COVID Booster Cuts Death Rate by 90%, Israeli Study Finds (usnews.com) 154
An Israeli study tracked more than 843,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine — and then explored whether the results improved for the 758,000 who then also got a booster shot.
The results? HealthDay reports: Boosted folks are 90% less likely to die from a Delta infection than people relying solely on the initial two-dose vaccination, Israeli data show.
That protection will be critically important during the next couple of months as the Delta variant continues to dominate throughout the United States, said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "While we are preoccupied with Omicron, you need to remember that Delta is essentially in every town and city in the United States today — being transmitted, infecting new people, sending people to the hospital, in some parts of the country stressing the health care system once again," Schaffner said. "Although we have Omicron in the United States and it's starting to take hold, nonetheless well over 95% of all new infections today are caused by Delta...."
A second study out of Israel focused on infection and severity of illness, and it also produced good tidings for boosters in the face of the Delta variant. This study involved nearly 4.7 million Israelis who'd been fully vaccinated with Pfizer and were eligible for boosters. Confirmed infections were tenfold lower in the group of people who got the Pfizer booster, researchers reported. Further, results showed that the longer a booster was in a person's system, the more resistant they became to infection from the Delta strain.
The results? HealthDay reports: Boosted folks are 90% less likely to die from a Delta infection than people relying solely on the initial two-dose vaccination, Israeli data show.
That protection will be critically important during the next couple of months as the Delta variant continues to dominate throughout the United States, said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "While we are preoccupied with Omicron, you need to remember that Delta is essentially in every town and city in the United States today — being transmitted, infecting new people, sending people to the hospital, in some parts of the country stressing the health care system once again," Schaffner said. "Although we have Omicron in the United States and it's starting to take hold, nonetheless well over 95% of all new infections today are caused by Delta...."
A second study out of Israel focused on infection and severity of illness, and it also produced good tidings for boosters in the face of the Delta variant. This study involved nearly 4.7 million Israelis who'd been fully vaccinated with Pfizer and were eligible for boosters. Confirmed infections were tenfold lower in the group of people who got the Pfizer booster, researchers reported. Further, results showed that the longer a booster was in a person's system, the more resistant they became to infection from the Delta strain.
And yet ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Cue people who don't understand (*) how percentages and statistics work to use this to claim vaccines don't work in 3... 2... 1...
(*) Or don't want to understand.
Re:And yet ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty much. "What, there are vaccinated people dying? The whole thing must be completely ineffective!" Morons. Literally.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
What do you think a chance of unvaccinated individual getting a booster?
I get your point, but... Not sure how an unvaccinated person would get a booster w/o first getting the "regular" vaccinations (1 for J&J, 2 for Pfizer/Moderna) unless they brought in a fake vaccination card showing they got the other shots. That said, at the moment, as far as I know, all the boosters are simply smaller doses of the original shots so it doesn't really make that much difference now. I do know the Moderna booster (3rd shot) is half the volume of the 2nd shot. Going forward, it's possibl
Re: (Score:2)
What do you think a chance of unvaccinated individual getting a booster?
I get your point, but... Not sure how an unvaccinated person would get a booster w/o first getting the "regular" vaccinations (1 for J&J, 2 for Pfizer/Moderna) unless they brought in a fake vaccination card showing they got the other shots.
Yup, When I went to get my booster, I had to provide my vaccination card.
Considering that the original vaccines are still available, it makes no sense for a person who wants vaccination to ask for the booster only.
Re: And yet ... (Score:2)
So, low risk... lowered further through vaccination, and then lowered again through a booster. Seems like it's working exactly as intended. What's the problem again?
Re: (Score:2)
The problem isn't with the vaccine of course, but with the morons who think this proves that they don't work and it's all just a scheme for the government and/or pharma to fuck you
Re: (Score:2)
It's also the case that even more among vaccinated the vast majority of deaths are concentrated in those who are 65+ and immunocompromised. For these groups vaccines are not as effective (weaker immune response) and a booster can bridge the gap.
Lumping everyone into the same cohort knowing how stratified the risk is, is telling a lie.
