FDA Authorizes Updated Covid Booster Shots, Targeting Omicron Subvariants (nytimes.com) 189
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first redesign of coronavirus vaccines since they were rolled out in late 2020, setting up millions of Americans to receive new booster doses targeting Omicron subvariants as soon as next week. From a report: The agency cleared two options aimed at the BA.5 variant of Omicron that is now dominant: one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for use in people as young as 12, and the other by Moderna, for those 18 and older. The doses can be given at least two months since people last received a booster dose or completed their initial series of vaccinations.
Biden administration officials have argued that even as researchers work to understand how protective the new shots might be, inoculating Americans again in the coming weeks could help curb the persistently high number of infections and deaths. "As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose," Dr. Robert M. Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday. He added that the vaccine would "provide better protection against currently circulating variants."
Biden administration officials have argued that even as researchers work to understand how protective the new shots might be, inoculating Americans again in the coming weeks could help curb the persistently high number of infections and deaths. "As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose," Dr. Robert M. Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday. He added that the vaccine would "provide better protection against currently circulating variants."
The real question is (Score:3)
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I'm sure that when implanted tracking chip technology becomes available, people will pay good money to have the chips implanted.
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And there are people who believe Biden is not the president. And that Trump won the election. And that the Earth is flat. And we never went to the moon. And that you don't need a driver's license to drive. Or you can say some magic incantations and legally get out of paying taxes, cr
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The BOFH tells it like it is, damin you Steven and Nicholas!
https://www.theregister.com/20... [theregister.com]
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Boosters needed three times per year still? (Score:2)
Using mouse testing as a baseline (Score:2)
Apparently the FDA is using mouse testing, not human testing, for approval...which is how they do flu vaccines.
I suppose we'll see if COVID is like the flu when it comes to the safety of the approval process.
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Considering this is Pfizer and Moderna this is part of the appeal and promise of mRNA; 99% of this new vaccine should be the same as the old ones since it is mostly stabilizers and delivery mechanisms like the lipid nano-particles and they can just tune the active portion to the new variant.
As we are seeing here through with this new capability the regulatory systems has to catch up with it.
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Informed Consent (Score:2)
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A different question: who will be *allowed* to get this new booster? The FDA authorised them for ages 12+ and 18+, but the current guidelines don't authorise people under 50 to receive them unless they have specific health conditions.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:4, Informative)
The 50+ only situation was supposed to be that under 50 waited until this fall to get their next booster.
This is for everybody 12+.
"The FDA authorized the shots for everyone ages 12 and older who has had a primary vaccination series and is at least two months out from a previous booster shot, shorter than prior recommended intervals."
"The United States has secured more than 170 million doses of the two shots in an attempt to stave off the worst effects of a potential surge in infections as schools reconvene and people spend more time indoors due to colder weather."
https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]
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Everybody that wants it. There will not be a vaccine shortage. Due to the special storage and transportation conditions your GP or pharmacy will probably not offer it or will have to organize getting 10 people vaccinated at a time. For Pfizer that could be worse, because at least the last vaccine you had to order in batches of 1000 doses (or so my pharmacist told me), hence this may require a trip to some vaccination center. But that is basically it.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Me. Gladly. Wife has gotten COVID 4 times in the past 8 months; I only tested positive once, but pretty sure I had it at least two of the other three times. It is annoying more than anything.
My one positive test sucked for 3-4 days, but nothing life threatening. I will happily take the shot because I seem to end up in super-spreader events far too often.
Me too (Score:5, Insightful)
480+ a day are still dying, tens of thousands of cases and 30% of those will have long covid. You bet your ass I'll be getting it as soon as I can, along with my flu shot.
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Interesting, wha
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Perhaps by "in a year" you mean since the massive Omicron outbreak in January-March of *this* year? You know, the wave where an estimated 60% of the US population got infected.
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every similar vaccination campaign in the past ended badly for the patients.
I've gotta hear this one. Care to expand on that?
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That's easy: everything he said is complete bullshit.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:4)
6 months out from the last dose they do nothing. That indicates the only way the vaccine can keep a person safe from infection is to get a booster at least every 6 months. Probably more like every quarter.
