Hypothetical: New Covid variant & your response next time around.

[Midnight]

53 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Those morons  that cannot help but denigrate others will be shown the door. 

Engage in a civil discussion .....or pack up and piss off. 

I thought my shot at politicians was kind of funny (I know some of these people in question personally) but if anyone was offended, my sincerest apologies.  Its a divisive issue and I can be kind of the problem guy in the room - ask my wife.  

As for me, no shots for now, I will probably be the guy you see in the gas station without a mask on that makes everyone uncomfortable. If I need to wear one to get groceries or at the VA Medical Center, or some other necessity I will wear one.  ...what other choice do I have?

Cheers people!

[El Presidente]

2 minutes ago, Midnight said:

I thought my shot at politicians was kind of funny (I know some of these people in question personally) but if anyone was offended, my sincerest apologies.  Its a divisive issue and I can be kind of the problem guy in the room - ask my wife.  

As for me, no shots for now, I will probably be the guy you see in the gas station without a mask on that makes everyone uncomfortable. If I need to wear one to get groceries or at the VA Medical Center, or some other necessity I will wear one.  ...what other choice do I have?

Cheers people!

 

I don't think it was your post....but that was an hour ago and I have forgotten 

 

3 minutes ago, Midnight said:

 Its a divisive issue

Only if people make it. 

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Chibearsv said:

If anyone thinks I'm a moron for taking a vaccine or wearing a mask at someone's request, I don't really care.

You’re not acting like a moron, you’re acting like an adult. That’s apparently asking too much of some people though. 

[01Vert]

At his point it is endemic.  It is not going away.   Look at the Spanish flu and variants that kept showing up for years.
 

   I am done getting more shots myself unless it’s required (such as for international travel) but considering no other commonly accepted shot has to continue to be administered multiple times I don’t see the rush to get more unless someone is at high risk or is in constant close contact with those that are high risk.  

 

Mask mandate suggestions are already floating around so I see us heading that way regardless “Just in case!”.  

[Greenhorn2]

Nothing will change for me. I'll keep living my life until I'm dead.

[MickVanWinkle]

I was rather fortunate in that most of my family friends weren’t too negatively impacted directly or indirectly from the virus/mitigation efforts. My career even thrived (pop health statistical analysis, go figure).

Therefore it is easy for me to say I’m in favor of extreme measures to save lives.  We also know more now about more targeted approaches now so hopefully we could minimize the side effects of the solutions.

One thing is for certain - I won’t be short on TP or cigars if there is a next time.

[Fuzz]

Wear a mask? - No problems. For the last 3 yrs I wore a mask whenever out in crowded public areas, and in those 3 yrs I never caught a cold, where previously I would catch it at least once a year. The moment I forgot to wear a mask at my doctor's office? I caught Covid. So I have zero issues wearing a mask.

Vaccine? - I'm currently waiting till I can get my booster for this year (need to wait 6mths from last infection). If there is a new strain, will I take another vaccine? Yep. My parent's doctor (the one where I caught Covid) told them they didn't need the booster because they don't plan on going overseas. I said that was ridiculous, because it is not about what they do, it is about what I could potentially bring home... and they caught Covid from me 2 weeks later. I get the flu shot every year, so another vaccine wouldn't bother me.

Social distancing/lockdowns - If you're a gamer, you would never have noticed Covid happened. I actually liked how empty the roads were and the air was cleaner. I could easily see the Blue Mountains from my home during lockdown. Admittedly, it really sucked for business, but it could have be worse if all our hospitals were flooded with critical cases as they were in other countries.

My feeling is, we live in a society. To co-exist, we all give up something (within reason) to get along together. When we no longer consider others, that is when society breaks down. I had never thought in my wildest dreams that society would collapse over toilet paper, but we went there. No wonder aliens don't want to contact us.

[Lomey]

I got the first 2 shots, but passed on the booster.  I'm not antivax, I just wanted to let my immune system do what it was designed to do.  I have never tested positive for Covid.  My wife got the first 2 shots and the booster and tested positive for Covid twice.  We never quarantined from each other so I took it as a sign that I didn't need the booster.  Will I get a booster for international travel if made to or my elderly parents asked me to in order to see them, yes I will.  We haven't been overseas since Covid and I miss the travel.  We are going to Ireland April, 2024 and I can't wait to go.