This is exactly what the FDA VRBPAC committee recommended (before being overruled) - authorize boosters for people 65+ and immunocompromised, not the general populace. Because
Re: (Score:2)
Re: And yet ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"You don't usually give vaccines to folks that are immunocompromised."
You mean in a clinical study or in practice or something else. Regardless, this isnt really true. It may be in some circumstances but not all.
Clinically, the immunocompromised are often those most encouraged to be vaccinated. The exception is live virus vaccines which are in the minority of vaccines. Even live vaccines are still used in immunocompromised patients at times. MMR is live. I recommended at provided it to all my HIV
Re: And yet ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is a nice explanation!
Re: (Score:2)
Cue people who don't understand (*) how percentages and statistics work to use this to claim vaccines don't work in 3... 2... 1...
(*) Or don't want to understand.
In fairness, it is only 90% effective at reducing deaths. Since it's not 100% effective it is clearly a failure and no one should get a booster shot because of this.
It's like when someone only gets a 90% on a test. They are a complete failure.
Re: (Score:2)
90% sounds good, I got my booster already, but honestly it doesn't sound good enough and I wish more people would mask in outdoor areas like sidewalks where they're frequently coming very close to other people.
I'm seeing a lot of statistics-idiocy on all sides of this.
Re: (Score:3)
Outdoor transmission is pretty much nil except in very crowded situations where there isn't much air flow. Masking outdoors is mostly performative.
Re: (Score:2)
That depends on so many factors that a statement likes your is in general: false
If I sneeze into your face, you easy get it. Regardless of weather, temperature, moisture. And if a 1 yard distance, while I'm breathing is enough: depends if the droplets I breath out, disperse or fall down or float upward before you breath them in.
So, good luck with your attitude.
The only way for you to be save from me would be a strong wind and you are standing windward, but then: you would hit me.
Re: (Score:2)
Jesus Christ. 90% improvement for the booster over a 90% improvement for vaccination for a virus with a 99.95% survival rate. You mask guys are freaks. You guys would force us to wear masks forever. You just need to stay home. Are you really that afraid of COVID? Talk about statistics-idocy.
Are you so selfish and self-centered that you can't wear a small piece of cloth over your face in public to possibly help protect others from an illness than may cause serious sickness and/or kill them? Especially if you're unvaccinated -- for whatever, few valid, but most invalid reasons? From the sound of it, I'm guessing yes.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you so selfish and self-centered that you can't wear a small piece of cloth over your face in public to possibly help protect others from an illness than may cause serious sickness and/or kill them? Especially if you're unvaccinated -- for whatever, few valid, but most invalid reasons? From the sound of it, I'm guessing yes.
Get the shot and the booster. That's what it's for. Stop trying to force others to do your bidding.
I got the shot, am getting the booster, and you can shove the mask up your ass.
Re: (Score:3)
There's a point of diminishing returns for everything. Masks also help stop the spread of the flu which has traditionally killed thousands of people every year too. We didn't wear masks before COVID because requiring such a behavior from all of humanity simply didn't make sense for the small reduction in cases.
I have no problem with a vaccination. Its a quick jab, followed by at most a day or so or symptoms (I only had side effects on my initial vaccine - with the booster I felt fine afterwards). A mask
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The rate that COVID causes death is something like 0.1%
It is actually 3% - 3.7%, depending on country.
After 2 years of COVID and getting bombarded with death ratios: you should know that.
Re: (Score:2)
Death rate is high in unhealthy USA, https://www.worldometers.info/... [worldometers.info] The rate looks like 1.6% and that's potentially not including undiagnosed people.
I think educating people in how to strengthen their immune system would be just as beneficial as a booster shot. The government have put all their eggs in one basket with regards to vaccines.
Re: (Score:2)
Death rate is high in unhealthy USA, https://www.worldometers.info/... [worldometers.info] The rate looks like 1.6% and that's potentially not including undiagnosed people.
I think educating people in how to strengthen their immune system would be just as beneficial as a booster shot. The government have put all their eggs in one basket with regards to vaccines.
Strengthening immune systems - to what extent is that possible, and how effective is it? If it's hard to get people to wear masks then I can't see an immune system strengthening strategy working unless it's as trivial as just, maybe, a jab in the arm.
