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Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

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Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#61
I would love to see more research on whether a different/better vaccine could provide stronger or longer lasting immunity. There are a whole lot of mechanisms by which a vaccine might produce immunity (antibodies, memory B cells that can produce antibodies if needed, various forms of T cells, and probably mechanisms that haven't been discovered or understood yet.) It seems that most research on immunity focuses on antibodies in blood, and I think this is just because they are relatively easy to measure.

I haven't seen anything suggesting that mRNA vaccines are especially good as compared to other vaccines. mRNA vaccines were quick to develop given all the past work that had been done, but that isn't the same thing as being good once developed and mass-produced. Novavax's subunit vaccine did extremely well in trials, and it's mostly old technology.

Are there useful studies of the efficacy of the J&J and AZ vaccines over time? Those are newish technology, too.

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#62
post #53
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[edit] this is in response to the earlier version of your post where you wonder if the virus will ever go away: That I think is a given. Even if we had a bullet proof vaccine, you have such a large reserve of unvaccinated people across the world, plus animals, that the virus is endemic at this stage. Which isn't a problem. If once vaccinated the virus is mostly harmless, then it is just one more of the many endemic d…

Which is why top virologists around the world have been trying to sound the alarm to warn that you don't vaccinate during a pandemic because it drives escape mutant variants; this type of response gets downvoted into oblivion by an ideological mob who are fear driven more than critical thinking, who have memorized the mainstream narrative responses to such statements by experts - or attempting character assassination…

Not that I am qualified for such a debate, but it's not clear to me that the risk of creating variants is greater than the risk of letting the virus run through the population unopposed. The variants so far seem to be variations of the same virus with similar risk profiles, and the vaccines seem to be mostly efficient against these variants.

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#63

Assuming it's only as effective as the original two-dose shot and prevents for the same duration, it seems like COVID will never go away. Assuming the current trend and a 9 month prevention, that pretty much aligns to what happened last year. So we'd need no new significant variants to develop or any outbreaks. Seems unlikely given that there are many countries with vaccination rates under 50% Probably better to focu…

It's why I'm more interested in companies that can treat the symptoms effectively than only the vaccines right now. IMO the only way this ever truly gets better is if the effects can be mitigated quickly. Whoever figures that out is going to make a lot of money.

"CBD and its metabolite, 7-OH-CBD, but not congeneric cannabinoids, potently block SARS-CoV-2 replication in lung epithelial cells. CBD induces interferon expression and up-regulates its antiviral signaling pathway. A cohort of human patients previously taking CBD had significantly lower SARSCoV-2 infection incidence of up to an order of magnitude relative to matched pairs or the general population. This study highlights CBD, and its active metabolite, 7-OH-CBD, as potential preventative agents and therapeutic treatments for SARS-CoV-2 at early stages of infection."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7987002/

I am not saying anything, JUST SAYIN'

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#64
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason not to increase vaccine production rates so we have the capacity to vaccinate the world population faster than every 9 months?

> Is there any reason not to increase vaccine production rates so we have the capacity to vaccinate the world population faster than every 9 months? Capital constraints. Most specifically, human capital. mRNA production methods, including for critical precursors, are complicated. There is a limited number of people who can build and monitor the productions systems.

There are countries filled with idiots,like my lovely Romania where 70% of people don't want to get vaccinated, and we have to sell/donate millions and millions of doses.

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#65
post #44

Great, let's degrade our immune systems in an over reaction to this by vaccinating every five months in a never ending saga.

Do you have any source for the claim that any of the vaccines degrade your immune system?

I'm sure they can point you at some educational youtube videos.

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#66
The headline doesn't quite do the article justice.

Boosters in this one study reduced measured infection (they didn't measure actual hospitalization/disease!) by some amount in the very short term.

But experts say this tells us very little about what effect they will have over even months, instead of weeks/days.

Last paragraph:

> If the booster’s additional immunity fades quickly, or if the booster campaign distracts from surveillance efforts or from reaching people who have not been vaccinated at all, Dowdy says, the effort will have little long-term impact: “We need longer term data before we can say that giving people boosters at any given interval is the right strategy.”

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#67
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few vaccines are 3 doses at 0,1,6-12 months and offer a decade of protection if you don't miss the last dose..

Do they decay in a few months if you do miss the 3rd dose though?

My hepatitis vaccine was like that, and I delayed the last dose, and apparently they say it doesn't matter how long you delay the last one, it just can't be taken earlier.

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#68
post #21

A question to consider is, how to we move from pandemic to endemic? COVID-19 isn't going away and will join the other endemic viruses like chicken pox, the other widely out there coronaviruses, etc.

Probably the same as what seems to have happened with the last coronavirus pandemic in 1889. HCoV-OC43 probably killed a lot of people worldwide with symptoms similar to COVID-19. Now most of us get infected as children and gain immunity that protects us later in life. Fortunately now we have vaccines to cut the death toll, but even most vaccinated people will eventually get infected with SARS-CoV-2.

https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-maga...

https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-made-herd-immu...

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#69
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trauma center emergency room in my state is diverting patients to less-capable facilities. Elective surgeries (such as for cancer and other life-threatening conditions) are being cancelled. All of this is happening in states representing perhaps a third of the US population. Not being able to get lifesaving cancer removal surgery is the state of affairs that people colloquially mean when say a medical system is "…

> Not being able to get lifesaving cancer removal surgery is the state of affairs that people colloquially mean when say a medical system is "collapsing." Rural medical systems in places with low vaccination rates are collapsing. The American health system, broadly, is not. Being relocated to a smaller hospital is not good; collapse is being denied altogether. (EDIT: Was not aware that parts of the country are, in fa…

> collapse is being denied altogether

Yeah, that's happening too.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-us-hospital-icu-bed-short...

Bellville is 30 miles outside of Houston. It's not "rural".

Re: Israel’s Covid-19 boosters are preventing infections, new studies suggest

#70

As far as I can tell is bad news for rare vaccine side effects. If the side effects are rare but you take a booster twice a year for 50 years, rare outcomes become much more likely. (Referring here to the high count but not that high stuff that shows up in VAERS like tinnitus.) Hopefully more vaccines are developed that become safer over time so that the danger falls faster than the repeated risk accumulates. Or perh…

> rare outcomes become much more likely.

Citations needed.

Alternatively if vaccine reactions depend on something like immunotype of the individual that isn't going to change, and if you tolerate the vaccine today you're likely to tolerate it for the next 50 years.

Also if we apply the concept of Original Antigenic Sin, then once you've formed a healthy humoral reaction to a given antigen you're likely to continue to have healthy reactions to similar antigens in the future (and vice versa, if you form a poor immune reaction you my have poor reactions in the future).

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