My 20 something long-hauler has been a big advocate of getting vaxed. Ditto my 20 something medical boy.
Even my “very green, back to nature, do we really need that” mentality son was willing to get vaxed as soon as he could even though it meant a 90 minute drive to do so.
Not all of the youngsters out there are against getting the vaccine. Some wish their parents would let them. (News article I posted not too long ago.)
I have heard the same news. I would be curious to know if anyone who had antibodies by natural infection and without a change in immune status fared during the same time. A Cleveland Clinic study I heard about showed frontline healthcare workers with antibodies from infection were less likely to get sick than their vaccinated counterparts. I would have to try to find the article to be sure about that.
If I heard otherwise healthy people with antibodies were dying, it might push me to get vaccinated sooner. But our allergist/immunologist told me early on that if second infections were to occur the second infection would not be worse than the first unless there were a significant change in a person’s health.
There was a graph from another article I saw awhile back that showed how if a person with antibodies from having been previously infected with covid got vaccinated, within two or three days their antibodies shot up even higher than people who got two vaccinations. It seems that in a healthy person that would happen in the case if re-infection…but of course that didn’t take into account variants like delta that could possibly do more damage in a shorter time.
Young people are also being told to get vaccinated in order to slow the rate of mutations which ,generally, result in more, not less, potent virus strains. The more the virus mutates, the more likely it is that young people will eventually be seriously impacted.
while theoretically true, there is no evidence that vaccinating the young in the US will impact mutations, given that there are billions in the world that will remain un-vaxed for years.
Agree that mutations are a factor. Whether young people are more seriously impacted in the future is really guesswork. A person with co-morbidities at any age is more at risk than a person w/o them and therefore is always going to be a more appropriate candidate for vaccination, even with the earlier strains.
The Lambda variant is already making news. Apparently it’s wreaked havoc in Peru. Lambda COVID variant UK: All you should know about the new strain | BBC Science Focus Magazine
@MaineLonghorn A 23 year old alumnus of my D’s college was very sick with Covid last year. A regular guy, no outstanding health issues at the time, afaik. Hospitalized and intubated. Thank goodness he recovered. I have no idea if he suffered long term effects.
I am amazed that people focus solely on death. Isn’t it crystal clear that long covid is a huge issue? So many apparently healthy young adults have got it.(A vastly larger number than those who have developed a rare complication from a vaccine.) Parents with young kids have long covid. Who looks after these kids when mom or dad can’t earn money or physically care for their children?
Oh wow - just saw this (was it already posted?). Is the J&J still available in the US?
Non-paywalled article on the subject:
Basically, 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome reported after J&J - Janssen vaccine (of which about 12.8 million have been given in the US, suggesting a rate of 1 in 128,000). About 3,000 to 6,000 people in the US develop Guillain-Barré syndrome each year, which can be caused by viral infections such as influenza, and has been associated with some other vaccines. Older men appear to be more likely to be affected.
Due to manufacturing issues, the J&J - Janseen vaccine is the least common COVID-19 vaccine in the US.
Note the word rare in the headline.
The shock value and sadness of daily deaths from covid will always be worse than these rare vaccine complications.
Yes, it is still available in the US.
Well also, this adverse effect doesn’t appear to be life threatening, is temporary, and is not even unheard of w/r/t vaccines. I’d argue it’s much less scary-sounding than the myocarditis issue for Pfizer and Moderna, based on what has been reported so far (admittedly just out today). Most importantly, it seems to hit older people - particularly older men - who are of course dying from Covid in far, far greater numbers. Shouldn’t be a game changer even for the reluctant younger crowd, but as news happens in real time and this stuff wasn’t picked up in the clinical trials, it’s going to be clocked by those who continue to wait on more data and full approval.
Thanks for the update. Wasn’t sure and no one I know around here has gotten it except for a few earlier this spring when you pretty much took what was in stock that day.
I received. I was tired for a couple of days and that was it. The benefits far outweigh the risks, IMO.
I have one family member who got the J&J with no effects other than a slightly sore arm. But our family has made use of all three vaccines with mild if any reactions. The only one who got knocked down was the person who took the Moderna - woke up the next day with chills, aches and slight fever and was in bed for the next 36 hours. Fortunately, work wasn’t an issue. But the rest: maybe a slightly sore arm, maybe a little fatigue, someone mentioned a sore armpit for a couple of days . . . but the biggest reaction was a shrug of the shoulders because it was honestly no big deal.
“Well also, this adverse effect doesn’t appear to be life threatening, is temporary, and is not even unheard of w/r/t vaccines. I’d argue it’s much less scary-sounding than the myocarditis issue for Pfizer and Moderna,”
I am not making a comment on the vaccine and Guillan-Barre syndrome because I know it is rare and can also be a side effect of the flu shot. However, I take exception to minimizing the effects of Guillan-Barre syndrome. I have worked with these patients. Yes, it can be life threatening. It is not always temporary and can cause permanent paralysis. I have worked with patients who had paralysis of all of their muscles. After a year of rehab, some function had returned but significant residual weakness remained. I’ve seen it and worked with it and I can guarantee you it is very scary.
I have also worked with these patients. But literally zero that I’ve cared for were the result of a recent vaccine. All of them had recently been sick with a viral illness. Remarkabley, I have had two in my family in the past year. One recovered with no ill effects. The other nearly died and is learning how to walk again. Neither occurred after a vaccine. The sickest one was told not to get any vaccines in the near future as a result of his G-B.
G-B, though sometimes associated with vaccines, is actually more strongly aligned with viral illnesses.
Ah - thanks for that information as it is a different description than what is available on this recent news story. Looks like 5% of GBS cases are fatal per quick Google search. The NYT article mentions one possible death from the 100 impacted so far but the person seems to have had severe CVD so they aren’t sure (yet) what led to his death. 57 years old. They did not halt the vaccine as what happened with the blood clot issue. I didn’t catch anything about severity of symptoms, only that it’s generally reversible and that most recover from even severe cases.
NYT says that the occurrence associated with the Covid vaccine is 3-5x higher than the general population (not sure if that includes the reaction to other vaccines). J&J mentioned that the risk exceeds the background rate by a small degree.
Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, had Guillain-Barre syndrome and wrote a book about it called No Laughing Matter. If you want to know more about the syndrome. Good book.
My first Moderna shot did not go well. At all.
Sorry to hear. 
Can you share more information on why?
I was hoping for less side effects but they hit me badly. Fever, rigors, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath and bad body aches. My neuropathy flared as well but couldn’t take my meds due to the retching. It’s been a long night. I have to be better by tomorrow for work.