Viruses / Vaccines 2

HughFreakingDillon

bbiggs said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

From the NYT email blast. Show me the science!

View in browser|nytimes.com

Continue reading the main story

 

 

January 31, 2022

Good morning. New C.D.C. data shows the power of boosters.

 

Preparing vaccines in Rochester Hills, Mich.Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Irrational skepticism 

The C.D.C. has begun to publish data on Covid outcomes among people who have received booster shots, and the numbers are striking:

Based on 25 U.S. jurisdictions. | Source: C.D.C.

As you can see, vaccination without a booster provides a lot of protection. But a booster takes somebody to a different level.

This data underscores both the power of the Covid vaccines and their biggest weakness — namely, their gradual fading of effectiveness over time, as is also the case with many other vaccines. If you received two Moderna or Pfizer vaccine shots early last year, the official statistics still count you as “fully vaccinated.” In truth, you are only partially vaccinated.

Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are older or have health problems.

The average weekly chance that a boosted person died of Covid was about one in a million during October and November (the most recent available C.D.C. data). Since then, the chances have no doubt been higher, because of the Omicron surge. But they will probably be even lower in coming weeks, because the surge is receding and Omicron is milder than earlier versions of the virus. For now, one in a million per week seems like a reasonable estimate.

That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million. So is the average weekly death rate from influenza and pneumonia — about three per million.

With a booster shot, Covid resembles other respiratory illnesses that have been around for years. It can still be nasty. For the elderly and immunocompromised, it can be debilitating, even fatal — much as the flu can be. The Omicron surge has been so terrible because it effectively subjected tens of millions of Americans to a flu all at once.

For the unvaccinated, of course, Covid remains many times worse than the flu.

‘Heartbreaking’

I’m highlighting these statistics because there is still a large amount of vaccine skepticism in the U.S. I have heard it frequently from readers in the past week, after our poll on Covid attitudes and partisanship, as well as the “Daily” episode about the poll.

This vaccine skepticism takes two main forms. The more damaging form is the one that’s common among Republicans. They’re so skeptical of vaccines — partly from misinformation coming from conservative media figures and Republican politicians — that many remain unvaccinated.

Look at this detail from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest portrait of vaccination: Incredibly, there are more unvaccinated Republican adults than boosted Republican adults.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

This lack of vaccination is killing people. “It’s cost the lives of people I know, including just last week a friend of 35 years, a person I met on one of the first weekends of my freshman year of college,” David French, a conservative writer who lives in Tennessee, wrote in The Atlantic. “I can’t tell you how heartbreaking it is to see person after person fall to a virus when a safe and effective shot would have almost certainly not just saved their life but also likely saved them from even having a serious case of the disease.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, estimates that in the second half of last year, 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused Covid vaccines. “Three doses of either Pfizer or Moderna will save your life,” Hotez told me. “It’s the only way you can be reasonably assured that you will survive a Covid-19 infection.” (Young children, who are not yet eligible for the vaccines, are also highly unlikely to get very sick.)

The vaccines don’t prevent only death. Local data shows the risks of hospitalization are extremely low, too. Vaccination also reduces the risk of long Covid to very low levels.

Healthy and anxious

The second form of vaccine skepticism is among Democrats — although many would recoil at any suggestion that they are vaccine skeptics. Most Democrats are certainly not skeptical about getting a shot. But many are skeptical that the vaccines protect them.

About 41 percent of Democratic voters say they are worried about getting “seriously sick” with Covid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last week. That’s a very high level of anxiety for a tiny risk.

Here’s the proof that much of the fear is irrational: Young Democrats are more worried about getting sick than old Democrats, even though the science says the opposite should be true.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

The most plausible explanation for this pattern is political ideology. Younger Democrats are significantly more liberal than older Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center (and other pollsters, too). Ideology tends to shape Covid views, for a complex mix of often irrational reasons. The more liberal you are, the more worried about Covid you tend to be; the more conservative you are, the less worried you tend to be.