If your goal is to prevent infection, I would agree that the vaccine is ineffective after 6 months but if your goal is to not die then I think your protection lasts much longer than 6 months. I got the original 2 dose series which cuts my rate of dying 10 fold. I haven't taken any boosters and don't plan to unless there is evidence that I can get a similar reduction in deaths. I have caught covid several times since which is basically a booster anyways. Everyone I know who has died was completely unvaccinated. I don't know anyone vaccinated who has died with or without the boosters.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:5, Informative)
her experience (and yours presumably) fit the general course of the vaccines so far in that after a couple of months they do little to prevent infection. 6 months out from the last dose they do nothing.
Not exactly. The efficacy against infection decreases, but not to zero. And the efficacy against severe infection continues.
Here's a 2022 summary: https://www.healthdata.org/cov... [healthdata.org]
also https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/... [nejm.org]
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:5, Insightful)
reports in VAERS
The first sign that you can safely ignore everything someone says about vaccines.
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Of all the bullshit we hear from covid denialists, the 'iTs jUsT tHe fLu' fucktardation is some of the stupidest. Oh yeah, the flu... everyone knows that the flu routinely kills 20K Americans a month in the middle of summer. JFC.
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Me. Gladly. Wife has gotten COVID 4 times in the past 8 months; I only tested positive once, but pretty sure I had it at least two of the other three times. It is annoying more than anything.
Yep. The vaccine does decrease the probability of infection, but the main benefit of it is that it decreases the severity of infections.
SMH. The vaccines clearly didn't help you or your wife to avoid COVID, yet you'll still take more of them?
Absolutely! The vaccination turns a sometimes-severe and occasionally fatal disease into a rarely-severe and almost never fatal disease.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, China has their "zero covid" policy still in effect..
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Yeah...and look how well THAT is working out for them...
[rolls eyes]
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Are you planning to be first in line for this new booster?
I have to wonder what the demand will be for these new boosters.
I have a feeling this is finally getting to be like the annual flu. Every year there's a "primary" variant, a vaccine is developed for that variant, and whoever wants it gets it.
The rest of your assessment, about the US acting like there is nothing going on, pretty well matches up with what I see in my area. You still see occasional masks in public, still need to mask up at the Dr. office, but that's about it.
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I've had every shot so far. I'll get this one too, but before I do I'll wait for human trials to show efficacy and safety. According to the article that is still in progress.
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> I'll wait for human trials
Human trials are what took place to get the FDA approval. Do you want more? If so, what was insufficient about the existing trials? (trick question - I know what's insufficient about the trials but it doesn't present a reason to not get vaccinated and more trials won't help).
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Did you read the same article I just read (The one we are commenting on)?
I'll quote:
"The tight timeline meant that the companies went to federal regulators this summer with more limited data on the redesigned boosters than a traditional review process would call for, generating some controversy. Regulators authorized the vaccine without results from human trials, which have just started."
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>Did you read the same article I just read
No. I hit the NYT paywall and I could not be bothered to fight with browser settings to get past it. I was using my existing knowledge of the FDA process and TFS and I didn't know they had messed wit the process.
Thank you for the clarification. Take care that the NYT doesn't sue you for daring to copy and paste their oh-so-precious text.
I'm now going to have to think about my position on taking the booster. I've been waiting for an update (3 shots + 1 covid so fa
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So, for people like this who have really low reading comprehension, let me try to explain what they actually said.
They've completed the safety portion of the testing. The effectiveness (efficacy) portion of the testing is in progress for variant Omicron B.5 which is newer, and the authorization was based on the Omicron B.1 variant, because enough time has passed to have completed that testing.
Don't be a fucking moron. This is tested as safe, and it is effective against the Omicron variants that have existed
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"We don't know if this works, we made it because maybe it works" isn't medicine. I got all the original shots because there were trials that showed how effective they were. The risk vs reward was high enough to make the medicine worth it.
The article says they have pretty much no clue if this works at all. Why would anyone use medicine if the doctor told you "We have no clue if this is going to work, but fuck it! Go try it!"
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And most of the negative side effects in the original studies were never reported.
Perfectly safe! No. You won't have cardiac incidents!
Perfectly safe! No! This won't cause or exacerbate autoimmune disease!
It's all in your head!
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, the new booster is pretty high on the priority list. BA.1 knocked me out for a week in January even though it was considered a very mild case. Then in April it was BA.2 and that had me out of whack for a couple months. I think my memory and concentration still aren't what they were before, and I have a considerably shorter temper due to getting frustrated more easily. I know I should be able to do things, but sometimes I just can't anymore.
I got a booster (one of the original ones of course) just a couple weeks before I got BA.2, and it was inadequate although it was the best we had. I decided at that point that I would not go for any boosters unless and until they were specific to what's actually floating around out there. Now that qualification will be met.
What's the harm of getting the booster? (Score:2)
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I didn't swear them off, I just accept that there is a law of diminishing returns, and a brief window where they perform reasonably well. I try to time that window to line up with the risk.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:4, Informative)
Because it's not BA.1 targeted, it's BA.5 targeted, and I haven't had BA.5 yet (to the best of my knowledge).
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I caught two, three months apart. Both of them were, at the time, the most contagious strains of SARS-CoV-2 seen to date. I don't think that counts as "so many strains".
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I don't think that counts as "so many strains".
!!!
I assume your main focus is still on "getting back to normal," right?
Me, I'm still masking and social distancing. Getting it once seems like a lot, actually, considering the risk of side effects...
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I'm still masking and social distancing too. BA.2 was that contagious, that even one visit to a grocery store at 7 am trying to avoid a crowd was sufficient.
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I still think reminding my immune system what BA.1 and BA.2 looked like will be more valuable than reminding it what the original wild type looked like, and sadly it has been long enough that natural immunity is on the wane. I'll go to great lengths to not have a repeat of April, which had me at the stage of wanting to die. I don't mean "this is miserable, I'm gonna lie here and die", I mean "I'm gonna go suck off a shotgun because I can't do ANYTHING any longer". If I were to suffer true Long COVID, you wo
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If you are serious about what you're saying here, please talk to someone....get some counseling.
Life is too short and precious as it is, t
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No, these new boosters are based on BA.4/BA.5. A few months ago, the FDA had a meeting and decided to go with a more up-to-date variant at the cost of not having time to run efficacy trials instead of going with the BA.1 vaccines.
It should first be noted any Omicron infection provides good efficacy against reinfection of any Omicron. BA.1 is quite effective against BA.5. In my previous post I was responding to someone who already had BA.1 and BA.2 in the context of being protected against current variants. (e.g. BA.5)
The change you are thinking of I think was switching from Delta to Omicron not sub variants within Omicron.
Straight from the horses mouth:
"To evaluate the effectiveness of a single booster dose of the Moderna COVID-1
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It should first be noted any Omicron infection provides good efficacy against reinfection of any Omicron.
https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
The researchers found that infection with a pre-Omicron variant prevented reinfection with BA.4 or BA.5 with an effectiveness of 28.3%,
It's not what I would call 'good efficacy'.
I don't care if you're "tired" (Score:4)
I get the feeling everyone is so "tired" of covid....that there won't be that high of a demand.
SARSCoV2 is endemic and we will never be rid of it. Many of us will need to get a booster every year to avoid exposing more vulnerable family members, and to reduce our own downtime when we get sick.
No one shows any fear of it anymore, etc.
Current strains aren't killing healthy people. We have better treatment for the cytokine storm that killed young healthy adults early in the pandemic.
We can use rational caution instead of fear to make our decisions.
Is it that way all over the US?
People area still wearing masks in the drug stores and dispensaries here in coastal California. Not being worn outside or at bars or concerts and only minimumally at grocery stores.
According to county (not state) guidelines, we are wearing them in the office when mandated in response to reported infections among staff. If staff doesn't bother to report then we don't have to wear the masks. Either way COVID is still endemic, that's just an unavoidable fact.
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These untested vaccines are dangerous and useless.
Thank you for that wonderfully thought out, well researched, perfectly articulated OPINION.
Re:I don't care if you're "tired" (Score:5, Informative)
According to the NY Times, unvaccinated are developing COVID at 3x the rate as the vaccinated, and unvaccinated are dying of COVID at 6x the rate as the vaccinated. Daily deaths have been in the 400s since July. So, roughly 50 of the daily dead are vaccinated and 350 are not.
The evidence does not support your claim that the vaccines are useless.
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. Go listen to some Dr. Robert Malone podcasts
The second sign you can safely ignore everything someone has to say about vaccines.
