@pmvines Good! Because I didn't address you in that second question!
@eagleeye88 The idea of getting the vaccine is that if you get COVID it will be a very mild form of it and you won’t need hospitalization and you won’t die from it. That’s why we get the vaccine, to lessen our chances of ending in a hospital or dying, so for me that’s a great argument for getting the vaccine and the reason I am now fully vaccinated. I have people close to me that have died from the virus and a friend who is under 40 and fit who got it last year and still can’t breathe right. So the “why get the vaccine if you’re still can get the virus” argument doesn’t hold water with me and the god thing is that there are about 110 million people in the USA that have gotten at least one shot and 65 million that are fully vaccinated which tells me most people think that getting the vaccine is the safe thing to do.
@MrPaul see that's you answer my question! Not some stupid seatbelt analogy!!
Thanks @cuddleversed! That was a good answer!!
@eagleeye88 You really have not heard that before? Do you know the election happened in November? Because that information has been around in the public sphere longer than that.
@eagleeye88
Image removed. No need to chum the waters. [-Sid]
@Sideon Thanks, point taken. ☮️
@MrPaul Image removed. Lay off the personal attacks, @eagleeye88 . Thanks. [-Sid]
@MrPaul You crack me up
I think I know why there are more horses asses than there are horses.
@eagleeye88 - They are still asking us to mask up and socially distance in the mean time. We are hoping that a combination of that plus a vaccine will slow the spread enough to eventually end the pandemic. It will take at least 75% of us to be vaccinated where there's enough resistance in the population that the virus has a hard time spreading.
@cuddleversed The United States pop is over 330 million, Worldwide is over 7.6 billion; 919 million vaccinated worldwide but doesn't say if fully vaccinated might just be first dose for vaccines requiring 2 doses. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html. I observe vaccination rate is currently a fraction, not the majority. Just being honest and data driven.
Congrats to all those lucky enough to have received their vaccines!
I do worry about those who can't get vaccinated, either for medical reasons, or availability. I hope they don't get stuck as a sort of second class citizen of humanity.
I also think being vaccinated can create a false sense of security, one would certainly need more details than "I've been vaccinated" to have any real meaning. When? How many? What vaccines? What is the efficacy of that? What is the efficacy of that for each strain? Being able to say "I've been vaccinated" is not the same as being able to say "I am at no risk, nor am I a risk to others, from Covid."
Also, people lie, a lot.
Yes, it’s appropriate! I got my first covid vaccine shot today!
I received both doses... and as much as I like to play around and say I was hoping for superpowers, I know that at the minimum, this thing is designed to help against the possiities of being infected by some pretty brutal pathogens.... That being said... having an understanding of what we're trying to prevent, and all... I think it gives others a little better peace of mind knowing you and any who post that in your profile COVID vaccinated or maybe "Moderna/Pfizer #1(or 2) complete" Or J&J dosed or however you wanna phrase it... ... care about the health of those around you. -- Emotional pincushion out.
Second shot more than a week ago.
I'm in a Pfizer study. Note - ALL current vaccinations are in the "investigational vaccine candidate" classification because they've not been approved. They are authorized under the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization. That said... this study is for the lyophilized/freeze-dried version of Pfizer, which can be mixed locally and stored at regular refrigeration levels. I have a 50/50 chance of receiving either the current frozen format, or the lyophilized format and I won't know WHICH version I received until June. First dose was the start of April and I had a pretty good red mark on my arm at the injection site for about 20 hours, which faded. No other symptoms/antibody responses.
My second dose was yesterday and boy howdy. My arm/injection site was not as bad as the first shot. But I definitely showed antibody production symptoms last night and this morning: chills, fever, achiness, and more than usual grumpiness (that last one is NOT a COVID antibody response, btw). Two Tylenol later and I feel pretty darn good.
#Science
I put it on my profile just to reassure potential clients
I've included the fact that I'm fully vaccinated on my profile. It's been over 2 weeks since my second shot. I'm aware that it doesn't mean I'm "COVID-proof" but it does mitigate some risk. That said, if someone from the site asked to see my vaccination record, it would be a hard no due to privacy. Until we're out of the woods (which we're not currently even close to), it's a careful dance of managing acceptable levels of risk, and I would opt to mask with any new partners. Because people in general tend to lie and other people depend on me, not because I wouldn't trust anyone in particular.
Told my buddy many times to get vaccinated.
@Mmart I see you met Scary Garcia.
He does look like Scary but his name was Boney Maroney.
News from India. They are having to cremate the bodies in public parks. This is a glimpse of a world without insufficient vaccination (India has delivered about 10 doses per 100 people) and with a government which takes a somewhat relaxed attitude to matters like masks and social distancing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-56897970
Britain was only two or three steps away from something similar, back at our last peak in January. Parts of the USA don't seem to realise how close they came to something like this.
I've been wondering how it is that the US has got away with it over covid, and the best theory I can come up with is dwelling size. The average home in the US is around 2300 square feet, compared with more like 800 square feet in the UK.