I know that many liberals believe an exaggerated sense of personal Covid risk is actually a good thing, because it pushes the country toward taking more precautions. Those precautions, according to this view, will reduce Covid’s death toll, which truly is horrific right now. In a later newsletter this week, I will consider that argument.

For now, I’ll simply echo the many experts who have pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.

Answers and convenience

What might help increase the country’s ranks of vaccinated? Vaccine mandates, for one thing — although many Republican politicians, as well as the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court, oppose broad mandates. Private companies can still impose mandates on their employees and customers.

Without mandates, the best hope for increased vaccination is probably community outreach. While many unvaccinated Americans are firmly opposed to getting a shot, others — including some Democrats and independents — remain agnostic. If getting a vaccination is convenient and a nurse or doctor is available to answer questions, they will consider it.

“I cannot count how many people I’ve spoken to about the Covid vaccine who have been like, ‘No, I don’t think so. No,’” Dr. Kimberly Manning of Emory University told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Then I run into them two weeks later and they tell me they got vaccinated.”

Related: “You have to scratch your head and say, ‘How the heck did this happen?’” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Michael Barbaro on today’s episode of “The Daily,” about the partisan gap in Covid attitudes. Fauci also predicted that people who were anxious about Covid would become less so as caseloads fell.

In Times Opinion, James Martin, a Jesuit priest, argues that schadenfreude over vaccine skeptics’ suffering warps the soul.

THE LATEST NEWS

The Virus

• A mutated version of Omicron could slow the decline in cases, but probably won’t create a surge.

• For those with medical conditions, the latest wave has still posed a threat.

• Spotify said it would add an “advisory” to virus-related content, and the podcaster Joe Rogan said he would try to include more experts. 

• To-go drinks were a rare pandemic crowd-pleaser in New York. But liquor stores would like them to end. 

I wonder why this fails to touch on the science of those that were fully vaccinated, later had a "breakthrough" case, therefore having a full two-shot vaccination plus natural immunity, and what a booster or lack thereof does for that group.  That information was made available in the most recent CDC data, but is seldom talked about.  It seems that the message continues to be "get boosted" as a one size fits all approach, regardless of prior infection.

I actually read recently that if you were double shot and then got covid (omicron specifically) they were advising people to hold off getting the booster. Has that changed?

bbiggs

Halifax2TheMax said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

From the NYT email blast. Show me the science!

View in browser|nytimes.com

Continue reading the main story

 

 

January 31, 2022

Good morning. New C.D.C. data shows the power of boosters.

 

Preparing vaccines in Rochester Hills, Mich.Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Irrational skepticism 

The C.D.C. has begun to publish data on Covid outcomes among people who have received booster shots, and the numbers are striking:

Based on 25 U.S. jurisdictions. | Source: C.D.C.

As you can see, vaccination without a booster provides a lot of protection. But a booster takes somebody to a different level.

This data underscores both the power of the Covid vaccines and their biggest weakness — namely, their gradual fading of effectiveness over time, as is also the case with many other vaccines. If you received two Moderna or Pfizer vaccine shots early last year, the official statistics still count you as “fully vaccinated.” In truth, you are only partially vaccinated.

Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are older or have health problems.

The average weekly chance that a boosted person died of Covid was about one in a million during October and November (the most recent available C.D.C. data). Since then, the chances have no doubt been higher, because of the Omicron surge. But they will probably be even lower in coming weeks, because the surge is receding and Omicron is milder than earlier versions of the virus. For now, one in a million per week seems like a reasonable estimate.

That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million. So is the average weekly death rate from influenza and pneumonia — about three per million.

With a booster shot, Covid resembles other respiratory illnesses that have been around for years. It can still be nasty. For the elderly and immunocompromised, it can be debilitating, even fatal — much as the flu can be. The Omicron surge has been so terrible because it effectively subjected tens of millions of Americans to a flu all at once.

