all posts post new thread

Off-Topic Covid-19

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Good question.

I had Covid earlier this year. About the vaccine, I still dont understand how it can achieve immunity, when having had the disease doesn't. This is a sincere question.

Additionally, here in Argentina the Russian vaccine came. My first, uneducated position is that I prefer not to be the first to get the shot, but to give it 15 days to see how it works.
 
I’ve had my first jab (Pfizer/BioNTech).
Good question.

I had Covid earlier this year. About the vaccine, I still dont understand how it can achieve immunity, when having had the disease doesn't. This is a sincere question.

Additionally, here in Argentina the Russian vaccine came. My first, uneducated position is that I prefer not to be the first to get the shot, but to give it 15 days to see how it works.
To oversimplify, vaccines can provide more reliable and stable immunity by showing your immune system a particular piece of the virus which is always likely to be present and visible in case of infection (no matter the variant). Immunity gained by infection is more of a crapshoot, where you may form antibodies only to less stable elements of the virus , which are not present in all strains etc.
 
The influenza vaccine is safe, effective, only requires one shot and is heavily promoted, readily available etc. Yet only 38% of Australians get that vaccination each year. Health professionals have been somewhat deified in the pandemic but their influenza vaccinations are only marginally higher than the community average...
I don't think you can compare opinions re flu vaccine to covid. Seasonal flu vaccine on an off year can be a total bust, esp in the most vulnerable populations, the very young and the old. Recent studies further demonstrate it begins to lose its fizz within weeks of being administered.

My kids rec'd the Flumist 2 years running, third year told by nurse "it's not available this year, don't know why". Turns out it was completely ineffective over the previous 2 years. Even in a good year the efficacy of the seasonal vaccine is pretty weak in absolute terms compared to other vaccines, most of which are 80% minimum and protect for years. A better vaccine is needed if it's going to be taken seriously.

Good question.

I had Covid earlier this year. About the vaccine, I still dont understand how it can achieve immunity, when having had the disease doesn't. This is a sincere question.
That's a good question, although from what I've read very few people who have been verified infected and fully recovered have been reinfected. It may be the case you will still need to get vaccinated or as with chicken pox, you need to be re-exposed to it on a recurring basis to maintain immunity.
 
I'm not interested... I'll get it if required to do so but not otherwise. Everyone I know who has had Covid experienced minimal symptoms. Not talking super-fit SF followers, just average folks.

IMO playing along empowers authorities to implement additional restrictions followed by stimulus, so much baloney and so many lives being destroyed.

Very sad.

I would like to understand how the lockdowns have effected gyms and other fitness entrepreneurs, probably difficult to track the overall numbers but it can't be pretty. THAT would be a gut wrenching thread.
 
I have been told by my older relatives the relief and excitement that happened when the polio vaccine came about.
Perhaps I am the age of your older relatives - I went to Sunday school with someone who'd been crippled by polio. I just found a timeline online - it says "massive polio vaccine trials begin in US" in 1954 and I was born in '55.

-S-
 
I’ll get it as soon as eligible, I’m somewhere towards the bottom of the list.

I was in a meeting with someone who tested positive last week, so now awaiting my test results.
 
Perhaps I am the age of your older relatives - I went to Sunday school with someone who'd been crippled by polio. I just found a timeline online - it says "massive polio vaccine trials begin in US" in 1954 and I was born in '55.

-S-
This is a very good point. I get into similar discussions on the Bogleheads investing forum with young people who have never seen a bear market. They think things just go up forever forgetting about 2008. We've had it so good for so long that people forget quickly about the repurcussions of not taking vaccines. They forget about whole school cafeterias filled with cots and sick people.
 
Perhaps I am the age of your older relatives - I went to Sunday school with someone who'd been crippled by polio. I just found a timeline online - it says "massive polio vaccine trials begin in US" in 1954 and I was born in '55.

-S-
One of the last polio outbreaks in Australia was in my neighbourhood. It was before I was born but my mum knew one of the infected kids and her primary school was closed for six weeks. She still remembers the fear that gripped the community. I doubt anyone declined that vaccine
 
A little over a year ago I stated on a thread during the early stages of the pandemic that it was something that was to be taken seriously and that we would hopefully have the wisdom to do the things necessary to avoid what happened during the 1918 flu pandemic, where the secondary surges were worse than the initial ones.

Here we are.

I suspect that I received a mild load from one of my elementary students that resulted in mild illness for three weeks. My wife fared less well, "fortunately" having only severe GI symptoms. At the time the hospital staff tested her for the flu, which came back negative. They maintained that it was the flu since it was rampant in the region. Months later we received a major refund from the hospital marked "Covid-19 Related." Some might scoff since she wasn't tested for Covid, have at it, at the time who was getting tested at all since the testing was a hot mess.

Her aunt was anti-mask who wound up with a nasty case. Hospitalized for a week in November with oxygen and some other accoutrements, sent home with oxygen, and used oxygen until a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, she and her husband seldom got out of bed for two months with another hospital trip thrown in for good measure. A friend of my wife is a teacher who mocked the guidelines has had the respiratory version for ten weeks and will soon be again seeing her pulmonologist for the lingering deep cough. She's been told that she's a long-hauler. One of my former students had to be taken to Toledo Children's Hospital for surgery to save a leg due to blood clots. Note that I said "children's hospital." Our neighbor across the street had it for weeks despite taking precautions because of all the woke people at his workplace who couldn't be bothered to mask up. He lost thirty pounds off of his one-hundred eighty-five pound frame.