Re: (Score:2)
Having a strong immune system doesn't just protect against flu viruses it can give a wide range of protection, reducing risk of heart disease, cancer, and protecting against many viruses. Exercise gives all kinds of benefits including reduced inflammation longer lifespan etc.
The modern lifestyle destroys peoples vitamin D levels in may ways. Sleep deficit lowers vitamin D intake, showering with soaps (detergent) lowers vitamin D intake, sunscreen lowers vitamin D intake. This adds up to half the populations
Re: (Score:2)
Having a strong immune system doesn't just protect against flu viruses it can give a wide range of protection, reducing risk of heart disease, cancer, and protecting against many viruses.
Absolutely, but what are the workable options?
Exercise gives all kinds of benefits including reduced inflammation longer lifespan etc.
The modern lifestyle destroys peoples vitamin D levels in may ways. Sleep deficit lowers vitamin D intake, showering with soaps (detergent) lowers vitamin D intake, sunscreen lowers vitamin D intake. This adds up to half the populations of EU, North America and many more countries having vitamin D deficiency which leads to substantially weakened immune systems.
Is this supported by peer review?
Re: (Score:2)
Feel free to look it up.
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factshe... [nih.gov]
There are a zillion studies showing the benefits of vitamin d sufficiency and the levels of vitamin d deficiency worldwide, this is fact the same as high blood blood pressure is bad for your heart is fact AKA it is consensus.
There is very little vitamin D in food, it is mostly obtained via sunshine creating vitamin D in fatty cholesterol deposits on the surface of our skin. If you're not getting a tan or taking supplements then you're getting vitamin
Re: (Score:2)
The analogy I've tried to start using is making a basket on a basketball court. You're offered $5000 if you can make the basket from half court.
Would you rather have 3 attempts or 30?
With 3 attempts you may very well make the shot. Hell you might sink it on your first attempt. And you could very well miss every time with the 30 attempts.
You can win or lose in either scenario, but that doesn't mean they're equal and that the person with the 30 attempts has no advantage.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. Plus the fact that folks that go to the trouble of getting the booster are also the same folks that are proactively doing distancing, separation and hygiene.
One of the craziest things I learned about people in these crazy times, is just how many people are filthy disgusting creatures. Jesus, wash yer damn hands and take a shower once in a while folks!
I used to call the great unwashed pigs, but the National Pork Council threatened to sue me for libeling pigs.
Re: (Score:2)
To some degree I think this is the case. I'll admit that I've long stopped wearing masks (and nowhere where I'm at cares - you might see 1 out of 20 people wearing one). I'm vaccinated (J&J) and have had a booster (Moderna), but I'm still not sure I would have caught COVID because I'm just not that social to begin with. I make the occasional trip to the grocery store and get some takeout - using a drive-thru if its available. I work in person but I have a private office and mostly just work to mysel
Re: And yet ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Did you eat mud too? I hear the conspiracy theorists are doing it these days.
Holy crap a high-powered study of boosters (Score:2)
With tight enough error bars to justify the conclusions and recommendations.
Wow.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that's the difference between a *study* and a *clinical report*. A field observation is what it is, but you generally don't get to claim a result in a study without showing statistical significance.
This is something the popular press doesn't understand, along with the fact that neither studies nor field observations are necessarily consistently repeatable.
Re: Holy crap a high-powered study of boosters (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Now we have actual evidence that they are probably the most effective intervention.
What do you mean by "most effective"? The highest numbers I have seen is that N95 masks reduce infection risk by 30% when properly worn.
Re: (Score:2)
That is the risk to get infected
And not the risk to spread it to someone else.
Re: (Score:2)
In Asia it was the *sick* people wearing masks. The goal is to prevent the spread of disease. You're comparing that to statistics of how masks prevent you yourself getting sick.
Completely different purpose, and one only tangentially important to preventing the spread of disease or controlling a pandemic.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I saw this thing on the news where some guy won the lottery and now he doesn't have to go to work anymore. We should all do that! What could go wrong?
Re: (Score:2)
I would have expected a better analogy from such a low number.
Re: (Score:2)
If you spend more time here, you'll come to recognize his handle and lower your expectations.
