the delta is even less virulent then past variants. it's only marginally more lethal than the flu. long covid is a fuzzy excuse to prolong the panic culture.
Delta Variant
181–190 of 442 posts
Re: Delta Variant
#182Why did this get flagged? This is an important article that probably will change an unvaccinated individuals mind.
The author has no credentials in this area.
Re: Delta Variant
#183As a reader of HN for several years now, it blows my mind how polarized we all are on this issue. Something smells here, you're not allowed to question anything without being down voted to oblivion, one way or another. Why?
Covid discussion has become equivalent to politics. Most people have strong opinions on the matter, these opinions usually correlate strongly to their favorite political party's stance, and few people have the experience or knowledge to evaluate scientific information rationally. It's a recipe for uninformed debate.
On top of that, in the US, the previous president was so politically polarizing that literally any statement he made was aggressively opposed by many people. A lot of SARS-CoV2 response got caught up in this dynamic.
Wide segments of the population are simply misinformed of basic scientific facts, and slick charlatans (like the author of this article) twist information in subtle ways to scare people. Terrified people are naturally going to be more volatile, and this has been exploited throughout the last year and half.
Re: Delta Variant
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have gotten a lot better at treating COVID patients since the first couple of months, as we figure out which interventions work and which don't. Stuff like putting patients prone made a surprisingly large difference in the mortality rate. Drugs like antivirals are "vulnerable to mutations and waning efficacy over time" just like vaccines are, and they're a lot harder to make.
Which one is harder to make?
Antivirals. We've very few effective ones on the market.
Re: Delta Variant
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
My current thinking is for the unvaccinated, its a terrible thing not to be able to take advantage of the vaccine and I tend to wear masks even being vaccinated because of this. I initially thought that all the vaccine refusenics were politically motivated but I've revised that after actually talking to some folks about why they don't want it. Still even with me still masking up in many situations, its probably a fut…
The background reasons for not wanting to get vaccinated are not medically indicated. Unless you have a PEG allergy (which means you need to get Janssen instead of Pfoderna) the CDC has zero contraindications for the vaccine. If somebody doesn't want the vaccine, that's on them. I have family members who won't get vaccinated and will give you a shopping list of reasons why they "can't". They're all bullshit.
I think major reasons in general are personal understanding of one's religion, distrust in pharma companies, distrust in media and health institutions, and reported adverse effects of vaccines (clots, heart inflammation, long-COVID like symptoms, even deaths).
These are very real reasons. You may not put much weight on those personally but many people do.
Re: Delta Variant
#186I will say that on the vaccine front the data provided by Israel seems to be the worst results of the bunch, and while we can't completely rule out their results there is a good chance it's an underestimate of efficacy. Here are some efficacy estimates against Delta from other sources: https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1414254993536786433 Highlights are (symtoms/hospitilization): - Phizer: 79-88%/96% - Moderna (on…
Are you aware of any results for the J&J shot? That's the one I got but it always seems to be left out.
Ain't that the truth. I opted for the J&J almost solely because the media & government strongly suggested it would be the "primary" vaccine going forward; given it only required one dose, scale-up would be easier, easier to transport, more people would end up with it, and thus I figure it would receive the largest scientific scrutiny for positive and negative side-effects going forward.
Far from it. Those of us who got it now feel like the weird step-children of the COVID pandemic, constantly left out of headlines and media. Though, I guess at least, it can very rarely cause an extremely dangerous nerve condition, so we got that going for us which is nice.
Re: Delta Variant
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate having to be skeptical of this stuff, because the consequences of skeptics being accurate are even more horrifying than the pandemic. This is so challenging because when you look at each number he uses, and then compare it to its base rate, you can see why hesitancy levels are 30-50% in regions of developed countries. If you are among that cohort of people in your region who are not vaccinated, should you get…
There are many reasons people choose not to get the vaccine. What evidence do you have that the main issue is a distrust of authority? The main authority on this, the FDA has not even officially approved the vaccine and likely won't for quite awhile. For some people it is logical to ask why other vaccines require 10year+ trials and for this a few months was sufficient. While personally, I think the risk of the virus…
The FDA is ridiculously over conservative because of litigation, settlement, and insurance costs. They're not doing another thalidomide.
My premise is that the facts we choose for our opinions are for support of an underlying belief, and that this underlying belief is that the people running things are full of shit, if not deceptive. I can't change someones mind about that (and wouldn't try), but I'm addressing that concern directly vs. getting a shot.
Re: Delta Variant
#188The article purposefully conflates numbers to tell a narrative. I am talking only about EU, and at that southern EU which is where I've been following the numbers closely. Delta variant has been acting for up to 1 month in some regions, and as described in the article yes cases are up very quickly. However, the article says: > COVID deaths [...] And if you think Europe or the US will be spared This is not reflected a…
I still love to share the UK report about the Delta variant from mid of June.
Bottom-line: If you’re 2x vaccinated, hospitalization is highly unlikely for Alpha and Delta variants.
See this report, page 44 bottom: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
Re: Delta Variant
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate having to be skeptical of this stuff, because the consequences of skeptics being accurate are even more horrifying than the pandemic. This is so challenging because when you look at each number he uses, and then compare it to its base rate, you can see why hesitancy levels are 30-50% in regions of developed countries. If you are among that cohort of people in your region who are not vaccinated, should you get…
There are many reasons people choose not to get the vaccine. What evidence do you have that the main issue is a distrust of authority? The main authority on this, the FDA has not even officially approved the vaccine and likely won't for quite awhile. For some people it is logical to ask why other vaccines require 10year+ trials and for this a few months was sufficient. While personally, I think the risk of the virus…
Anecdotally, my experience is that the main reason is distrust of authority. It's usually warranted distrust too. Authorities aren't trustworthy.
To answer your question:
(1) Most vaccines don't have 10+ year trials. A year is not even the fastest; the flu on 1957-1958 has a vaccine developed in 4 months.
(2) Most medical trials are slower since everything is done sequentially, since there is no rush. You can do an animal trial, a first-in-man, a small group, then a medium group, and so on. It's a better way to go.
(3) This vaccine has had over 3 billion doses administered. It's far better studied and validated at this point than the vast, vast majority of medical trials.
If you believe "the risk of the vaccine greatly outweighs the risk of getting the virus," can you provide any back-of-the-envelope numbers to back up that statement? From my perspective, the virus already killed half a million Americans, and likely brain-damaged millions. We have enough data on the vaccine to know it doesn't do that.
Re: Delta Variant
#190As a reader of HN for several years now, it blows my mind how polarized we all are on this issue. Something smells here, you're not allowed to question anything without being down voted to oblivion, one way or another. Why?
Covid discussion has become equivalent to politics. Most people have strong opinions on the matter, these opinions usually correlate strongly to their favorite political party's stance, and few people have the experience or knowledge to evaluate scientific information rationally. It's a recipe for uninformed debate. On top of that, in the US, the previous president was so politically polarizing that literally any sta…
It certainly feels like hangover from the Trump times, and yes, it's insanely political and quite hysterical.
Now, people overcompensate, if there is any questioning or hesitancy to take the vaccine, ask questions about origins etc you might be a...Trump guy, or a nut and so you need to be told by the Non-Trump guys what' up, by being downed.
It's Kind of like Post-Trum-Stress-Disorder, PTSD. It's really quite fascinating.