I could go on.

tl;dr
I'm eligible for the vaccine in early February and you can bet that I'll get it. I'll chance a possible day of discomfort over the carnage this country has endured. You can trust your odds due to age, fitness level, whatever but know that none of that guarantees anything. At least from what I have observed.
 
I'm not interested... I'll get it if required to do so but not otherwise. Everyone I know who has had Covid experienced minimal symptoms. Not talking super-fit SF followers, just average folks.

IMO playing along empowers authorities to implement additional restrictions followed by stimulus, so much baloney and so many lives being destroyed.

Very sad.

I would like to understand how the lockdowns have effected gyms and other fitness entrepreneurs, probably difficult to track the overall numbers but it can't be pretty. THAT would be a gut wrenching thread.
Most people I know had minimal symtpoms, but a couple of friends nearly required hospitalising.
Then 2 weeks ago my son's former rugby coach died of it. Under 50 - active sports coach, he was a prop forward so not a little guy, but still. He was also a terrific coach and a great guy with a big and positive impact on his community.

I view vaccination as our way out of restrictions.
 
Most people I know had minimal symtpoms, but a couple of friends nearly required hospitalising.
Then 2 weeks ago my son's former rugby coach died of it. Under 50 - active sports coach, he was a prop forward so not a little guy, but still. He was also a terrific coach and a great guy with a big and positive impact on his community.

I view vaccination as our way out of restrictions.
That's very sad to hear. It's important for everyone to remember that being strong and in good health may give you better odds of recovery but nobody is entirely without risk. Let's all look out for each other.
 
Yes. Asap please.

I'd also like to see the health and wealth inequalities addressed.
Covid has exposed the cracks in our society and communities with health and wealth inequalities amplified.
Any policy which does not address this now and seek to reduce this gap once we begin to return to normal function will be a wasted opportunity. A vaccine is one thing - we have another issue of wealth/health inequality that needs addressing. I know, verging into politics but it is difficult not to....it is all connected.

So yes please, vaccine please. A vaccine is a way out but it is also a way in to reshape, remodel and reevaluate social and health policy.

After all this, just going back to things as they were will be a mistake, perhaps. Surely we should learn something from it all?
 
Do we know if unvaccinated people pose a risk to vaccinated people or just unvaccinated people?
 
Do we know if unvaccinated people pose a risk to vaccinated people or just unvaccinated people?
I believe there will be a small % that won't respond to the vaccine so the vaccinated people will protect them and unvaccinated. We need a huge majority to reach herd immunity so 90+% of us will have to step up. My grandparents fought the great depression and world War 2, I see this as the least i can do.
 
Hell yes.

To be brutally honest, I don't understand those who are against it. Fast tracking does not mean "no rigorous analysis". It means that all the typical hurdles in the bureaucracy have been removed.

Do you know how long mRNA vaccines have been widely used in humans?
 
Do you know how long mRNA vaccines have been widely used in humans?
This is the question.

Not all that long, but the research dates back thirty years.
An answer to which highlights the principle cause for concern: a complete absence of long-term data on adverse reactions from immediate side-effects through pathogenic priming to effects upon fertility.

@Denny Phillips -- thank you for the above link to a fascinating and informative article. Extracted from it:

Even now, as Moderna and Pfizer test their vaccines on roughly 74,000 volunteers in pivotal vaccine studies, many experts question whether the technology is ready for prime time.​
“I worry about innovation at the expense of practicality,” Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and an authority on vaccines, said recently. The U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program, which has underwritten the development of Moderna’s vaccine and pledged to buy Pfizer’s vaccine if it works, is “weighted toward technology platforms that have never made it to licensure before.”

Some experts worry about injecting the first vaccine of this kind into hundreds of million of people so quickly.​
“You have all these odd clinical and pathological changes caused by this novel bat coronavirus, and you’re about to meet it with all of these vaccines with which you have no experience,” said Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an authority on vaccines.


This is well worth the time and attention, too:

 
This is the question.


An answer to which highlights the principle cause for concern: a complete absence of long-term data on adverse reactions from immediate side-effects through pathogenic priming to effects upon fertility.

@Denny Phillips -- thank you for the above link to a fascinating and informative article. Extracted from it:

Even now, as Moderna and Pfizer test their vaccines on roughly 74,000 volunteers in pivotal vaccine studies, many experts question whether the technology is ready for prime time.​
“I worry about innovation at the expense of practicality,” Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and an authority on vaccines, said recently. The U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program, which has underwritten the development of Moderna’s vaccine and pledged to buy Pfizer’s vaccine if it works, is “weighted toward technology platforms that have never made it to licensure before.”

Some experts worry about injecting the first vaccine of this kind into hundreds of million of people so quickly.​
“You have all these odd clinical and pathological changes caused by this novel bat coronavirus, and you’re about to meet it with all of these vaccines with which you have no experience,” said Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an authority on vaccines.


This is well worth the time and attention, too:


I'd be a lot more relaxed about this if I hadn't seen I Am Legend with Will Smith
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom