Vaccine reluctance & General COVID Discussion

where I live is (atlanta suburb) depending on where you go there are pockets of masking. Where younger people are there seems to be no masking and where older people go (stores/etc) its mixed. What is interesting though is a major pet store chain around here is requiring their employees to mask again because the CDC has our county in high transmission.
From a personal standpoint I dont mask unless I am required to, even when traveling now, but my D chooses to still mask while in airports/planes. She tends to always getting pretty sick with stuff even before Covid (flu , Mono, colds) and had Covid in fall 2020 (pre vaccine not pleasant) and also in Dec 2021(cold like). I only have had it in early Jan 2021 and I did not catch it from her , but someone else.

I wonder how many people refused polio vaccinations when they came out? I remember my mother telling me the fear in the community where she lived. One of her neighbors got it and was paralyzed.

It was only very recently that I learned of the low percentage of people who got polio who were paralyzed. Most had no symptoms at all.

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May be, but the overall infection rate is dramatically higher, so even a lower death rate is going to result in many thousands more deaths.

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A very quick look shows that 2 million children were part of the polio vaccine trial and it lasted for several years.

The Pfizer COVID ‘vaccine’ was tested on 46,331 adults and ran from July 27,2020 and was EUA authorized on December 11, 2020.

that would explain the acceptance - or - questioning rate.

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True, but the vast majority of those have eschewed vaccines and made the personal choice to play the covid-lottery.

Agreed. But at the same time, the more that happens, the more the rest of us are given tickets we didn’t ask for–maybe at a lower rate, but still too many.

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I mean, I don’t know any young people who are dying of flu (I know it happens) but a young vaxxed woman in my town died of Covid this year. I get that this is anecdotal, but I remain more averse to Covid than flu (though would rather not get either.)

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A young healthy 20 years old woman in my DD class died from flu

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I was surprised to learn that my mom did not get the polio vaccine until 1964. When her kids did I guess.

The weird thing was that she was the spouse of an overseas military assignment in 1958. I thought that she would have received it then. And she had younger siblings at home before she left.

But no, not until her kids got it. Or maybe a little after as I was born in 1962

My first thought is our advances in medicine tell us a lot more now than back in the 1950’s. What was rather new back then (even though vaccines, themselves, go back further) isn’t quite as new any longer, so why wait when people are literally dying and you have something that is helping?

My second thought is 1.8 million kids (number google told me were in the trials) were fully willing to risk whatever might have happened in order to take a chance on not having bad outcomes from polio. Back when the first vaccines came out for Covid, I was in that totally willing group too. No regrets, esp now that data shows I picked the better group than the control group (for the vast majority of people).

As I’ve mentioned before a couple of times, Covid is new. We’re all (worldwide) in the experiment whether we want to be or not. It’s only a matter of what group one is in. That’s true for masking, vaxxes, traveling, and any other variable one puts in there.

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Let’s have some perspective. And not sure why you have the word vaccine in quotes?

Comirnaty (Pfizer’s covid vaccine) received FULL FDA approval in early July 2022. Over 3 BILLION doses of Comirnaty have been given worldwide since initial EUA approvals.

Real World Evidence/data of shots in arms >>>>>> Clinical Trial Data.

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Because the definition has changed. Please be clear on what you mean by ‘vaccine’

My expectations of the Shingrex , measles, DTap, booster has been set very differently than my expectation of my annual flu ‘shot’ and COVID 'vaccine;. I fully expect to be wholly protected from DTap, Shingles and measles
but I am told a 50% partial protection from the annual flu and a who know what protection from COVID should be identified by the same word.

Hubby’s PCP told him the pneumonia ‘shot’ is hopeful protection against a serious case, it is NOT a vaccine to keep him from getting pneumonia. Hence
a different term.

In a time where we parse words to a silly level
why should this be different. Pick a current definition, make that definition public and clear
don’t classify A to be the same term as B when it is NOT.

nope.

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Hubby’s PCP is providing mis-information. The definition is clear. Just bcos common usage says ‘flu shot’ does not mean it is not a vaccine.

A vaccine is any biologic that stimulates teh body’s immune system to recognize a similar agent to attack and preferably destroy it. Nothing in the definition of vaccine means it provides 90+% protection of preventing disease, i.e. sterilizing immunity. Flu (and covid) evolve quickly, so vaccines will always be a step behind of any possibility of sterilizing immunity.

The vax for smallpox worked extremely well bcos smallpox is very stable and rarely mutates. (Plus smallpox does not like other animal hosts – just humans.) If covid didn’t mutate (and didn’t hop to other animals) we’d have more success at knocking it down.

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Thanks for the definition. Seems clear to me.

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FWIW, none of these are 100% protective, nor are any vaccines I’m aware of. They all provide immunity help - Covid and Flu included.

Using “shot” instead of “vaccine” seems to be parsing the words from one side that is against them from everything I’ve read so far.

It’s really, really sad that something medical had to turn into red/blue as much as this has.

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https://twitter.com/FinchTH/status/1558555218283036672

I just got my Shingrix vaccine. I understand that it is not “wholly” effective against shingles, but I am happy to have that VACCINE anyway. Just like I feel about the Covid VACCINE.

You are right. Words DO matter. Understanding what is meant by the word “vaccine” is important, because there is a widespread misunderstanding, apparently. It doesn’t mean “you can never, ever, ever, ever, get this disease” – it means it helps your immune system fight it.

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Here’s to hoping any future vaccine is distributed on the basis of age, as in other countries, and not based on zip code, occupation, county or other variables. I will always remember that my healthy teen in NJ was eligible and received the vax months before my 70 year old brother in law in Maryland who has a heart condition was eligible.

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UK approved Moderna’s omicron booster for adults today. No word on how they will rollout, probably will be initial supply constraints, but not sure about that: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/15/europe/uk-moderna-vaccine-omicron-variant-approval-intl-gbr/index.html

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Surely that is a popular opinion in a forum populated mainly be older people.

However, with the original COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 2021, most people did not object to front line health care workers going first, for the presumably obvious reason that they are at high risk of exposure, infection, and becoming vectors to pass the virus on to medically vulnerable people (i.e. preventing one front line health care worker from getting the virus may prevent spread to many medically vulnerable people whom the front line health care worker may contact while presymptomatically contagious). Obviously, things got murkier and more politicized when it came to other occupations with higher than typical risk of exposure.

Of course, if you mean vaccines for other infectious diseases, the profile of spread and vulnerability may differ, which could mean a different vaccination strategy.

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