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. Go listen to some Dr. Robert Malone podcasts
The second sign you can safely ignore everything someone has to say about vaccines.
You can actually just shorten it to podcasts = ignore
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sock puppet
Coming from the guy with 8 different accounts and posting from behind AC.
Words, what do they mean anymore?
Re:I don't care if you're "tired" (Score:4)
People with four jabs are still getting covid
Hospitalization rates are down. Which is what was promised 2 years ago when the vaccines were first developed.
Thousands of people are getting the jabs and dropping dead.
Statistically speaking, thousands of people died in car accidents on their way to the drug store to get their jab. Math is cruel.
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While I agree that has been the effect and thankfully so...
That is NOT how these "vaccines" were sold when they were first developed and given to people. They were described as being effective like traditional vaccines of the past that once you got vax'ed, you'd have immunity and could not catch nor spread the disease.
When it didn't turn out that way, the CDC went on their site to redefine "vacci
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That is NOT how these "vaccines" were sold when they were first developed and given to people. They were described as being effective like traditional vaccines of the past that once you got vax'ed, you'd have immunity and could not catch nor spread the disease.
Liar liar, pants on fire!
Your strawman is weak. "They promised a magic unicorn pony! I only got a pony with a horn!"
Nobody promised an undeliverable perfect magical vaccine of +20 saving throws.
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Could you cite some examples. I looked at press releases from late-2020 and early 2021 and I could not find anything telling like "lasting immunity" or "full immunity". The articles from CDC and NIH I skimmed over mostly had a cautious optimistic tone. Some admitted that if there are mutations that a new vaccine may be necessary. And btw, if you got both doses of Pfizer or Moderna, you still have a great deal of resistance to old strains. Not that does all much good now that the strains are not circulating.
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Because vaccines aren't that simple. If grandma has a shitty immune system, the effectiveness of the vaccine is reduced. Which is really unfortunate because her shitty immune system is exactly why we're worried about her.
Why did I shovel my sidewalk when I have two legs and nice boots? I guess I did it because I'm not a selfish prick. (just an ordinary well-meaning prick)
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I intend to get this. I HATE being sick.
Why should I risk wasting several days out of my life lying in bed with a fever when I can just get this update and carry on with my life as normal?
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Because of your loss of freedom. Don't you know, following what the government says makes you a sheep. It's what they want. No freedom for you! You are supposed to be kept in a perpetual state of fear.
Better to get covid and be in bed for a week or more then suffer with long covid for months on end rather than get a simple shot.
Fight the power!
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Why should I risk wasting several days out of my life lying in bed with a fever when I can just get this update and carry on with my life as normal?
How else are you gonna Pwn the libs?
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:5, Informative)
1. Covid vaccines have proved to be extremely dangerous.
Nope, billions of doses given and we are close to year 3 now? I am sure everyone will start dropping dead any day now right?
2. Covid vaccines have proved to be completely ineffective.
Nope, that's just what you were told by your media sources.
3. They have outright lied to us many times. They told us if we got the vaccination, we would not get covid.
Nope, that's just what you were told by your media sources.
4. If they are so certain the vaccines are safe, why do they refuse to accept liability?
This is the most boring talking point for the last 20 years. I know you're lying because this answer has been out there for 40 years now. Just to remind everyone though it was because of an abundance of frivolous lawsuits brought by smooth brains like the OP here and the vaccine fund still gives out payouts to these dummies.
Don't feed the trolls (Score:3, Insightful)
See, when you debunk them their post, which has been modded down into pulp, remains visible thanks to that little "parent" link. This means their ideas are still spreading (kinda like a virus). Some people will see it, ignore or misunderstand your debunk, and be exposed.
This is why you don't fe
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There are assumptions and statements coming from 5 different sources here
1. The drug companies who made the vaccines
2. The government bodies (CDC, HHS, etc) and greater medical establishment
3. Politicians (The President, etc)
4. The media, both mainstream and alternative
5. Peoples assumptions built from varying degrees of those first 3 and their own experiences
Can you show me the data from the first two that would lead you to believe "the vaccines gives you 100% protection from infection" or to some degree.
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:4, Informative)
2. Covid vaccines are not as effective as we would like but they are still way better than not being vaccinated.
3. Aspirational statements are not lies.
4. This is complete and utter bullshit. At least in the US, there is an entire system to deal with situations where people are injured by vaccines. It's rare that such injuries occur but the mechanism to deal with it has been there for as long as I can remember.
