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Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

news.harvard.edu

141–150 of 370 posts

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate this kind of logic. I get where it comes from but I still hate it. I have a genetic disorder that causes a compromised immune system, so germ control is my life. My life got better in some important ways with the entire rest of the world being less germy and disgusting. About one of out every five people is officially labeled "handicapped" and at least one study suggests that up to three out of every fi…

But your genetic disorder shouldn’t be extended to negatively impact others, knowing your unique situation means you need to manage your risks. It’s entirely unfair and a violation of privacy for people to have to be brought into your health decisions and vice versa. Why would it ever be reasonable to expect the government to keep tabs on random strangers just because I have a genetic health condition? I would much r…

You do realize health is not a "me" problem?

It is an "US" problem. Frankly, we have a number of US problems brewing and we have them due to not having our priorities in order as a people, human beings.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used the population of that age group as the denominator. The numbers of infected by age group are not as easy to find, and perhaps not so accurate (confirmed vs non-confirmed, etc). I've approached this numerically since numbers started coming out of NYC last spring. It's just the way I've been comfortable estimating/qualifying the risk.

1/2 the population is almost certainly closer than all of it.

I think that I see what you mean, and that sounds fair to me. Basically that the disease may have only moved through half that population so far, if I follow your logic.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#143

I hope they are correct. I also hope we will continue to be more careful about germ control from here on out in myriad ways. I hope we do not blithely go back to "business as usual" in a way that fosters future pandemics as if we learned absolutely nothing here.

What we learned should be not to decimate small businesses like tossing leaves to the wind “don’t worry we’ll build back better!” and let people decide their own risk taking. I think that it’s almost more terrifying than the thing itself that more people aren’t mostly incredibly disturbed by the insane violations of privacy and speech. Literally you should not, in a free society, be able take such injurious actions b…

> No amount of “but people could die” can justify this, that’s an irrelevant point, because there never a time when it was proper to remove autonomy for such a reason!

Would you be interested in allowing unregulated tobacco adverts and smoking in any public spaces again as well?

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#144

Perhaps unpopular opinion, but the US vaccination system is about the worst when it comes to preventing spread. Instead, it seems to be attempting to prevent death. I've always argued that preventing spread would as a byproduct prevent death, but I'm obviously not studied in the field. Put shortly, I would have vaccinated college kids and working age folks first. They are not likely to die from it, but are far more l…

In that case, the vaccination system worldwide is the worst. No country I know of has prioritized those groups over elderlies.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#145

Perhaps unpopular opinion, but the US vaccination system is about the worst when it comes to preventing spread. Instead, it seems to be attempting to prevent death. I've always argued that preventing spread would as a byproduct prevent death, but I'm obviously not studied in the field. Put shortly, I would have vaccinated college kids and working age folks first. They are not likely to die from it, but are far more l…

In that case, the vaccination system worldwide is the worst. No country I know of has prioritized those groups over elderlies.

Fair, but no other country(admittedly) save perhaps Brazil or Italy has had anywhere near the spread of the disease, either. In places the disease isn't rampant, I think the approach makes more sense.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate this kind of logic. I get where it comes from but I still hate it. I have a genetic disorder that causes a compromised immune system, so germ control is my life. My life got better in some important ways with the entire rest of the world being less germy and disgusting. About one of out every five people is officially labeled "handicapped" and at least one study suggests that up to three out of every fi…

I do not have those problems. I am sorry you do. Sucks. But, I am definitely not returning to "normal" pre Covid behavior. I got Covid early on. It was extremely rough. Should probably have been in the hospital, but frankly worried about that a lot given what was happening. Made it through, as did my family. Those experiences were why we played it very safe. Lots of negatives in doing that, but there were some positi…

> Health care in the US is broken, and so is our governance. This whole thing has made me see just how severe cost and risk exposure for way too many people really is!

There are a lot of people who benefit from health care being broken so I’m very pessimistic if we will see single payer in our lifetime. We all need to keep fighting for it but to be realistic it might not happen in the next thirty years.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#147

Perhaps unpopular opinion, but the US vaccination system is about the worst when it comes to preventing spread. Instead, it seems to be attempting to prevent death. I've always argued that preventing spread would as a byproduct prevent death, but I'm obviously not studied in the field. Put shortly, I would have vaccinated college kids and working age folks first. They are not likely to die from it, but are far more l…

That's an argument that can be made with numbers. The problem is we don't really have any. Your assertion that young adults are most likely to spread certainly seems plausible, but the truth is we just don't know. So we made a relatively conservative policy choice and chose to take the low hanging fruit of reducing severe cases at the potential cost of a longer pandemic. It seems reasonable to me, given the facts on the ground.

If you want to pick a nit with US vaccination policy with better grounding, aim at the fact that, with the two-dose mRNA vaccines, we're prioritizing the second dose much more heavily than we should. Numbers after a first dose show something like 70% effectiveness[1]. We should be getting everyone their first dose NOW and not wasting all that effectiveness on the comparatively less impactful booster.

[1] Which is to say, a "1-dose" Pfizer or Moderna vaccine is almost exactly equivalent to the actually-single-dose J&J vaccine.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#148
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not have those problems. I am sorry you do. Sucks. But, I am definitely not returning to "normal" pre Covid behavior. I got Covid early on. It was extremely rough. Should probably have been in the hospital, but frankly worried about that a lot given what was happening. Made it through, as did my family. Those experiences were why we played it very safe. Lots of negatives in doing that, but there were some positi…

> Health care in the US is broken, and so is our governance. This whole thing has made me see just how severe cost and risk exposure for way too many people really is! There are a lot of people who benefit from health care being broken so I’m very pessimistic if we will see single payer in our lifetime. We all need to keep fighting for it but to be realistic it might not happen in the next thirty years.

There is an order, if not two more who do not benefit, and it is unnecessary.

I agree with you. However, I will also no longer be quiet about it. My own costs and risks have been insane. Future impacted in the negative multiple times now.

Would not have been most other parts of the world.

Frankly, the cost and risk exposure will hit a point where people move in mass, or it won't and we trundle along for a decade or two.

Nobody knows.

What I do know is I have reached a point where I will act in solidarity with others on this matter and will make very aggressive trade offs too. It is now a priority.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#149

Perhaps unpopular opinion, but the US vaccination system is about the worst when it comes to preventing spread. Instead, it seems to be attempting to prevent death. I've always argued that preventing spread would as a byproduct prevent death, but I'm obviously not studied in the field. Put shortly, I would have vaccinated college kids and working age folks first. They are not likely to die from it, but are far more l…

That's an argument that can be made with numbers. The problem is we don't really have any. Your assertion that young adults are most likely to spread certainly seems plausible, but the truth is we just don't know. So we made a relatively conservative policy choice and chose to take the low hanging fruit of reducing severe cases at the potential cost of a longer pandemic. It seems reasonable to me, given the facts on…

Agreed. Before I was vaccinated I read all the numbers I could find. Apparently all 3 show something like 90 percent effectiveness after 3 weeks, even without a second dose for those that ask for it. Seems much more effective to let everyone sit at 90ish, rather than halving the supply for an extra few percent.

Re: Vaccines should end the pandemic, despite the variants, say experts

#150

Perhaps unpopular opinion, but the US vaccination system is about the worst when it comes to preventing spread. Instead, it seems to be attempting to prevent death. I've always argued that preventing spread would as a byproduct prevent death, but I'm obviously not studied in the field. Put shortly, I would have vaccinated college kids and working age folks first. They are not likely to die from it, but are far more l…

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