Covid-19 Vaccine

[Tom King]

Not sure respect is my position on their decision.  I don't want anyone near me that hasn't been vaccinated.

[Mark J]

I belong to three clubs, each of which is holding a holiday party.  Now I have to decide whether  to attend in the face of rising cases of Delta.  On the one hand I've had a booster, but on the other there's more Delta now than a month ago.

[RichardA]

5 hours ago, Tom King said:

Not sure respect is my position on their decision.  I don't want anyone near me that hasn't been vaccinated.

So your saying that the vaccination you've received isn't worth anything.  Then it's not a vaccination it's merely a medicine, that doesn't seem to have any benefits.  How wonderful.

[legenddc]

On 12/6/2021 at 9:12 AM, RichardA said:

So your saying that the vaccination you've received isn't worth a shit.  Then it's not a vaccination it's merely a medicine, that doesn't seem to have any benefits.  How wonderful.

My car has seatbelts and airbags but I still avoid drunk drivers if I see one. Doesn’t mean my seatbelts and airbags don’t work. 

[RichardA]

On 12/6/2021 at 10:51 AM, legenddc said:

My car has seatbelts and airbags but I still avoid drunk drivers if I see one. Doesn’t mean my seatbelts and airbags don’t work. 

This is a stupid argument....  If you are vaccinated, and you still are able to get the disease, you are not vaccinated.  If you are vaccinated, you can still pass this disease to others vaccinated or not.  This is not a vaccine, it's a preventive medicine, that doesn't do what it's supposed to do .  Every other vaccine has protected people from the disease.  This one doesn't prevent crap.   By the way, I'm forced to wear a helmet when I ride a motorcycle, but it doesn't protect the rest of me.

[Tom King]

The vaccine trains ones immune system to fight the virus, if it shows up in the system.  If one has a poor immune system, or compromised by some complications, Colin Powell as an example, that immune system can't take advantage of the vaccine.

You might get sick from the virus, if you're vaccinated, but with an already trained immune system, if you have a good one, you won't get very sick, and slim chance of getting sick enough to have to go in the hospital, and close to zero chance of dying. 

The vaccine cuts down on transmissibility by, at least, 40 to 60%.  That's enough to make a difference all around.

Of the about 1500 people who died yesterday, not one with a good immune system, who had been vaccinated, died.  I forget the number, but of the vaccinated ones, compromised immune system or not, who died were in the single digits.

I've done my part for not spreading this virus, and don't want to be around anyone who has not.  Simple as that.  It would have been over long ago, if everyone had done their part.

The vaccines have been proven that they are effective.  Only disinformation says that they aren't.

[RichardA]

I haven't had polio in my entire life. I was "Vaccinated" against it, as well as other vaccines that have kept the disease for EVER attacking me.   Again, you can spin it any way you like. But, It's not a vaccine, it's nothing more than a medicine, exactly like your every year flu shot.  The flu shot is not a vaccine it's a medicine.  Before all this woke crap, the dictionary says a vaccine prevents you from allowing the disease from ever harming you.  This  is not a good disease, agreed, but lying to the public about it being one thing when it's actually another, is lying period.

  This is my last comment on this post.  You believe what you prefer to believe and I'll believe in my way.  Have a nice day.

[JohnG]

Richard, I don’t think you understand how vaccines work. 

No vaccine can keep anything from attacking you. The vaccine trains your immune system to recognize the infection and quickly attack it. The infection has to be already in your system (and by definition attacking your cells), but often your immune system kills the infection before you feel much, if any, of the symptoms. Sometimes, however, an individual’s immune system won’t make the proper reaction to the vaccine and does not react quickly enough when they are exposed to the disease and the person gets sick. Other times, the virus mutates and and individual’s immune system does not recognize the mutated version as harmful, and therefore does not attack it soon enough to kill it before the person gets sick. 

