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Medicine

India Crosses the Milestone of 1 Billion COVID-19 Vaccinations (npr.org) 41

India has administered 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine, officials said Thursday, passing a milestone for the South Asian country where the delta variant fueled its first crushing surge earlier this year. From a report: About 75% of India's total eligible adult population have received at least one dose, while around 30% are fully immunized. The country of nearly 1.4 billion people is the second to exceed a billion cumulative doses after the most populous country China did so in June. Coronavirus cases have fallen sharply in India since the devastating months at the start of the year when the highly transmissible delta variant, first detected in the country a year ago, was infecting hundreds of thousands daily, sending COVID-19 patients into overwhelmed hospitals and filling cremation grounds. Officials have bolstered the vaccination campaign in recent months, which experts say have helped control the outbreak since. The country began its drive in January. Still, there remains a worrying gap between those who have received one shot and those fully immunized. Ramping up the second dose is "an important priority," V K Paul, the head of the country's COVID-19 taskforce, said at a briefing last week.
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India Crosses the Milestone of 1 Billion COVID-19 Vaccinations

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  • Well done, India (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ozzymodus12 ( 8111534 ) on Friday October 22, 2021 @11:38AM (#61917663)
    It's nice to see good news every once in a while.
    • around 30% are fully immunized

      Is that really a fair statement when the vaccines they've been using are Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V?

    • And yet you'll still see people referring to the vaccine as "experimental" or "untested".

      I'm pretty sure that when you go into 10 digits of people that have been inoculated, you can't call it untested any more.

  • India can handle itself but many 3rd-world nations simply can't get supply of vaccines. Meanwhile some unseemly Americans are bragging about getting a third covid shot while many people who want them around the world can't get even one. It's not a good look.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Americans are bragging about getting a third covid shot while many people who want them around the world can't get even one.

      It's generally not a zero sum game. Many 3rd world countries simply don't have the infrastructure to store and distribute vaccines even if shiploads arrived at their docks/borders.

      While our military can help with such tasks, many countries are not comfortable with US soldiers lurking around their land.

      • many countries are not comfortable with US soldiers lurking around their land.

        they shouldn't worry too much unless they have an exploitable natural resource that a well connected US company wants.

      • And that's what makes this one impressive, India is an impoverished country with massive overpopulation, massive poverty, and people living in isolated villages in the middle of nowhere with nothing, but they've still achieved a higher vaccination rate (first-shot so far) than many parts of the US have.

  • Not "immunized". (Score:2, Informative)

    It's "vaccinated".

    The two terms mean different things. Immunized means the drug confers lifelong immunity from infection, so you only need it basically once (or once every few decades). Think measles shot.

    Vaccinated means the shot wears off eventually and you have to keep getting new ones. Think seasonal flu.

    That's the rough situation.

    All covid vaccines so far wear off, so you get vaccinated with them, not immunised.

    • by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      > All covid vaccines so far wear off, so you get vaccinated with them, not immunized.

      So if you're vaccinated, you need to get revaccinated every 6 months to top off protection.

      But if you have natural immunity, you get sick every 16 months to top off protection.

      https://thehill.com/changing-a... [thehill.com]

      • by fazig ( 2909523 )
        What you imply by using that phrasing is not really what the article says.

        Quote from the article:

        The study determined that natural immunity is somewhat short, and in a model where everyone has either been infected with COVID-19 or vaccinated against it, those who are unvaccinated can expect to be reinfected with the coronavirus roughly every 16-17 months.

        There's no statement about the vaccinated.
        So what does the study say about vaccinated people? Let's take a look at the actual paper: https://www.ncbi.n [nih.gov]

        • by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

          > Really the only thing that can plausibly be speculated based on this is that the mentioned 'peak antibody response' is stronger in those who recover from an infection

          Does anyone question this. Even Sanjay Gupta admitted this on The Joe Rogan Experience.