For the unvaccinated, of course, Covid remains many times worse than the flu.

‘Heartbreaking’

I’m highlighting these statistics because there is still a large amount of vaccine skepticism in the U.S. I have heard it frequently from readers in the past week, after our poll on Covid attitudes and partisanship, as well as the “Daily” episode about the poll.

This vaccine skepticism takes two main forms. The more damaging form is the one that’s common among Republicans. They’re so skeptical of vaccines — partly from misinformation coming from conservative media figures and Republican politicians — that many remain unvaccinated.

Look at this detail from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest portrait of vaccination: Incredibly, there are more unvaccinated Republican adults than boosted Republican adults.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

This lack of vaccination is killing people. “It’s cost the lives of people I know, including just last week a friend of 35 years, a person I met on one of the first weekends of my freshman year of college,” David French, a conservative writer who lives in Tennessee, wrote in The Atlantic. “I can’t tell you how heartbreaking it is to see person after person fall to a virus when a safe and effective shot would have almost certainly not just saved their life but also likely saved them from even having a serious case of the disease.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, estimates that in the second half of last year, 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused Covid vaccines. “Three doses of either Pfizer or Moderna will save your life,” Hotez told me. “It’s the only way you can be reasonably assured that you will survive a Covid-19 infection.” (Young children, who are not yet eligible for the vaccines, are also highly unlikely to get very sick.)

The vaccines don’t prevent only death. Local data shows the risks of hospitalization are extremely low, too. Vaccination also reduces the risk of long Covid to very low levels.

Healthy and anxious

The second form of vaccine skepticism is among Democrats — although many would recoil at any suggestion that they are vaccine skeptics. Most Democrats are certainly not skeptical about getting a shot. But many are skeptical that the vaccines protect them.

About 41 percent of Democratic voters say they are worried about getting “seriously sick” with Covid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last week. That’s a very high level of anxiety for a tiny risk.

Here’s the proof that much of the fear is irrational: Young Democrats are more worried about getting sick than old Democrats, even though the science says the opposite should be true.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

The most plausible explanation for this pattern is political ideology. Younger Democrats are significantly more liberal than older Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center (and other pollsters, too). Ideology tends to shape Covid views, for a complex mix of often irrational reasons. The more liberal you are, the more worried about Covid you tend to be; the more conservative you are, the less worried you tend to be.

I know that many liberals believe an exaggerated sense of personal Covid risk is actually a good thing, because it pushes the country toward taking more precautions. Those precautions, according to this view, will reduce Covid’s death toll, which truly is horrific right now. In a later newsletter this week, I will consider that argument.

For now, I’ll simply echo the many experts who have pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.

Answers and convenience

What might help increase the country’s ranks of vaccinated? Vaccine mandates, for one thing — although many Republican politicians, as well as the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court, oppose broad mandates. Private companies can still impose mandates on their employees and customers.

Without mandates, the best hope for increased vaccination is probably community outreach. While many unvaccinated Americans are firmly opposed to getting a shot, others — including some Democrats and independents — remain agnostic. If getting a vaccination is convenient and a nurse or doctor is available to answer questions, they will consider it.

“I cannot count how many people I’ve spoken to about the Covid vaccine who have been like, ‘No, I don’t think so. No,’” Dr. Kimberly Manning of Emory University told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Then I run into them two weeks later and they tell me they got vaccinated.”

Related: “You have to scratch your head and say, ‘How the heck did this happen?’” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Michael Barbaro on today’s episode of “The Daily,” about the partisan gap in Covid attitudes. Fauci also predicted that people who were anxious about Covid would become less so as caseloads fell.

In Times Opinion, James Martin, a Jesuit priest, argues that schadenfreude over vaccine skeptics’ suffering warps the soul.

THE LATEST NEWS

The Virus

• A mutated version of Omicron could slow the decline in cases, but probably won’t create a surge.

• For those with medical conditions, the latest wave has still posed a threat.