The fact that you have never had polio has just as much to do with living in the USA as having the vaccine. Polio is nearly eradicated. There were only 140 reported cases in 2020. This comes from nearly 50 years of high vaccination rates. The early versions of the vaccine were only 50-60% effective. Now they are 99+% effective after all doses.

The flu shot IS a vaccine. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/flushot.htm
It is reformulated every year to target the strains of the flu virus that are expected, so the effectiveness fluctuates every year. As with EVERY vaccine, it is not 100% effective.

[wtnhighlander]

Good point about the Flu vaccine. I suspect there will soon be "seasonal" revisions to the COVID-19 series of vaccines as well, since it is mutating rapidly, same way influenza does.

I recently listened to a "Stuff You Should Know" podcast that described, in layman's terms, how the mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 works, as compared to 'weakened virus' vaccines, like the polio vaccine Richard mentioned. Seems that the mRNA type informs the immune system by 'training' it, rather than weakly attacking it so that it figures things out by experience. Sort of like sending your immune system to boot camp, rather than dumping it on the edge of a battlefield. The result is far faster to produce and modify as needed, since it is created in a lab, not grown in a culture.

Now, just as a reminder, politics and religion are verboten subjects. Let's take care to avoid letting a valid discussion stray into those areas, please.

[Tom King]

Over 92% of people in this country are vaccinated for Polio.  If 92% were vaccinated for Covid, that would not be a worry either.  As long as only about half are vaccinated, it will be with us, and no telling how many different mutations we'll see.

No vaccine is 100% effective, and they don't need to be. 

[Mark J]

I've been called back to give vaccinations on Monday.  It's just one day so far, but I'm looking forward to it.  

[Mark J]

27 boosters in 3 hours.  A good day, but unfortunately only a one day event.  Hopefully there will be others.

[Tom King]

Another one of our retired neighbors died from Covid, a couple of days ago.  He had been retired for less than a year.  Unvaccinated.  He had Covid the first Winter it was here, so I guess that was not quite two years ago.  I don't know how long he had been in the hospital.

Our county shows up as one that has low numbers of cases, but I think that's because there is no hospital in this county.  Everyone who has died from it has been in some city, away from here, like Richmond, so I guess they don't count that as here.

Mark, every 27 more is a Good thing!!

[treeslayer]

I hear this over and over again, just had a friends brother die from it, he and his wife didn’t believe in the vaccine, his brother urged him to get the shot and he said no, said his wife wouldn’t approve, it’s never going away and we will be getting a shot for it every year just like the flu shot

[Coop]

I have a 240# or so, 6’3” neighbor that I finally convinced to take the vaccine. Since childhood, he has been scared of shots. He’s a cattle rancher and is a brute. I think his wuss is a minority. For those in doubt, what do you have to loose? I appreciate those that choose not to get vaccinated, to wear a mask in public. 

[krtwood]

Had my booster on Sat.  Was feeling better today but now just as I'm about to go to bed I get the chills again so bad I'm shaking.  Another fun night for the team.

Here's a fun one.  We have no idea how many people are vaccinated in my state.  They passed a law that required people to be asked for consent to share their info.  The state shut down all the state run sites and passed it off to pharmacies, but didn't set up the pharmacies to be able to ask people for consent and report that back.  So they haven't been able to enter ANYBODY's info in the state database since June, and you know five months just isn't enough time to do anything about it.  The CDC has their own data, but they managed to anonymize it in a way that they can't tell when somebody is getting a booster or their first shot.  So now according to the CDC we have a 90% 1st shot vaccination rate because practically everyone that has gotten a booster has been recorded as being a first shot instead.  I wonder what they're going to do when our rate gets over 100%?  

I remember looking at various state websites earlier in the year and seeing massive discrepancies between the recorded shots administered and people vaccinated.  Hundreds of thousands off.  I couldn't make any sense of the data.   I have a lot more confidence in the vaccine than I do the people in charge of telling us how many vaccines they've given.

