Originally Posted by
Cerveza Fria
Full Article Here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...AOodi2?ocid=se
Cliffs:
1) Vaccines are effective enough at preventing severe Covid-19 that there is no current need for the general population to be given third doses, according to a report in The Lancet published Monday.
2) The authors, who reviewed observational studies and clinical trials, found that vaccines remain highly effective against severe symptoms of Covid-19, across all the main virus variants including Delta, although they had lower success in preventing asymptomatic disease.
3) The Lancet study concluded that the current variants had not developed sufficiently to escape the immune response provided by vaccines currently in use.
4) The authors argue that if new virus mutations did emerge that were able to evade this response, it would be better to deliver specially modified vaccine boosters aimed at newer variants, than those based on the existing vaccines.
Yeah honestly I'm so torn about these boosters. On one hand, it looks like Pfizer (which I received) does indeed degrade big time in efficacy starting after the 4 month mark or so, falls under 50% before 6 months hit.
However, if all I'm gaining from a booster shot is warding off asymptomatic disease, then perhaps the days of bad side effects (and potential small short and long term risk) just isn't worth the trouble.
The first 2 shots were obvious. I was unvaccianted, COVID is nasty, and COVID both kills and long-term-harms people my age. Also, between weight, blood pressure, blood type, and some other factors, I seem to be in a higher risk category -- not elderly-people-high, but combined with my age, this all scared me. It was a no brainer to take a small risk with the vaccine -- and endure the shitty side effects -- for the very large benefit.
However, this third shot seems to be much less of a game changer for me, and perhaps not one at all. Part of me just wants to wait and be semi-cautious for awhile, until all of this is better understood.