• Spotify said it would add an “advisory” to virus-related content, and the podcaster Joe Rogan said he would try to include more experts. 

• To-go drinks were a rare pandemic crowd-pleaser in New York. But liquor stores would like them to end. 

I don't know if I can get my boost if I recently got covid?  I'll have to ask my doctor about that.

Yup, I’d ask your doctor as I heard or read, and it could be wrong, probably, but I thought if you were fully vaxxed and contracted covid, you were supposed to or were encouraged to wait 90 days from your positive test and have no symptoms of covid before getting boosted. But what do I know? I’m just a monkey on the interwebs.

This sounds accurate from my experience.  Doctor's recommendation would be to wait 3-4 months.  To Chris' question though, I would highly doubt he'd be denied a booster if he wanted one due to a Covid infection inside of a 3 month window. 

Halifax2TheMax

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

mrussel1

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

What a meathead.  He's a double amputee, diabetes, kidney disease and he's had COVID TWICE?  WTF.  He is obviously taking zero precautions.  And honestly, if he doesn't care enough about life to make good choices, why should any of us care?

bbiggs

HughFreakingDillon said:

bbiggs said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

From the NYT email blast. Show me the science!

View in browser|nytimes.com

Continue reading the main story

 

 

January 31, 2022

Good morning. New C.D.C. data shows the power of boosters.

 

Preparing vaccines in Rochester Hills, Mich.Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Irrational skepticism 

The C.D.C. has begun to publish data on Covid outcomes among people who have received booster shots, and the numbers are striking:

Based on 25 U.S. jurisdictions. | Source: C.D.C.

As you can see, vaccination without a booster provides a lot of protection. But a booster takes somebody to a different level.

This data underscores both the power of the Covid vaccines and their biggest weakness — namely, their gradual fading of effectiveness over time, as is also the case with many other vaccines. If you received two Moderna or Pfizer vaccine shots early last year, the official statistics still count you as “fully vaccinated.” In truth, you are only partially vaccinated.

Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are older or have health problems.

The average weekly chance that a boosted person died of Covid was about one in a million during October and November (the most recent available C.D.C. data). Since then, the chances have no doubt been higher, because of the Omicron surge. But they will probably be even lower in coming weeks, because the surge is receding and Omicron is milder than earlier versions of the virus. For now, one in a million per week seems like a reasonable estimate.

That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million. So is the average weekly death rate from influenza and pneumonia — about three per million.

With a booster shot, Covid resembles other respiratory illnesses that have been around for years. It can still be nasty. For the elderly and immunocompromised, it can be debilitating, even fatal — much as the flu can be. The Omicron surge has been so terrible because it effectively subjected tens of millions of Americans to a flu all at once.

For the unvaccinated, of course, Covid remains many times worse than the flu.

‘Heartbreaking’

I’m highlighting these statistics because there is still a large amount of vaccine skepticism in the U.S. I have heard it frequently from readers in the past week, after our poll on Covid attitudes and partisanship, as well as the “Daily” episode about the poll.

This vaccine skepticism takes two main forms. The more damaging form is the one that’s common among Republicans. They’re so skeptical of vaccines — partly from misinformation coming from conservative media figures and Republican politicians — that many remain unvaccinated.

Look at this detail from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest portrait of vaccination: Incredibly, there are more unvaccinated Republican adults than boosted Republican adults.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

This lack of vaccination is killing people. “It’s cost the lives of people I know, including just last week a friend of 35 years, a person I met on one of the first weekends of my freshman year of college,” David French, a conservative writer who lives in Tennessee, wrote in The Atlantic. “I can’t tell you how heartbreaking it is to see person after person fall to a virus when a safe and effective shot would have almost certainly not just saved their life but also likely saved them from even having a serious case of the disease.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, estimates that in the second half of last year, 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused Covid vaccines. “Three doses of either Pfizer or Moderna will save your life,” Hotez told me. “It’s the only way you can be reasonably assured that you will survive a Covid-19 infection.” (Young children, who are not yet eligible for the vaccines, are also highly unlikely to get very sick.)

