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More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

theatlantic.com

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Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#81

Post by collias »

denimnerd42 wrote: post #58
collias wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently, booster efficacy wanes after about 10 weeks[1]. If you think the 3rd shot is important, why not the 4th, 5th, ad infinitum? Genuinely curious, not trying to be difficult. [1]: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

Being sick for 2 days. I'm not signing up to be sick 2 days every 2.5 months. Pounding headache, fatigue, nausea, heart pain.

I agree with you that the risk/reward matrix varies greatly per individual; there are many like you who have had similar reactions.

I was just wondering what data your "3 is important" statement was based on.

Why the first booster but not the rest, or why the first booster at all?

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#82

Post by Mikeb85 »

VeninVidiaVicii wrote: post #19
denimnerd42 wrote: post #12

i think i'm done with current level vaccines. I've had 3 mrna. The second and third each took me out for 2 days. I don't see any reason for more unless a better one comes out. I do think 3 are important though.

For all vaccines, neutralizing antibody titers decrease over time. This is why boosters exist in the first place.

It's always been understood that antibodies wane over time. That's why other cells in our bodies 'remember' viral infections and essentially are primed to create antibodies again when infected (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2550-z)

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#84

Post by xboxnolifes »

DevKoala wrote: post #50
SerLava wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's sort of like the alarming scourge of preventable automotive deaths, except that it's over 10 times worse. Also like slipping and falling, but about 20 times worse.

In the USA, there are 4.4 million traffic accident injuries that require medical attention per year. I don’t know where you are getting the 10 times worse from.

USA automotive death are <40k per year. USA covid deaths are ~400k a year

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#85

Post by thomascgalvin »

_xnmw wrote: post #7

The risk is now "priced in" to our consciousness. Back when it first started, covid was a big scary unknown risk to take for simply going outside and interacting with people. Now, it's a well-known risk, and people are willing to take that risk, along with other well-known risks for going outside, like the risk of getting into a car accident or slipping and falling.

I think there are a number of factors at play.

One, we've greatly reduced the risk of COVID through vaccines. This is the primary thrust of the article; if you've vaccinated, you're very unlikely to have serious consequences.

Two, we're fatigued. You just can't be constantly vigilant for two or three years without something breaking. This compounds point one. We don't, as the article mentions, know what kind of relationship Omicron has to long COVID, but at this point, many are too tired to care. "I'm safe enough" is all we have the capacity for.

Third, a large portion of the population is in denial about their own levels of risk. If there was a 1% chance of dying every time you drove a car, or even a 1% chance of dying every time you got into a car accident, there would be panic in the streets, no pun intended. But a lot of people round a 1% chance of dying from COVID down to zero.

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#86

Post by stefan_ »

jaywalk wrote: post #44
VeninVidiaVicii wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all vaccines, neutralizing antibody titers decrease over time. This is why boosters exist in the first place.

No vaccine has ever had an efficacy dropoff as steep and rapid as the current crop of Covid vaccines.

"The current crop of Covid vaccines" all of which are engineered based on the original variant. Ignorance like this has contributed to the virus mutating, and obviously the newer variants have increased fitness against whatever immune response the original one provokes - otherwise it wouldn't exist.

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#87

Post by dragontamer »

chrischen wrote: post #51
dragontamer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - What is the average level of risk to someone taking reasonable personal precautions? Depends on how full hospitals get. We all get into accidents. We fall and hit our heads, we might get a heart attack, a pregnancy might suddenly go bad and a C-section (or worse surgery) is needed. As COVID19 fills up hospitals around the country, the risk isn't from Omicron itself anymore, as much as it is from an overburdened h…

Why not just charge unvaccinated people for their hospital bills? Then overburdened hospitals become profitable hospitals.

Unfortunately, the unvaccinated apparently are a bigger voting group / voting bloc than we expected, and have considerable political power.

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#88

Post by JPKab »

kerneloftruth wrote: post #15

"For more than a year, I did everything that public-health authorities told me to do. I wore masks. I canceled vacations. I made sacrifices. I got vaccinated. I got boosted. I’m happy to get boosted again. But this virus doesn’t stop. Year over year, the infections don’t decrease. Instead, virulence for people like me is decreasing, either because the virus is changing, or because of growing population immunity, or b…

Agreed.

There is also this weird fixation on being the single person who will infect another who for whatever reason is at high risk either due to obesity, not being vaccinated despite being in a high-risk group, etc. As if you're very presence in some public location is going to be the only way another person encounters the virus.

It's just not realistic. Every single person will eventually catch a cold just like every single person will eventually catch the omicron variant or whatever one surfaces next.

This fixation that we, or the government, is capable of isolating human beings in a manner to prevent them from ever being exposed to an endemic virus is utterly absurd.

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#89

Post by jaywalk »

ceejayoz wrote: post #39
throwawayboise wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people were in the "willing to take that risk" from the beginning, and were relentlessly demonized. Now it's OK though if everyone feels that way.

Being willing to take on the risk yourself and being willing to inflict it on others aren't the same thing. If you could drive drunk without risking other people, it'd be more societally acceptable. Similarly, now that vaccination is widely available for at-risk groups, it's a bit more acceptable to take actions that spread the virus that puts those folks at risk.

Nobody is inflicting anything on anyone. It is your responsibility to protect yourself to the level that you feel is necessary.

Re: More Americans are saying they’re ‘vaxxed and done’

#90

Post by Mikeb85 »

ashtonkem wrote: post #47
denimnerd42 wrote: post #12

i think i'm done with current level vaccines. I've had 3 mrna. The second and third each took me out for 2 days. I don't see any reason for more unless a better one comes out. I do think 3 are important though.

I’ve gotten my flu shot yearly for my entire living memory. I don’t really understand why a booster vaccine for a pandemic that’s killed an order of magnitude more people than the flu does per year is some serious burden.

Because there's no evidence more boosters have any efficacy. And there are side-effects, despite people trying to downplay them. My SO had a legit allergic reaction to an mRNA vaccine...
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