are we vaccinated against COVID?

[JohnRoberts]

In Europe. Can't without appointment.

But not in any high risk group, or planning to travel, and live in countryside. Even before Covid everyone here socially distanced (rural thing).

I'm glad you are well. I had to drive to another county to get my two jabs.

The western vaccines are very effective at preventing serious illness and/or death even from Delta variant. So in my judgement a worthwhile investment for most people.

JR

[edit our other two holdouts are still radio silent. I hope they will both consider getting vaccinated to avoid serious illness and/or death. This virus will keep circulating around the world until it gets almost everybody who is unvaccinated sick, including some who are vaccinaed (I know I'm not helping persuade, but vaccinated people who contract the delta variant suffer a much less serious illness). /edit]

 

[boji]

current vaccines are just as effective against it

Recent Making Sense podcast guest said ~10% reduction in effectivity for variant D.

Question: Were antibiotic-resistant superbugs always around, or did they form in response to generalized antibiotic treatments?

until it gets almost everybody who is unvaccinated sick, including some who are vaccinated

Is not the transmission mechanism of influenza the same as covid? How would herd immunity work exactly, given the flu's perennial nature?

 

[Tubetec]

Antibiotic resistant super bugs have evolved directly from the over use of antibiotics , farm animals in particular are often dosed regardless if their sick or not . That practise in just about to be banned by the vetrinary council here in Ireland . MRSA has been doing the rounds in hospitals for years , it is an interesting question someone posed ,either here or in the vaccination thread that could MRSA type infections also be implicated in many covid related deaths , especially in the old or infirm . Other bugs have also become resistant to treatment with the usual front line antibiotics , certain high risk groups due to promiscuity have landed themselves with a variety of syphylis that doesnt respond to conventional treatments . So yeah in my limited understanding its a man made problem not something which simply occured in nature .

 

[JohnRoberts]

Recent Making Sense podcast guest said ~10% reduction in effectivity for variant D.

? is that 10% reduction in infection, or hospitalization and/or death.

Question: Were antibiotic-resistant superbugs always around, or did they form in response to generalized antibiotic treatments?

I am not the resident infectious diseases expert and bacterial infections are probably different than virus. The popular wisdom is that resistant bacteria come from misuse and overuse of antibiotics.

For example if you get prescribed a weeks worth of antibiotics to treat some dental infection, but after a couple days the anti-biotic looked like it worked so well that you stopped taking it. The resistant bacteria that survived the initial assault are now the only bacteria left alive in your mouth since all the normal bacteria are now dead. The resistant survivors now have all the food and the anti-biotic treatment has stopped so they grow stronger and spread. If the doctor says take the medicine for 7 days that is not a suggestion but based on science.

Another factor is use of antibiotics added to animal feed to promote growth (probably illegal almost everywhere now). Less sick cattle gain more weight and make more profit... but all those antibiotics knocking down the normal bacteria colonies creates an opportunity for resistant strains to rise and make mischief.

It's not nice to fool mother nature. Popular wisdom suggests we need to vaccinate as many people as possible against covid as soon as possible, but humans are so human.

Is not the transmission mechanism of influenza the same as covid? How would herd immunity work exactly, given the flu's perennial nature?

Corona virus are fairly well known and studied. Recall that Covid 19 was called a "novel" or new coronavirus. As in a new variant. Flu may appear seasonal to us in one place, but travels around the world constantly ebbing and flowing stronger and weaker with the seasons in different regions of the world (maybe global warming will wipe out covid ...... joke).

Herd immunity applies for given strains of covid. I am optimistic that the mRNA vaccines that take a slightly different approach (spike protein) might cover more different variants, but it is easy to imagine annual Covid booster shots, tweaked to protect against latest variants.

As I have shared before Moderna is working on a combo flu/covid shot.

JR

 

[Tubetec]

Im trying to figure out the motivation for this 'are we vaccinated poll ' we all more or less know where we stand on this issue from other threads , what precisely will getting people to fly flags either for or against vaccination achieve ? only more division?

Ive expounded at great lenght here about my own personal experiences of the medical/pharma/chemical sector and told many other stories of people who didnt escape and are now dead or left with much more serious complications due to prescription pills . Instead of pointing the finger or singling out people who dont concur with your view John , imagine yourself in their shoes and ask yourself why do people mistrust the medical system , maybe because its crooked and even if it could make you better its not in its interest to do so , keeping people 'sub clinical' for the rest of their lives is however very very profitable . I'm not saying that getting vaxed doesnt appear to give some short term benefits , in the longer term, lets face it even the best scientists havent a clue of the outcome of this experiment , as you illuded to picking a fight with nature we often dont come out best . Tinkering with the genetics of a virus then re-introducing it into a population when we dont even know for sure if the original strain was from a lab sounds a bit crazy to me .

 

[boji]

? is that 10% reduction in infection, or hospitalization and/or death.

I've no idea how they arrived at that number, nor if it applies to all vax makers. Guessing symptoms that require a hospital visit.

Recall that Covid 19 was called a "novel" or new coronavirus. As in a new variant.

"Phenotypic analysis of shared genes revealed significant enrichment for immune system phenotypes and for cardiovascular-related phenotypes, which might point to alleles and phenotypes in mouse models that could be evaluated for clues to COVID-19 severity. Through pathway analysis, we identified enriched pathways shared by comorbidity datasets and datasets associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection."

Yea novel. "enriched pathways"

easy to imagine annual Covid booster shots, tweaked to protect against latest variants.

Symptoms and transmissibility? If only "loss-of-function" research projects were the standard.