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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’

#391
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RSV is more dangerous than COVID-19 for most small children. We don't shut down society because of RSV. https://www.medscape.com/answers/971488-177692/what-is-the-p...

> RSV is more dangerous than COVID-19 for most small children. Children don’t exist in isolation. They’re phenomenally good at spreading every infection to the rest of the household and everywhere else they go. Trying to focus on children's outcomes and ignoring all of the second-order effects is dishonest. Children don’t live alone.

The concern raised is "everyone and their dog is getting omicron, and I'm worried about my child getting it when they aren't vaccinated"

Everyone else already has it, and have access to vaccines

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

#392
post #66

I'm vaxxed and mostly done. Already contracted Covid, have 2 vaccines, I'm down to get a booster every year or two, at my own leisure. Having vaccines mandated every 6 months is not something I'm OK with and to be honest, it feels a lot like the government trying to deflect from the fact healthcare isn't OK (at least in my home country, Canada). There's always been risks to life and this feels more like governments a…

Why is there much difference between getting a booster every 6 months rather than every 12-24 months? Compared to lockdowns or even just mask mandates, both booster schedules seem like a pretty minor inconvenience given the pandemic-halting benefits.

Part of it is practicality. Even the experts agree that we can't vaccine the entire planet every 6 months.

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

#393
From conversations with various people (and not any kind of meaningful study), it seems to me that there is a qualitatively different experience of this situation for people that naturally think about things all the time. For my wife, having to skip the occasional event that she'd like to go to isn't a big deal, but having to constantly think about how risky each behavior is and make a conscious decision weighing that risk against other factors (like social expectations and psychological needs) is _extremely_ effortful.

I view "vaxxed and done" as a form of rounding, selected by people who find it psychologically untenable to handle a changed _risk profile_ by changing their behaviors in moderate ways. I'm boosted, as is everyone I'm in contact with - that has shifted my risk profile sufficiently that I felt comfortable eating at some restaurants (but not others) and at nearly any normal outdoor event, but not at a concert, a crowded bar, or a packed bus. But I have to keep an eye on infection rates, and change my behavior when they shift radically (as now), or when the risk profile updates for a new mutation.. And that's tractable for me - I think about everything I do, constantly, which I assume is much more true among the tech crowd than the population at large.

But most people _just don't do that_ kind of thing - being told to keep worrying about and considering a thing constantly sounds to many like "just keep stabbing yourself in the arm every day and eventually things will be fine". I don't know what there is to do about that, but I think it would be valuable for some folks in here to have a more realistic idea of the cost constant vigilance so often imposes.

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

#394
post #66

I'm vaxxed and mostly done. Already contracted Covid, have 2 vaccines, I'm down to get a booster every year or two, at my own leisure. Having vaccines mandated every 6 months is not something I'm OK with and to be honest, it feels a lot like the government trying to deflect from the fact healthcare isn't OK (at least in my home country, Canada). There's always been risks to life and this feels more like governments a…

Tangentially, I recently moved to Canada and was surprised by the lack of quality healthcare.. Literally could not believe some walk ins have paper files and use fax, plus finding a GP apparently is a months long quest. Visiting a specialist took ages, and I wouldn’t say it was the best / most modern infrastructure there either. (And I went in downtown Toronto, must be so much worse for more remote places I guess). I…

Sucks that it's so difficult for you to find a family doctor but it does depend on where you live, for sure. Personally, I don't care if they have paper files, as long as, in the case of BC, the data ends up in Health Gateway [1] somehow and is accessible by whatever doctor I'm seeing. Generally I must say though that I'm quite happy with the quality of health care here where I live which is small city-ish.

Seeing specialists can take a long time that's right. I had a torn achilles tendon and it took almost 3 months to see a specialist with couple of days notice and no communication in between. That sucked. For my elderly parents in law it seems to be going much faster to see specialists so it might depend on severity.

[1] https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/managing-your-heal...

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

#395
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RSV is more dangerous than COVID-19 for most small children. We don't shut down society because of RSV. https://www.medscape.com/answers/971488-177692/what-is-the-p...