The vaccines don’t prevent only death. Local data shows the risks of hospitalization are extremely low, too. Vaccination also reduces the risk of long Covid to very low levels.

Healthy and anxious

The second form of vaccine skepticism is among Democrats — although many would recoil at any suggestion that they are vaccine skeptics. Most Democrats are certainly not skeptical about getting a shot. But many are skeptical that the vaccines protect them.

About 41 percent of Democratic voters say they are worried about getting “seriously sick” with Covid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last week. That’s a very high level of anxiety for a tiny risk.

Here’s the proof that much of the fear is irrational: Young Democrats are more worried about getting sick than old Democrats, even though the science says the opposite should be true.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

The most plausible explanation for this pattern is political ideology. Younger Democrats are significantly more liberal than older Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center (and other pollsters, too). Ideology tends to shape Covid views, for a complex mix of often irrational reasons. The more liberal you are, the more worried about Covid you tend to be; the more conservative you are, the less worried you tend to be.

I know that many liberals believe an exaggerated sense of personal Covid risk is actually a good thing, because it pushes the country toward taking more precautions. Those precautions, according to this view, will reduce Covid’s death toll, which truly is horrific right now. In a later newsletter this week, I will consider that argument.

For now, I’ll simply echo the many experts who have pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.

Answers and convenience

What might help increase the country’s ranks of vaccinated? Vaccine mandates, for one thing — although many Republican politicians, as well as the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court, oppose broad mandates. Private companies can still impose mandates on their employees and customers.

Without mandates, the best hope for increased vaccination is probably community outreach. While many unvaccinated Americans are firmly opposed to getting a shot, others — including some Democrats and independents — remain agnostic. If getting a vaccination is convenient and a nurse or doctor is available to answer questions, they will consider it.

“I cannot count how many people I’ve spoken to about the Covid vaccine who have been like, ‘No, I don’t think so. No,’” Dr. Kimberly Manning of Emory University told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Then I run into them two weeks later and they tell me they got vaccinated.”

Related: “You have to scratch your head and say, ‘How the heck did this happen?’” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Michael Barbaro on today’s episode of “The Daily,” about the partisan gap in Covid attitudes. Fauci also predicted that people who were anxious about Covid would become less so as caseloads fell.

In Times Opinion, James Martin, a Jesuit priest, argues that schadenfreude over vaccine skeptics’ suffering warps the soul.

THE LATEST NEWS

The Virus

• A mutated version of Omicron could slow the decline in cases, but probably won’t create a surge.

• For those with medical conditions, the latest wave has still posed a threat.

• Spotify said it would add an “advisory” to virus-related content, and the podcaster Joe Rogan said he would try to include more experts. 

• To-go drinks were a rare pandemic crowd-pleaser in New York. But liquor stores would like them to end. 

I wonder why this fails to touch on the science of those that were fully vaccinated, later had a "breakthrough" case, therefore having a full two-shot vaccination plus natural immunity, and what a booster or lack thereof does for that group.  That information was made available in the most recent CDC data, but is seldom talked about.  It seems that the message continues to be "get boosted" as a one size fits all approach, regardless of prior infection.

I actually read recently that if you were double shot and then got covid (omicron specifically) they were advising people to hold off getting the booster. Has that changed?

It is a good question.  I fall into this category (possibly not omicron - could have been delta) and my doctor said wait 3-4 months.  That is just my personal experience.  I'm yet to see any widespread messaging about this, at least not in the U.S.  The only message I see is "get boosted."  A disclaimer stating to wait 3 months if you were fully vaxxed and subsequently had Covid would clear it up, but I have not seen that widespread messaging anywhere.

Halifax2TheMax

bbiggs said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

bbiggs said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

From the NYT email blast. Show me the science!