And I'm not shaking anymore, quickly to bed...

[MikeW]

I will only add very little to this topic since it is so controversial.  My only issue with the it's my body, it's my choice stance is that your decision affects the well-being of others.  If it was not communicable, there would be no issue.  There are cancer patients and other immunocompromised people that have very little protection regardless of their vaccination status.  I have witnessed, albeit an incredibly low sample size, where vaccinated friends got Covid from an unvaccinated individual, yet they did not pass it on to other vaccinated family members in their same household.  I have been educated and employed in the regulatory affairs profession for almost 30 years and I have faith in our development and authorization/approval process.  I wish you good health regardless of your choice.

[pkinneb]

Mark and others thanks for all you are doing to help get this virus under control!

While I typically will not seek medical attn or get shots etc unnecessarily hell I won't even take an aspirin unless my head is falling off I have been vaccinated primarily becuase this one hits close to home for my wife and I. Her Aunt and uncle are about to outlive all three of their kids I cannot even imagine losing one of my three children...anyway there middle son died of cancer 20 years ago, there oldest died of Covid early on, he was the administrator of a nursing home and died pre vaccine. Now their youngest (unvacinated) is in ICU with Covid and the prognosis isn't good...

Please think about others as you make your vaccination decisions!

Stay safe and have a great holiday with your family's!

[Chestnut]

Good work Mark! I was looking into booster appointments as it's been about six months since my second dose now. I thought it'd be easier as time went on but appointments are few and far between. I was hoping it would be to walk-in availability by now.

I appreciate every person that gets vaccinated either to protect them selves or to help protect others. I don't fear getting Covid myself but I do fear passing it to a person that would be unable to physically cope with the illness.

[Chet]

On 12/14/2021 at 11:23 AM, Chestnut said:

I thought it'd be easier as time went on but appointments are few and far between. I was hoping it would be to walk-in availability by now.

All of our pharmacies here in the S.F. Bay Area aren't to the point of walk-in but you can go online and get an appointment with in a day or two.

[legenddc]

I scheduled my booster appointment a couple of weeks ago but they had a ton of closer openings. I just wanted to time it so I could go when my daughter got her second shot. Both were yesterday afternoon and we're still feeling fine.

My daughter is such a trooper with shots. They had to draw blood for a few days right after she was born and she would only cry for the cold alcohol swap but would stop before they stuck her. She's only cried once since then and she continues to freak out whoever is giving her a shot by watching it. It's very entertaining to see them try to distract her but she watches and has no reaction.

[Coop]

Getting close to home. My sil tested positive today with two shots and a booster. She feels good now and haven’t seen her in a week. My granddaughter tested positive today for the second time in  14 months and we had lunch with her on Wednesday with a bunch of hugs. I may have to isolate to my shop for two weeks! Damn!

Not making light of the situation as it might be more serious but hopefully not. 

[Tom King]

Young, healthy, and vaccinated shouldn't suffer much.

The last time I posted on this thread, I told about an unvaccinated neighbor who had died from it.  I heard later that his Wife couldn't go to what funeral services they had for him  because she had it.  She has since died too.   She was unvaccinated.  I didn't really know them, other than what they looked like, but they were both some older than me.

[Mark J]

I heard an interesting fact on the news.  We've heard that the Omicron is 3-5 times more contagious than Delta, but it also replicates seventy times faster.  To me that explains why Omicron is able to cause illness in the boosted population.  The host's immunologic response is initially slower than the viruses reproduction (my theory).  The host's response ramps up and in most cases is able to defeat the virus before illness becomes severe.  For folks who are vaccinated, but not boosted their immune systems are a little "out of practice", so the disease may progress farther.  

[Coop]

We tested yesterday and just were notified that both my wife and I are positive. We both have had sinus symptoms for the last 2-3 weeks and feel no different than before. Not proof positive that the two shots and and the booster helped but .......!