I think you misunderstand the word "proven" It doesn't mean that you've said it over and over on slashdot. It means somebody has gone out and done controlled repeatable experiments that support a conclusion. And even then things are not necessarily "proven."
FYI I am not getting any more booster shots until the technology advances more. The incremental benefit seems to be small enough to not be worth the hassle. However if better vaccines come along (i.e. sterilizing or long-lasting) I would be happy to get them.
The idea that the choice is vaccine or no vaccine is always a strawman. We are all presented with the choice of covid vaccine and minor covid infection *or* more sever covid infection. If the choice was covid vaccine or a fairy godmother who would shield me from covid, I'd take the latter. Maybe she can bring me a pony too!
Re:Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:4, Informative)
1. Covid vaccines have proved to be extremely dangerous.
Now back in reality COVID vaccines have proven to be one of the safest drugs ever developed with insanely low rates of side-effects across the largest distribution of any drug we've ever manufactured.
Unfortunately they can't fix stupid though, you'll have to wait for a different vaccine for that.
2. Covid vaccines have proved to be completely ineffective.
Now back in reality COVID vaccinations continue to provide effective protection against hospitalisation as well as a reduction in changes of contracting the disease.
3. They have outright lied to us many times. They told us if we got the vaccination, we would not get covid.
Precisely zero medical professionals or instructions have ever said that. Maybe you contracted COVID and had a outlandish fever-dream?
4. If they are so certain the vaccines are safe, why do they refuse to accept liability?
No one is refusing anything. The liability is codified in law for all vaccines. Why would we change the law for the one vaccine which has been well and truly verified to be safe?
Analogy: You are clearly quite stupid. Why don't you just leave and never post again? We can't force you. Slashdot has a practice of not banning people, but you're still here. Why is that?
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Now back in reality COVID vaccines have proven to be one of the safest drugs ever developed with insanely low rates of side-effects across the largest distribution of any drug we've ever manufactured.
Do you have any evidence or citations to support this? I would love to understand how this was determined. Seems a little strange on its face given the sheer volume of adverse reaction reports collected around the world and confirmed presence of well known serious side effects involving heart inflammation.
https://www.fda.gov/media/1548... [fda.gov]
https://www.bmj.com/content/37... [bmj.com]
https://www.preprints.org/manu... [preprints.org]
While I think the vaccines were generally very effective and worth while for most without any previously
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The only true part of that post is this line:
where "they" is Fox news, Newsmax, OANN, whatever you read on Gab, Truth Social, etc.
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How many people did that happen to? Hundreds of millions of people have got the vaccine and their motor control is fine.
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Anecdotal sample size of one.
The third sign you can safely ignore everything someone has to say about vaccines.
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Well, given that I've had zero reaction to any of the COVID shots I've gotten, I'll stick with avoiding the actual virus (along with the risks of long-term complications).
I consider my experience with the flu: I never get a reaction to flu vaccines, but the few times I've had actual cases of the flu, it has totally sucked. (The most recent reminder was about 10 years ago when they badly miscalculated the flu strains for that year's vaccines. Sure enough, I was laid up for almost a week. No thanks.)
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So far, I haven't gotten Covid despite attending 4 large conferences in the last year (2 of which turned out to be super-spreader events). I attribute this good fortune to wearing a mask any time I felt uncomfortable with the crowd, washing my hands frequently, judicious use of sanitizer, keeping distance where I could, and most important, having all my jabs (I like the UK term for the boosters). I'm not in a rush to get this one, but I'll definitely be in line when it comes available.
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Most people consider covid to be old news prolonged by people trying to stay relevant. That's unfortunate because it's a crying wolf situation. If there is a dangerous resurgence of covid, one would like to think (but I'm not so naive) that people would be willing to increase precautions.
Hopefully covid doesn't becom
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There are some people who have sort of turned covid precautions into an identity. They will be first in line. You can recognize them as they wear a mask in their own car by themselves!
They might actually have had somebody else in their car during a leg of their journey, or are going to pick somebody else up, and they merely understand how airflow works in an enclosed space.
If the other person exits the vehicle, you're not magically protected from the air they were just breathing in.