View in browser|nytimes.com

Continue reading the main story

 

 

January 31, 2022

Good morning. New C.D.C. data shows the power of boosters.

 

Preparing vaccines in Rochester Hills, Mich.Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Irrational skepticism 

The C.D.C. has begun to publish data on Covid outcomes among people who have received booster shots, and the numbers are striking:

Based on 25 U.S. jurisdictions. | Source: C.D.C.

As you can see, vaccination without a booster provides a lot of protection. But a booster takes somebody to a different level.

This data underscores both the power of the Covid vaccines and their biggest weakness — namely, their gradual fading of effectiveness over time, as is also the case with many other vaccines. If you received two Moderna or Pfizer vaccine shots early last year, the official statistics still count you as “fully vaccinated.” In truth, you are only partially vaccinated.

Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are older or have health problems.

The average weekly chance that a boosted person died of Covid was about one in a million during October and November (the most recent available C.D.C. data). Since then, the chances have no doubt been higher, because of the Omicron surge. But they will probably be even lower in coming weeks, because the surge is receding and Omicron is milder than earlier versions of the virus. For now, one in a million per week seems like a reasonable estimate.

That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million. So is the average weekly death rate from influenza and pneumonia — about three per million.

With a booster shot, Covid resembles other respiratory illnesses that have been around for years. It can still be nasty. For the elderly and immunocompromised, it can be debilitating, even fatal — much as the flu can be. The Omicron surge has been so terrible because it effectively subjected tens of millions of Americans to a flu all at once.

For the unvaccinated, of course, Covid remains many times worse than the flu.

‘Heartbreaking’

I’m highlighting these statistics because there is still a large amount of vaccine skepticism in the U.S. I have heard it frequently from readers in the past week, after our poll on Covid attitudes and partisanship, as well as the “Daily” episode about the poll.

This vaccine skepticism takes two main forms. The more damaging form is the one that’s common among Republicans. They’re so skeptical of vaccines — partly from misinformation coming from conservative media figures and Republican politicians — that many remain unvaccinated.

Look at this detail from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest portrait of vaccination: Incredibly, there are more unvaccinated Republican adults than boosted Republican adults.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

This lack of vaccination is killing people. “It’s cost the lives of people I know, including just last week a friend of 35 years, a person I met on one of the first weekends of my freshman year of college,” David French, a conservative writer who lives in Tennessee, wrote in The Atlantic. “I can’t tell you how heartbreaking it is to see person after person fall to a virus when a safe and effective shot would have almost certainly not just saved their life but also likely saved them from even having a serious case of the disease.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, estimates that in the second half of last year, 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused Covid vaccines. “Three doses of either Pfizer or Moderna will save your life,” Hotez told me. “It’s the only way you can be reasonably assured that you will survive a Covid-19 infection.” (Young children, who are not yet eligible for the vaccines, are also highly unlikely to get very sick.)

The vaccines don’t prevent only death. Local data shows the risks of hospitalization are extremely low, too. Vaccination also reduces the risk of long Covid to very low levels.

Healthy and anxious

The second form of vaccine skepticism is among Democrats — although many would recoil at any suggestion that they are vaccine skeptics. Most Democrats are certainly not skeptical about getting a shot. But many are skeptical that the vaccines protect them.

About 41 percent of Democratic voters say they are worried about getting “seriously sick” with Covid, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last week. That’s a very high level of anxiety for a tiny risk.

Here’s the proof that much of the fear is irrational: Young Democrats are more worried about getting sick than old Democrats, even though the science says the opposite should be true.

 

From a survey of 1,536 adults in Jan. 2022. | Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

The most plausible explanation for this pattern is political ideology. Younger Democrats are significantly more liberal than older Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center (and other pollsters, too). Ideology tends to shape Covid views, for a complex mix of often irrational reasons. The more liberal you are, the more worried about Covid you tend to be; the more conservative you are, the less worried you tend to be.