Re: (Score:2)
Point taken. I used to, but the mob mentality that seems to have crept into this place, at least by the count of the loudest comments, felt depressing and I checked out, even if it is still better than most other places.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm saving the better analogies for better posts.
Re: Holy crap a high-powered study of boosters (Score:2)
"I'm not obligated to educate you"
is best read as
"I have no idea, I just feel like you're wrong and the guy who tells me you're stupid and evil is right."
This is more of the same face-saving rhetorical trickery.
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, I provided the education. He just didn't find the story as entertaining as he hoped it would be.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think surgeons and doctors wear masks on a regular basis and have done so for a long time? Mostly for show?
Re: (Score:2)
A common, ill fitted mask, with plenty of room around the nose, that people don't wear properly and don't dispose of after single use -- do you? -- is, when it comes to the covid virus, like a weak DRM, that slows piracy just a little.
Re: (Score:2)
You're perpetuating the same bullshit false dichotomy that people use against airbags and seat belts. They also don't fully prevent people from getting hurt. But without them the average outcome of a car crash would still be much worse.
Re: (Score:2)
Another bad analogy. Seat belts are a minor discomfort and airbags you don't even see. Masks reduce your air inflow -- there is nothing more essential than breathing -- and are a major inconvenience, increase chances of infection through contact with the face when you put them on and off, diminish the most essential component of person-to-person interaction where you react to another person by their face, make it difficult to speak, difficult to understand a person, and instill that something terribly fearf
Re: (Score:2)
For other people that are bad at abstraction some more words for the analogy:
Like with many protective measures (like wearing a bullet proof west), if you push your luck, thinking that the measure will make you invulnerable, you're an idiot. All protective meas
Re: (Score:2)
Your analogy is so bad is hard to know where to begin. Unlike seatbelts, masks, if worn properly, primarily protect others (from your spitballs) from you, not yourself; if you are wearing a mask and no one else does, it does very little for you, whereas you can be the only one around wearing a seatbelt and your risk of death is greatly reduced. Second, seatbelt related risk is not multiplicative: your not wearing a seatbelt doesn't expose other drivers to greater injury (an argument in favor of masks, in ca
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Holy crap a high-powered study of boosters (Score:2)
Masks are less effective in preventing you from inhaling airborne virus particles; they are there to prevent the particles from being made airborne through exhaling. You probably were the victim of some douche wearing a tissue-thin neck gaiter or an incorrectly fitting (and thus ineffective) mask shedding virus particles.
Think of it like pants - if you wear pants and someone pees on your leg, you are still getting peed on. If they are wearing pants and start peeing, they get peed on and you stay dry.
Re: (Score:2)
Masks are less effective in preventing you from inhaling airborne virus particles; they are there to prevent the particles from being made airborne through exhaling.
PRECISELY!
Which is why every time I see some IDIOT in a car, all by him/herself, wearing a mask, I feel sad for humanity.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sometimes it's easier to just leave it on. As a reasonably fit person, I have no trouble breathing with a mask on, so rather than messing around with it it's easier just to leave it.
You might also be sad to know I will even keep a hat on in my car even though it's heated!
Re: (Score:2)
The idiot is most likely you.
He probably forgot to put the mask down.
Or he just dropped a passenger and is home in 2 minutes and does not care.
Or he knows: he is prone to forget to pull the mask up again when he leaves the car, and got fined already 5 times and does not want to risk it again.
Or: he knows he is stopping in 1 minute at a gas station, and just has pulled up the mask one minute before.
IDIOT!
Re: (Score:2)
The idiot is most likely you.
Go fuck yourself, you liberal piece of shit.
Re: (Score:2)
It could have been all the kids jumping around and screaming, which then, true, does mean masks are inefficient when worn by unmoving, unspeaking adults in settings not worth spending more than 15 minutes at.
I do agree entirely with your statement though; I just wonder how often masks are worn well enough to be efficient, and how much the benefit outside of those optimal conditions outweighs the harm of the dehumanization from not seeing faces of people you interact with.
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately that misunderstanding is not confined to the press. It bleeds into political appointees like Rochelle Wollensky and upper level civil servants at the CDC who include incorrect information from press reports into internal briefings and deliberations.