          > But if you consider that each infection bears a lot more risk than getting the vaccine, that's still some really stupid Russian roulette you're playing there.
          Most, > 60% of people beat it and don't even know they had it or thought it was a commo

          • by fazig ( 2909523 )
            If you use a scientific paper as evidence, at least bother reading to the entire conclusion/discussion section that they wrote. Don't be like a lot of those idiot science journalists who read some headline or a quote from a press release and then let their (scientifically illiterate) imagination fly free.
            That is not how science works. That is how Star Trek episode of the week plot writing works. It can make for entertaining stories, but it's very bad if you're interesting in finding solutions.


            You see th
  • Fully immunized? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WoodstockJeff ( 568111 ) on Friday October 22, 2021 @12:02PM (#61917777) Homepage

    About 75% of India's total eligible adult population have received at least one dose, while around 30% are fully immunized.

    "Fully immunized" is a phrase full of expectations that aren't being realized. Vaccines do not provide "full immunity", just "improved immunity" or "improved resistance". To say otherwise gives the anti-vax people ammunition when breakthrough cases occur.

    Additionally, different vaccines have different recommended dosages. Some are one dose, the most popular require two. Although at least one now recommends three. There may be a need for annual boosters.

    So the correct phrasing would be "have received all recommended doses" of the vaccine in use.

    • Re:Fully immunized? (Score:4, Informative)

      by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Friday October 22, 2021 @12:53PM (#61917941) Journal
      Vaccines do not provide "full immunity", just "improved immunity" or "improved resistance".

      You and the poster a few posts above you should get your stories straight. They were parsing the difference being being vaccinated and being immunized. According to them, immunization provides full immunity. You cannot contract whatever. You are saying the opposite.

      To say otherwise gives the anti-vax people ammunition when breakthrough cases occur.

      The morons will find any excuse regardless of the facts. The number of people who have died from covid despite receiving the vaccine is something around 7,000. That is compared to the overal total of approximately 740,000 who have died. That works out to 0.009%. To them, that just shows how ineffective these vaccines are (that's sarcasm in case you missed it).

      What they deliberately fail to mention, and will deny, is the vast majority of those 7,000 people were above the age or 65 and/or had underlying medical conditions, two groups already known to be at risk from covid.

      They don't lack ammunition when it comes to lies and conspiracy theories. Just intelligence.
    • To say otherwise gives the anti-vax people ammunition when breakthrough cases occur.

      The goal is to educate, not cater to morons who don't understand the difference between immunization and actually being immune. The anti-vax people don't need ammunition. They'll just make up bullshit on their own. The people on the fringe... well they are the ones still open to the idea of learning and are likely receptive to the idea of "fully immunized" being a definition related to a drug, not a declaration of your body's ability to combat a virus.

    • by iamacat ( 583406 )

      "Fully immunized" is a phrase full of expectations that aren't being realized. Vaccines do not provide "full immunity", just "improved immunity" or "improved resistance". To say otherwise gives the anti-vax people ammunition when breakthrough cases occur.

      It's not a binary. To the degree that vaccines are shown less effective or less durable, anti-vaxxers have a stronger argument against mandates - especially if their personal risk is small due to demographics / natural immunity.

      So far it looks like lasting

    • About 75% of India's total eligible adult population have received at least one dose, while around 30% are fully immunized.

      "Fully immunized" is a phrase full of expectations that aren't being realized. Vaccines do not provide "full immunity", just "improved immunity" or "improved resistance". To say otherwise gives the anti-vax people ammunition when breakthrough cases occur.

      Additionally, different vaccines have different recommended dosages. Some are one dose, the most popular require two. Although at least one now recommends three. There may be a need for annual boosters.

      So the correct phrasing would be "have received all recommended doses" of the vaccine in use.

      Better phrasing would be "fully vaccinated" which can always be amended to include "with a booster".

    • by dddux ( 3656447 )

      Totally agree. Many people think one is enough, thinking in terms of old style vaccines, but this is a different virus and a different kind of a vaccine.

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