A new COVID vaccine is due next month, but health experts and analysts say it is likely to be coolly received even as hospitalizations from "Eris", a variant of the Omicron form of the coronavirus, rise around the country.
It’s pretty depressing how we went from eagerly hoping and praying for a vaccine to come to now having to somehow convince people to take it when there’s a surge in cases.
Honestly, I don't particularly care unless it's causing healthcare collapse - at which point people are more likely to vaccinate anyhow.
I personally vaccinate because apparently I love catching Covid. If the vaccine gives me mild symptoms over a short period, sign me up every winter.
This thing has gone from contagious, to super contagious, to super mega ultra contagious, to who knows what next.
People get sick all the time and we're never going to "beat" Covid unless a perfect, permanent vaccine comes out and everyone else dies.
This is an unrealistic and unachievable endgame, so who cares if people want to live without Covid vaccines (again, unless it's causing healthcare collapse).
I'm not saying that I love catching Covid because I can't help but ignore public health guidance - it's because I'll be the only one to catch it out of a group of people every. Damn. Time.
I'm also not trying to get people sick, I work entirely remote and really only see friends and family - but won't go anywhere socially if I'm sick with anything.
At the end of the day, you could live in an antiviral bubble filled with bleach but some random person could cough or touch something they interacted with and make your grandparents sick.
All you and your grandparents can really do is take precautions, and enjoy your loved ones.
Also, I'd say your comment is pretty disingenuous and condescending, it assumes the only way to not kill your grandparents is by getting vaccinated.
Unless they live in a vault, they're gonna be exposed to everything life can throw at them. If you're healthy, but still worried about being asymptotic you can take Covid tests, or if you're their only caretaker you can wrap yourself up hazmat style, it's not like everyone working at a hospital died to Covid exposure, or made 100% of everyone they interacted with sick.
I'm definitely pro vaccine, but it's not some magic security blanket - It's a risk mitigation tool at best
I was not suggesting you were making light of catching covid. I was acknowledging and joining in your little joke.
I never claimed this is the only step I take towards not killing my grandparents. Nor that that's the only benefit I or the people around me get from my being vaccinated. I also wear a seatbelt and don't drive drunk, but stating that doesn't mean I'm claiming I am thus immune from car crashes.
Either you don't know what the word "disingenuous" means, or you're just being rude.
Dude, idk how your original comment reads as joining in on the joke, maybe my reading comprehension sucks but all I'm seeing is condescending and sarcasm
Did we not just go through the single largest pandemic of the century where 7 million people died? Saved by vaccines. And the lessons learnt from that are equal to “live in an antiviral bubble filled with bleach”. Wow.
We all want to get back to normal life. And are by getting vaccinated and not blowing off the concerns of those who are not quite as lucky as you.
How did you take any of my comment as anti vaccine or public health guidance??
You picked up on obvious sarcasm (hyperbole?) and got mega triggered and somehow didn't glean anything else from my original comment.
In case you missed it, a single person taking the absolute maximum amount of caution isn't going to offer 100% protection.
Get vaccinated, don't go out if your sick, wash your hands and don't be a dick. Good for pandemics, and regular life.
Not that hard, but clearly it's far too much for some people. Which is why all the precaution in the world (and bleach) won't beat out something like Covid as these precautions did for less contagious pandemics that were eventually (mostly) wiped out.
This is an unrealistic and unachievable endgame, so who cares if people want to live without Covid vaccines (again, unless it’s causing healthcare collapse).
Hrm, I would say one benefit not to be underestimated is that vaccination ought to be entirely normalized. The more and the more readily it is done, the more it normalizes the process.
Just checked the German recommendations and, yep, I'm still at what the STIKO recommends with three shots (2x comirnaty, 1x spikevax). They're only recommending additional shots for at-risk groups, same as flu shots. And apparently my state leads the statistic with 70% at that level or higher, about 80% with two shots, that all doesn't count immunisation due to catching it. And we were wearing masks because wat mutt dat mutt.
In any case the pandemic has been over for quite some time what are you folks talking about?
I agree. The uptake on the boosters wasn’t where it needed to be either and without mass immunization it’ll never be as impactful as it should be society wide.
The depressing thing for me is that in my country access to COVID vaccines is now limited - you can only get a booster if you're part of the "clinically vulnerable" group. And whilst I kinda get it that the logic is the same as the flu vaccine that it's about reducing hospitalisations, at least with flu we have the option to get the vaccine privately... Which we don't with COVID.
We should be investing in researching longer lasting vaccines. The current mRNA vaccines only give their full protection for about 4 months. Moderna and Pfizer are making insane money by peddling boosters. Here's a great piece from OPB about the topic.