Density is how the US got away with it. NYC, LA, and other cities got hit hard, but not so much outside the cities. There are many areas west of the Mississippi River where the distance between neighbors is measured in miles.
Population density per square mile.
UK - 725 USA - 87 India - 1066
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density
@CuddleDuncan Here in Canada: 9 Most are clustered along the border or at ports, though
@CuddleDuncan Yet we still have many millions in the US living in dense cities, with working public transit. In Philadelphia (about 6,000 per square km) we've been good about masking and distancing and closing. Only lately have we been seeing rising cases since the initial outbreak. The disappointing thing during Trump's reign is how political alignment translated into higher spread rates. Ultimately, my city of Philadelphia responded by tipping in the final shot in the election that sunk Trump, and nationally the Covid response is thought to have been what closed the gap sufficiently to allow Biden to get the needed electoral votes.
Here is a podcast about vaccine hesitancy among other things. The second half features a focus group who are vaccine hesitant. It is a fascinating and at times harrowing and frustrating listen. The first half deals with what health directors are facing at work and outside of work.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2KUNemX9JrbjwPJ1eIZDtZ?si=ck4td3YEQhyny9yDk0Kp2g
You ever wondered why even after the vaccination the government still want you to wear a mask? So it doesn't really matter if vaccinated or not...you can still catch it...in fact some nurses and other people who have been vaccinated still got infected...I don't trust the vaccine...if you got the shot or not I'll still treat you like everybody else who didn't get it. Safety first!!! btw...People in Europe fighting hard against the vaccination...why? Because they learned from their past. (just saying) There are big restrictions of human rights going on at the moment and most people just follow like sheep, some out of fear created by media and some because they just want this madness to end and would do everything for that. But since this is not a debate...again, if you got vaccinated or not I don't care, there should be some kind of trust. I don't feel more safe cuddling with you just because you got vaccinated. Covid is real, definitely...I had it, it wasn't nice, like a looooong nasty cold, I recovered and if I believe what my doc says the amount of antibodies I have now is higher than the vaccine shots will ever do. There you go...I'm not vaccinated but less likely to catch covid again than those who are happy and safe cuddling
No vaccination is 100% effective, and it is known that people are still susceptible variants and Covid mutations. Masks are an important component for globally combatting the Covid virus. Masks are not a political issue but one of public health and wellness. [-Sid]
@Aurora87
You ever wondered why even after the vaccination the government still want you to wear a mask?
No, because I understand how both masks and vaccines work.
1) Vaccine. The primary purpose of a vaccine is to stop you from dying. All vaccines currently available in the US have been proven to be very good at this, while simultaneously being unusually safe for vaccines. (We have hundreds of millions of doses to prove it.)
So, instead of dying, you just get ill. And the people who would get seriously ill just get slightly ill. And the people who would get slightly ill don't get ill at all.
These vaccines do help reduce the spread of covid, but that's just luck - a vaccine doesn't necessarily do this. We're not yet sure of the mechanisms, but if you are less sick you have fewer viruses to spread around, and you cough less to spread them around. Therefore the covid vaccines do reduce transmission. We think typically by about 60% but that figure must be treated with great caution.
No vaccine is 100% effective or anything like. Being vaccinated does not provide protection against transmission. It helps, sure, but categorically does not prevent it. The advice everywhere is that once we are vaccinated, in general you should continue to behave as if you are not vaccinated. This is because we are in the middle of a pandemic. In India, they are now burning the bodies in public parks because there is nothing else to be done.
2) Masks. Covid appears to be transmitted in three main ways. Large droplets, small droplets (aerosol) and surface contact. Masks obviously have little or no effect on surface contact transmission (which is when you touch a handrail with the infection on your hand, and then somebody picks it up from there.) The latest research suggests that masks have limited effect on aerosol transmission. But they do have a significant effect on large droplet transmission for distances under about 6 feet. Large droplets don't go much further than that anyway.
In other words, if both people are wearing masks large droplet transmission is virtually eliminated as a possibility.
Notice that what I have written about vaccines and what I have written about masks barely overlap. They are separate matters.
If you are concerned about US government advice, I suggest you look at the advice, guidelines, regulations and laws promulgated in countries which have done well in keeping covid infection low. Note that figures from democracies are much more reliable than those from autocratic or totalitarian governments.
There are big restrictions of human rights going on at the moment
Not in the UK. All our covid laws have been passed in the usual way by Parliament, usually with cross-party support. If you think a law here breaches your human rights you can take the Government to the European Court of Human Rights, of which Britain was a founder member in 1949. This does happen and the British Government has lost more than once. I haven't heard of anybody attempting it for anything to do with covid.
(Yes, that's right. In Europe you can sue the government for breaching your human rights, and win. Your remedy will be enforced in the usual way by the courts.)
One of the most significant laws is that you have to wear a mask on public transport. I did talk to one person who objected to this, but when I reminded him that you also have to cover your genitals to go on public transport he took my point.