I know that many liberals believe an exaggerated sense of personal Covid risk is actually a good thing, because it pushes the country toward taking more precautions. Those precautions, according to this view, will reduce Covid’s death toll, which truly is horrific right now. In a later newsletter this week, I will consider that argument.

For now, I’ll simply echo the many experts who have pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.

Answers and convenience

What might help increase the country’s ranks of vaccinated? Vaccine mandates, for one thing — although many Republican politicians, as well as the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court, oppose broad mandates. Private companies can still impose mandates on their employees and customers.

Without mandates, the best hope for increased vaccination is probably community outreach. While many unvaccinated Americans are firmly opposed to getting a shot, others — including some Democrats and independents — remain agnostic. If getting a vaccination is convenient and a nurse or doctor is available to answer questions, they will consider it.

“I cannot count how many people I’ve spoken to about the Covid vaccine who have been like, ‘No, I don’t think so. No,’” Dr. Kimberly Manning of Emory University told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Then I run into them two weeks later and they tell me they got vaccinated.”

Related: “You have to scratch your head and say, ‘How the heck did this happen?’” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Michael Barbaro on today’s episode of “The Daily,” about the partisan gap in Covid attitudes. Fauci also predicted that people who were anxious about Covid would become less so as caseloads fell.

In Times Opinion, James Martin, a Jesuit priest, argues that schadenfreude over vaccine skeptics’ suffering warps the soul.

THE LATEST NEWS

The Virus

• A mutated version of Omicron could slow the decline in cases, but probably won’t create a surge.

• For those with medical conditions, the latest wave has still posed a threat.

• Spotify said it would add an “advisory” to virus-related content, and the podcaster Joe Rogan said he would try to include more experts. 

• To-go drinks were a rare pandemic crowd-pleaser in New York. But liquor stores would like them to end. 

I wonder why this fails to touch on the science of those that were fully vaccinated, later had a "breakthrough" case, therefore having a full two-shot vaccination plus natural immunity, and what a booster or lack thereof does for that group.  That information was made available in the most recent CDC data, but is seldom talked about.  It seems that the message continues to be "get boosted" as a one size fits all approach, regardless of prior infection.

I actually read recently that if you were double shot and then got covid (omicron specifically) they were advising people to hold off getting the booster. Has that changed?

It is a good question.  I fall into this category (possibly not omicron - could have been delta) and my doctor said wait 3-4 months.  That is just my personal experience.  I'm yet to see any widespread messaging about this, at least not in the U.S.  The only message I see is "get boosted."  A disclaimer stating to wait 3 months if you were fully vaxxed and subsequently had Covid would clear it up, but I have not seen that widespread messaging anywhere.

The only thing I found was to wait the required time from full vaxxed to eligible for booster and if you had a breakthrough infection, to wait the required isolation time after your positive test. So, if you get covid between second shot and booster, as long as you’ve recovered, have no symptoms and have completed your isolation period, get boosted. But what do I know? Now give me a banana, dammit!

Seriously, discuss with your doc.

Halifax2TheMax

mrussel1 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

What a meathead.  He's a double amputee, diabetes, kidney disease and he's had COVID TWICE?  WTF.  He is obviously taking zero precautions.  And honestly, if he doesn't care enough about life to make good choices, why should any of us care?

But his tombstone will read, “Owned the Libs to the End.”

Gern Blansten

mrussel1 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

What a meathead.  He's a double amputee, diabetes, kidney disease and he's had COVID TWICE?  WTF.  He is obviously taking zero precautions.  And honestly, if he doesn't care enough about life to make good choices, why should any of us care?

And how does one trust the science behind a fucking kidney transplant and not a simple shot.

Fucking moron

mrussel1

Gern Blansten said:

mrussel1 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

What a meathead.  He's a double amputee, diabetes, kidney disease and he's had COVID TWICE?  WTF.  He is obviously taking zero precautions.  And honestly, if he doesn't care enough about life to make good choices, why should any of us care?