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I'm aware that there is some belief that more serious covid cases provide better immunity, but I haven't seen any studies to
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Are you planning to be first in line for this new booster?
Yep absolutely. If it improves protection I'd be happy to take it. Incidentally I also get a yearly flu jab. Having contracted Influenza-B 10 years ago made me want to not go through that shit again. Likewise I'm not so happy that 4 months after being completely bedridden for 2 weeks with COVID I still have a heavy phlegmy cough.
You can pretend COVID doesn't exist all you want. The absenteeism rate doesn't care what you think, neither do the people at home who are sick.
Fuck that disease I hope it never has
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Ok, you got me.
Who did you go see, and when?
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But I live near one of the early epicenters of the disease in the USA, and many people around here have someone or know of someone who was severely impacted or killed by the disease because it swept into this area before any kind of known treatment, care, or prevention was really known
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I have to wonder what the demand will be for these new boosters.
Those with compromised immune systems, same as before.
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Are you planning to be first in line for this new booster?
I had my fist 2 shots in April and July of 2021, and got my 1st booster in January. I've been eligible for the second booster for quite some time now, but planned to get it in the late summer/early fall before the expected fall increase in cases. Now I'm hoping this new shot will be approved (here in Canada) in time to keep that schedule. Hope it is coming soon.
Here where I live, for at least the past year, if you look around, you would have NO idea there ever was a pandemic.
Mostly just older folks still masking around here. Plenty of people still dying of it though. More this year than in the same time period last
Re: Just curious....who intends to get this? (Score:2)
[quote]No one shows any fear of it anymore, etc.[/quote]
Of course we're not afraid of Covid. We practice reasonable low-effort precautions like getting vaccinated, and that lets us live our lives that more enjoyably.
"Risk homeostasis" is the observation that we tend to tolerate a certain amount of risk. I could drive without a seatbelt at 30mph or with a seatbelt at 70mph and both would have the same level of risk. But I choose to wear a seatbelt because that way I get more speed (enjoyment) for a given lev
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Are you planning to be first in line for this new booster?
I have to wonder what the demand will be for these new boosters.
I'm a selfish person, I care a lot less about my fellow humans than I did when this whole thing started. I hope initial demand is low, so I can get an early appointment! Me me me, give it to ME first! LOL
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Mild perhaps *because* people have been vaccinated? The vaccines aren't necessarily to prevent COVID, but mainly reduce severe illness and death, so only mild symptoms sounds like a desired result.
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I'll take real science over whatever your pretend "observations" happen to be, thanks.
Your opinion is not useful in any way.
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If you're not, that's enough to convince me to be first in line.
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Re:Why? Omicron is a bad cold (Score:4)
Learn some math. In Washington state, 80.9% of the population (12 and older) is fully vaccinated, and 2885 of those died from the virus. 8.2% is partially vaccinated and 422 of those people died. Only 10.9% of the population is unvaccinated and from that 5,109 people died.
Reference: https://doh.wa.gov/sites/defau... [wa.gov]
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Learn some math. [numbers]
This is slashdot. Half the users can only understand units of Libraries of Congress. How many Libraries of Congress are vaccinated? How many died?
Personally, getting a booster is like renewing a library card to me. I don't think about it very often, but I make sure to get it done when the time comes.
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Still my gamble is that the vaccine is a big win.
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What, no links to Art Bell?
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How can you claim viruses aren't real when that website design literally gave me AIDS [youtube.com]
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Yeah same thing except I quit wearing my seat belt while driving. I've never been in an accident!
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Some people go their whole lives without getting into a car accident. Every day a child under 10 will die from cancer. You can believe you have natural immunity and maybe you do or you just were never in the circumstances to catch it. I also have not experienced anything coming close to symptoms of covid despite flying and working and shopping.
I don't believe I am special, I am just a sample size of one. I got my shots and will get this one when it becomes available.
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I am pretty sure the though process on this is that the virus is not going to "devolve" or go backwards into an alpha or delta variant but some future scenario of a more deadly version would be a new strain entirely.
Also it seems like the chances of CV19 evolving into some more dangerous isn't very likely because the "goal" of the virus is to become endemic, to spread to as many hosts as possible and reproduce as much as possible. Less deadly and more contagious variants do just that.
More than likely CV19