Which is how we got zomg mask up again after that Provincetown cluster of cases in July based on a field report that took a snapshot of "viral loads" at one point in time without bothering to do repeat measurements to monitor viral load vs time or to determine if that viral load in vaccinated individuals represented viable live virus or merely viral rna fragments from antibody-inactivated virons.
Do you live in a world where the answer to every problem is known already? And if the answer is not known, you do nothing at all?
Re: Holy crap a high-powered study of boosters (Score:2)
Precisely because I don't live in such a world, I am highly skeptical of what I judge to be very shoddy science, and decisions based almost exclusively on shoddy science and superstition, presented as The Science.
Re: (Score:2)
Precisely because I don't live in such a world, I am highly skeptical of what I judge to be very shoddy science, and decisions based almost exclusively on shoddy science and superstition, presented as The Science.
Well there fella, tell me the cited works that prove that the VCovid 19 Vaccines are based on shoddy science and superstition.
Or do you get your science information from other areas?
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I already have my booster date in two weeks, but now I feel really good about it!
Error bars if anyone is curious (Score:2)
65 deaths in the boosted group works out to a probability of death p = 0.000008575
137 dea
On a related note (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the conspirators who attempted to invalidate the presidential election has died of covid. An avowed idiot, he refused to get vaccinated [nytimes.com].
The best part is he can't vote next year, so that's another vote the fascist candidate for the Republican party won't get.
Re: (Score:2)
One of the conspirators who attempted to invalidate the presidential election has died of covid. An avowed idiot, he refused to get vaccinated [nytimes.com].
The best part is he can't vote next year, so that's another vote the fascist candidate for the Republican party won't get.
Good. One of the really awkward things for these subnormals os that they tend to being old, which makes them more vulnerable to the harsher outcomes of the Covid-19 flu.
Perhaps, this hill they purposely chose to die on, will allow their life's ending purpose to serve as a warning to others. If he was happy to die stupidly, I am happy that he got what made him happy.
Same goes for the people in here. When a person stakes their life on conspiracy theories, it seems stupid to most people, but it's what the
Re:On a related note (Score:4, Funny)
Nonsense. The Republican party has been saying for years that the dead are voting in unprecedented numbers.
Relative scale vs Absolute. (Score:2)
So, if you have a 99.6% chance of survival, on a relative scale, your chances of surviving are boosted to 99.9% or so.
Everyone knows... (Score:2)
Omicron (Score:2)
"Although we have Omicron in the United States and it's starting to take hold, nonetheless well over 95% of all new infections today are caused by Delta...."
This will last all of another week or two before Delta starts becoming irrelevant.
Re: (Score:2)
That is 0.00007% that died with the booster, and 0.00016% without the booster that died.
Shouldn't that be 0.007% and 0.016% that died?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Statistical noise (Score:5, Insightful)
Math fail.
From the summary : 758k were boosted.
So 85k weren't.
So 137 / 85k vs 65 / 758k
So 0.16% vs 0.0085%
Of course there is a chance that there are other things adding noise, but your math is broken enough that you are confusing how big the error bars would need to be.
Re: (Score:3)
On the other hand, it's a quick and easy shot vs death. The shot doesn't have to reduce the risk of death all that much to be worth it.
Re: (Score:2)
Imagine how bad a covid infection would have been. I bet she's glad to have him around rather than dead
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, millions have died from COVID while only a handful have died from any of the vaccines
Re: (Score:2)
If, an mRNA "spike protein only" vaccine has a bad effect.
Then most certainly the infection would be 1000 times worse.
Stop being an idiot.
Re: (Score:2)
Imagine how bad a covid infection would have been. I bet she's glad to have him around rather than dead
Oh yeah, she's thrilled that he has to now live in assisted-care for the rest of his life. He WAS totally independent. Moved in to the facility on Wednesday.
Liberals like you are a waste of space.
Re:Statistical noise (Score:4, Interesting)
Moderna booster... Fucked up his liver.
Unlikely. A mRNA vaccine, that only induces production of spike proteins, simply can not do that.
More likely: he drank some alcohol, had a head ache, perhaps from the booster, perhaps from the alcohol: and took Paracetamol as pain suppression ... hint: read the package information.