And how does one trust the science behind a fucking kidney transplant and not a simple shot.

Fucking moron

And the cocktail of meds he would be on for the rest of his life…. It’s so stupid and obviously political.  Actually I’ll correct it and call it cultural.   The political has embedded itself so deep into the culture for some people.  

bootlegger10

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

So dumb.  He trusts these doctors to cut him open, cut out his kidney, and reattach a different kidney but doesn't trust them to give him a COVID vaccine.  

jerparker20

bootlegger10 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

So dumb.  He trusts these doctors to cut him open, cut out his kidney, and reattach a different kidney but doesn't trust them to give him a COVID vaccine.  

It’s a death cult.

Halifax2TheMax

bootlegger10 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

A hero, to some, I’m sure. Hope he’s got health care and pays his bills on time.

He’s declining a coronavirus vaccine at the expense of a lifesaving transplant: ‘I was born free, I’ll die free’

For more than four years, Chad Carswell, 38, has suffered from severe kidney disease. In July 2020, he started on dialysis — but now his kidneys are functioning at just 4 percent.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Carswell said he recently applied for a kidney transplant but was turned down because he has not received a coronavirusvaccine. And, despite his hospital’s requirements that organ recipients be vaccinated against the virus, he’s refusing the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/31/chad-carswell-kidney-coronavirus-vaccine/

So dumb.  He trusts these doctors to cut him open, cut out his kidney, and reattach a different kidney but doesn't trust them to give him a COVID vaccine.  

https://youtu.be/Ky4uYnsF3kc

mickeyrat

 https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-moderna-vaccine-approved-dc6f5ac9eeb31667d5a28f0954335b65

US gives full approval to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

By MATTHEW PERRONE

Yesterday

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators on Monday granted full approval to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, a shot that's already been given to tens of millions of Americans since its emergency authorization over a year ago.

The action by the Food and Drug Administration means the agency has completed the same rigorous, time-consuming review of Moderna's shot as dozens of other long-established vaccines.

The decision was bolstered by real-world evidence from the more than 200 million doses administered in the U.S. since the FDA cleared the shot in December 2020. The FDA granted full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine last August.

Public health advocates initially hoped the regulatory distinction would boost public confidence in the shots. But there was no discernable bump in vaccinations after the Pfizer approval, which was heavily promoted by President Joe Biden and other federal officials. Still, regulators said Monday they hoped the extra endorsement would encourage more people to get vaccinated.

More than 211 million Americans, or 63% of the total population, are fully vaccinated. About 86 million people have gotten a booster dose. Vaccinations peaked last spring at more than 3 million per day, and now average less than 750,000 per day. The pace of vaccinations briefly spiked following news of the omicron variant in December but has since slowed again.

continues...

Halifax2TheMax

Could they have come up with a worse name?

• The F.D.A. granted full approval to the Moderna vaccine. It will be marketed as Spikevax.

mickeyrat

Halifax2TheMax said:

Could they have come up with a worse name?

• The F.D.A. granted full approval to the Moderna vaccine. It will be marketed as Spikevax.

sounds masculine. knuckle draggers just might bite....

HughFreakingDillon

mickeyrat said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

Could they have come up with a worse name?

• The F.D.A. granted full approval to the Moderna vaccine. It will be marketed as Spikevax.

sounds masculine. knuckle draggers just might bite....

market it with a picture of an female olympic volleyball player spiking the coronavirus back to china and we have a surefire winner for the remaining holdouts. 

Meltdown99

It’s cute that some of you still think they’ll get 100% vaccinated..It’s good to have dreams though…even unrealistic ones.

HughFreakingDillon

literally no one believes that. 

mickeyrat

right. because 100% was the goal.

Gern Blansten

Meltdown99 said:

It’s cute that some of you still think they’ll get 100% vaccinated..It’s good to have dreams though…even unrealistic ones.

I would be happy with 67%