or solar panel system — and routed to your home’s electrical and gas systems. For this reason, you must own the property your generator will power.

The type of home matters. A condo or apartment, even if you own it, isn't conducive to having a generator. If you live in a townhome complex, consult your community’s by-laws before purchasing a generator. Typically, single-family and fixed mobile homes are qualified for generator installation.

Research any necessary permits before you install. Typically, your generator will be installed alongside your home’s exterior in a discrete area, but it is still considered a modification to your home’s appearance. This means you’ll likely require approval, and perhaps permits, prior to installation if you live in a community regulated by an HOA or other governing board.

Consider your home's power needs ... and your own. Do you want to power your entire home during an outage, or can you get by with only select appliances or systems running? Analyze your home’s electrical load and your power priorities. This will help you determine potential generator models to choose from. Some are equipped to power your entire home, while others are better for powering the necessities.

Not all generators are created equal. You can find any number of generators on the market today with just a few mouse clicks online. But this is your family's safety and well-being in a potential disaster we're talking about. It's not the time to take chances on an untested product or company. Go with a trusted name in the industry you can count on to keep your household running. KOHLER generators have been on the market for over 100 years and each model has endured hundreds of performance tests to ensure total reliability. They're built with commercial-grade engines designed to outlast the outage. And they use state-of-the-art technology so you can monitor it on your mobile device or computer.

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Photo provided

In addition to providing dependable electrical service in an emergency, standby generators increase the intrinsic value of the home and property on the real estate market.

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When a power outage strikes, a standby generator ensures that your family won't miss a beat. Want to learn more? Visit KOHLERhomeenergy.com for more information.

Commentary |With Beyoncé’s foray into country music, the genre may finally break free from the stereotypes that has dogged it

by William Nash
Professor of American Studies and English and American Literatures, Middlebury

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On Super Bowl Sunday, Beyoncé released two country songs – “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em” – that elicited a mix of admiration and indignation.

This is not her first foray into the genre, but it is her most successful and controversial entry. As of last week, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to have a No. 1 song on the country charts. At the same time, country music stations like KYKC in Oklahoma initially refused to play the record because it was “not country.”

Tibor Janosi Mozes/Pixabay

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Many non-listeners stereotype country music as being white, politically conservative, militantly patriotic and rural. And you can certainly find artists and songs that fit that bill.

But the story of country has always been more complicated, and debates about race and authenticity in country are nothing new; they’ve plagued country artists, record companies and listeners for over a century.

As someone who researches and teaches Black culture and country music, I hope that Beyoncé’s huge profile will change the terms of this debate.

To me, Beyoncé’s Blackness is not the major bone of contention here.

Instead, the controversy is about her “countryness,” and whether a pop star can authentically cross from one genre to the next. Lucky for Beyoncé, it’s been done plenty of times before. And her songs are arriving at a time when more and more Black musicians are charting country hits.

Cross-racial collaboration

Americans have long viewed country music – or, as it was known before World War II, hillbilly music – as largely the purview of white musicians. This is partly by design. The “hillbilly” category was initially created as a counterpart to the “race records” aimed at Black audiences from the 1920s to the 1940s.

But from the start, the genre has been influenced by Black musical styles and performances.

White country music superstars like The Carter Family and Hank Williams learned tunes and techniques from Black musicians Lesley Riddle and Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne, respectively. Unfortunately, few recordings of Black country artists from the early 20th century exist, and most of those who did record had their racial identity masked.

Johnny Cash’s mentor, Gus Cannon, proves a rare exception. Cannon recorded in the 1920s with his jug band, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, and he had a second wave of success during the folk revival of the 1960s.

Similarly, the genre has always included a mix of Anglo-American and Black American musical instruments. The banjo, for instance, has African roots and was brought to America by enslaved people.

In the case of “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which begins with a lively banjo riff, Beyoncé has partnered with Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning MacArthur Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, America’s foremost contemporary Black banjoist and banjo scholar. (I would argue that this choice alone undercuts objections about the track’s country bona fides.)

Different tacks to navigate race

By releasing these tracks, Beyoncé joins performers like Charley Pride and Mickey Guyton – country stars whose success has forced them to confront questions about the links between their racial and musical identities.

Pride, whose hits include “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’,” “Just Between You and Me” and “Is Anybody Going to San Antone?,” became, in 1971, the first Black American to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award. In 2000, he was the first Black American inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

But throughout his career, Pride resisted attempts to emphasize his Blackness. From his 1971 hit “I’m Just Me” to his 2014 refusal to discuss his racial “firsts” with a Canadian talk show host, Pride consistently strove to be seen as a country artist who happened to be Black, rather than as a country musician whose Blackness was central to his public persona and work.

At the other end of the spectrum is Guyton, who gained recognition and acclaim for songs like her 2020 hit “Black Like Me” – a frank, heartfelt commentary on the challenges she’s faced as a Black woman pursuing a career in Nashville, Tennessee.

Both Pride and Guyton reflect the zeitgeists of their respective decades. In the wake of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Pride’s “colorblind” approach enabled him to circumvent existing racial tensions. He chose his material with an eye toward averting controversy – for example, he eschewed love ballads, lest they be understood as promoting interracial relationships. At the start of his career, when his music was released without artist photos, Pride made jokes about his “permanent tan” to put surprised white concertgoers at ease.

Guyton’s work, on the other hand, resonated with the national outrage over the murder of George Floyd and tapped into the celebration of Black empowerment that was part of the ethos of Black Lives Matter.

And yet I cannot think of another Black musical artist with Beyoncé’s cultural cache who has taken up country music.

Some might argue that Ray Charles, whose groundbreaking 1962 album, “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,” brought legions of new listeners to country artists, is a forerunner of Beyoncé’s in this regard.

Without diminishing Charles’ significance, I expect that Beyoncé’s forthcoming Renaissance II“ will outshine Charles’ landmark recording.

Black country in the 21st century

Over the past five years, in addition to the buzz over Lil Nas X’s "Old Town Road,” a significant number of Black musicians – including Darius Rucker, Kane Brown and Jimmie Allen, to name a few – have charted country hits.

The Black Opry Revue, founded in 2021 by music journalist Holly G, produces tours that bring together rising Black country musicians, giving each more exposure than performing individually could.

Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” topped the country charts and made Chapman the first Black woman to win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year award. Their performance of the song at the 2024 Grammys went viral, demonstrating both the fluidity of genres and the power of collaboration.

Beyoncé’s loyal fan base, known colloquially as “the Beyhive,” is already propelling “Texas Hold ‘Em” to the top of the pop and country charts. While there may continue to be pushback from traditionalist country music gatekeepers, country radio executives holding sway over national broadcast networks are calling Beyoncé’s new songs “a gift to country music.”

As more and more listeners hear her directive to “just take it to the dance floor,” perhaps the sonic harmony of the country genre will translate to a new way of thinking about whether socially constructed categories, like race, ought to segregate art.

And what a revolution that would be.

William Nash, Professor of American Studies and English and American Literatures, Middlebury

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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