> RSV is more dangerous than COVID-19 for most small children. Children don’t exist in isolation. They’re phenomenally good at spreading every infection to the rest of the household and everywhere else they go. Trying to focus on children's outcomes and ignoring all of the second-order effects is dishonest. Children don’t live alone.

The GP explicitly says he is concerned for his child, and that's the only thing under discussion in this thread. In that context, it's worth pointing out that RSV is more dangerous to help people think about how they process this current risk.

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

#397
post #14

I'm double vaxxed and boosted and just spent 4 days in the hospital with Covid. I actually entered the hospital without Covid and got it while I was in there. They had the entire place divided into separate wings and I had to be transferred between them. 103 degree fever, pulse 130, was pretty awful but came out of it fine. I, too, am done with all of it. Let the chips fall where they may now.

I don't quite understand -- you went to the hospital for what original reason then, if it wasn't Covid?

One of the many reasons we had hospitals before covid? I'm not the person you asked but I don't see why it matters what their specific health concern was. There are many reasons to go to a hospital both emergency and not.

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

#398

I am one of those, triple vaxxed and done. CDC has now said that the majority of those that died had 4+ co-morbidities. They have also indicated that getting vaccinated does not reduce your ability to spread the virus. So if that is the case, there is no longer a real need to vilify the unvaxxed. CDC statement appears to indicate that the primary reason for people dying is poor physical health prior to infection. Wit…

> CDC has now said that the majority of those that died had 4+ co-morbidities. This is in reference to a specific study that followed 1.2M fully vaccinated individuals and found that 28 of the 36 deaths had at least 4 high-risk factors ( https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a4.htm ). They are not referring to the unvaccinated who still have a much higher risk of hospitalization and death.

Your quote is from the end of a sentence that began with someone explaining that they were triple-vaxed. Seems like the perfect study to help them make decisions.

The unvaccinated are unvaccinated. They know what they're getting into (even if they deny it), and they don't believe studies anyway. Once they catch it a couple of times, they'll be as good as vaxed anyway.

edit: if there's anything that should be done about the unvaccinated, it's to make sure that vaccines and tests are convenient and free. There are still plenty of people who aren't vaccinated because it's too much of a hassle.

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

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the bigger problem is that their initial selling point for the vaccine was "get your 2 shots and everything goes back to normal". Many people grudgingly got it despite some hesitancy and now have even less trust of the government now that the goal posts are shifting yet again

If enough people had got their shots worldwide that would have worked. However enough is at least 80% of the world population, and maybe as much as 95%. There wasn't enough supply in the world. If the 95% number is correct kids young enough still are not approved to reach that, mutations keep making the number higher, though we might need to get a new vaccine that covers new variants.

>If enough people had got their shots worldwide that would have worked.

One of the theories on the origin of omicron seems to be that it evolved in animals for a while before jumping back to humans (the weirdness being that it's not evolved from Delta, and it has a number of mutations all at once). [1]

And even if it's not the origin of this variant, it could easily be the origin of a future variant (that's why they're considering it).

And it's quite unlikely we could vaccinate every animal on the planet, so this idea that if we had just gotten all our shots this variant would have never happened is pretty ridiculous.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/how-did-omicron-covid-varian...

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

#400

I'm vaxxed. I'm boosted. I'd very much like to be done. But my children cannot be vaccinated. As a parent of a young kid it kind of feels like everyone has just moved on. I know folks in here will tell me that statistically speaking my children are unlikely to be hospitalized and so on, and I agree. But I know enough kids who got COVID and suffered the symptoms (e.g. a months-long scratchy cough) that I'm not going t…

I am with you on all of this, with one small, slightly hopeful note. My under-5 is enrolled in the Pfizer study, and they are not starting over from scratch. The existing cohort is going to receive a third dose at >2 months past their last dose (starting at the end of this month, probably), and then immunogenicity will be reassessed. I am incredibly frustrated that pfizer and the fda have been so slow to roll the vac…

>I am incredibly frustrated that pfizer and the fda have been so slow to roll the vaccine out to under-5s

Why? Is there any data to suggest that children are at risk of severe illness or complications? Isn't it a fact that children do not appreciably spread covid?

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