Re: (Score:2)
Moderna booster... Fucked up his liver. Unlikely. A mRNA vaccine, that only induces production of spike proteins, simply can not do that.
More likely: he drank some alcohol, had a head ache, perhaps from the booster, perhaps from the alcohol: and took Paracetamol as pain suppression ... hint: read the package information.
Not unlikely. It's what happened. The man doesn't drink, asshole.
Re: (Score:3)
The study is what it is. It is about Pfizer's vaccine, not JJ, as stated. Go read the study instead of posing moronic "did they check this, did they check that?".
The sample doesn't purport to represent the real world, only the ones taking two doses of Pfizer and the booster. So complaining that it doesn't represent the real world is a specious whine.
Re: (Score:2)
The study is what it is. It is about Pfizer's vaccine, not JJ, as stated. Go read the study instead of posing moronic "did they check this, did they check that?".
The sample doesn't purport to represent the real world, only the ones taking two doses of Pfizer and the booster. So complaining that it doesn't represent the real world is a specious whine.
Just got my booster shot. Zero side effects. OP is really grasping at straws here with mixing and matching vaccines, and querying about people who only got one shot.
While there's nothing to stop a person from getting a different brand shot (I was offered whichever one I wanted, OP's bringing up questions about those who only got one shot - well, the study was not about that, and just getting one shot was off prescription anyhow. Just getting one shot is like only taking half a course of antibiotics.
Re: (Score:2)
Does their study account for people who took the booster more than 6 months from their second dose of P/M/AZ? Did they verify that offspring 10 generations down the road won't grow horns?
Did they account for the possibility of adverse reactions a thousand years form now? NO - they did not. NO they did not!
Wake up America, Fauci is the antiChrist, and thoughts and prayers are the only thing you need. Time tested.
Re: (Score:2)
Did they verify that offspring 10 generations down the road won't grow horns?
Now that's some gain of function research we can all get behind.
Buncha horny people running around. 8^)
I wonder about the people posting here (Score:2)
Does their study account for people who took the booster more than 6 months from their second dose of P/M/AZ?
I guess you could have read the study if you were interested.
What about people who had JJ?
Oh, you weren't even interested enough to read the very first line of the summary...
Re: Is 90% from a low basline a lot? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> If it reduces people sickened it will also reduce the chance of the next nasty mutation
That's a bold claim for a system that complex. "Common sense" tells you that the more reproductions of a virus the more of a chance to get a mutation, but common sense doesn't quite work in complex, geometric propagation systems. A second-order logic may say that evolutionary pressure against a fairly specific protection could create a more efficient mutation than without such protection. Then there are third order e
Re:Is 90% from a low basline a lot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
You can't just take lives saved divided by cost.
Do you have an alternative way to prioritize healthcare spending? Also, since we don't have unlimited resources, could you think of a better way to spend this money on healthcare?
Re: (Score:2)
That's specious, you're saying you have to ignore the saved medical costs and related externalities, in order to... prioritize healthcare spending? Durrr
Do better.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You can point out that I don't have hard data for exact covid costs. But we do have pri
Re: (Score:2)
Also, since we don't have unlimited resources,
Regarding medicine? You certainly have.
Re: Is 90% from a low basline a lot? (Score:2)
Cool, now let's look at the productivity expected from each life saved over the next 20 years of being alive versus being in the ground two weeks from now. Add to that the people that don't die from hospitals being past ICU capacity and have health care availability due to the hospitals not being on crisis care standards, which goes past Covid infections to include anyone in need of emergency services.
Re: (Score:2)
I did the math and it works out to $8 million per life, which is just a tiny bit more than the $7.5 million per life that FEMA uses and less than the $9.6 million per life that the DOT uses. So, even if you base the decision to provide boosters only on the number of lives saved, it looks like a good investment based on your numbers. Next time you challenge someone to do the math, maybe do it yourself first?
Also, I feel like it should be obvious, but I've learned that I have to say it anyway, it's not just a
Re: (Score:2)
I would gladly pay $20 to avoid getting an uncomfortable/unsightly pimple. A bug that has a slight chance of killing me and a significant chance of making me miserable / stuck in quarantine? I would fork out $2000 without a second thought to avoid it.