 

Masks I will wear out if asked to.  I want to make people feel comfortable, so as little as we go out it's a small sacrifice.  We are homebodies anyway for the most part.  I was lucky enough to semi-retire early and only work a hobby type job 2-3 days a week and my wife works from home.  I can sit on my deck, watch sports, drink/brew beer, smoke cigars, grill/smoke great food, play with my dog, workout in my home gym and get my hands dirty in my gardens so bring on the stay at home if need be.  Do I think it was harmful to the economy, I do, but at my age (52 and no kids) it is what it is and out of my control.

[Vetteman]

Well there's two differences from the first go round. There's fairly effective vaccines and Covid is not a novel disease now. I never totally stopped masking indoors shopping and I still do on occasion. Might be more consistent if infections start to increase. I have received annual booster shots and plan to get another this year. As I got older I didn't much like crowds or dealing with airports/flying before Covid, so I have no need to change anything there

[anthem]

In terms of masking, I really have no issues with masking in public spaces or around the more vulnerable population.  I did this before and would do it again if required.  The issue I have with masking, is that for it to be effective, everyone needs to wear one for it to be effective, since most of the masks only help prevent you from shedding the virus.  I'll share a little story here.  My wife got COVID in the Spring of 2022 about 3 weeks before a trip that we were going to take.  She works in retail and the masking directives had been dropped about 2 weeks before she got COVID (she went 2 years working in retail while everyone was masking without getting it).  Once she tested positive, we took the necessary precautions and I never got it.  Fast forward about 4 weeks, we are returning from our vacation in the Dominican Republic (masks are still required on flights to and from Canada at this time, except for eating or drinking).  The guy in front of me obviously had a respiratory virus of some form, his mask may have been on for 30 minutes of the flight, since he was constantly blowing his nose.  Within 72 hours, I tested positive for COVID.  Luckily no major complications for my wife or myself with our experience.

For vaccinations, I have been vaccinated (including booster), but don't plan on getting any more vaccines at this point in time.  As others have said, the virus will still be around, will mutate into other strains  We have antivirals that are available for the more vulnerable population.  If there's a new strain that has more serious effects, and the vaccine is effective against this new strain, I may reconsider, but at this point not planning on getting any more.

In terms of social distancing/lockdowns, I would be extremely surprised if we went back to these measures, again assuming the antivirals that exist are effective any new strain.  The lockdowns had such a negative impact on the economy and society in general in my opinion.

[Namisgr11]

11 hours ago, Greenhorn2 said:

Nothing will change for me. I'll keep living my life until I'm dead.

As will we all, excepting why hasten the inevitable?

[BoliDan]

I don't even know how many times I've had it. Pretty hard to avoid when you work at a University with 10,000 students. It's gotten weaker and weaker every time. The first time, I couldn't move for weeks. That was before shots were available. The second time (post shot) meh. The third time I had it, I didn't even know. It got picked up by my mandatory testing at work, and they told me I needed to go home and isolate for two weeks. I was like "sweet, Staycation!".

I'm guessing I've had more than three, but am asymptomatic. I have all my boosters. I'll let you know when my DNA transforms and I become a lizard.

 

[BrightonCorgi]

On 8/22/2023 at 4:30 AM, Namisgr11 said:

I don't get the resistance to vaccination...

Autonomy.   One should be able to decide what treatments and medicines that want to take or avoid. 

Normal drugs take 6 to 12 years to be approved by the FDA. 

Liability protections given to Covid medicine manufacturers doesn't inspire confidence either.  If the vaccines are safe, why the liability protection?

 

[Namisgr11]

40 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Autonomy.   One should be able to decide what treatments and medicines that want to take or avoid. 

Not vaccines, which protect at the population as well as the personal level.  They've been required by schools for over 60 years now and counting for that very reason.

Polio, for example, has for decades been 99% eradicated.  The only hold-out countries that still experience small but impactful outbreaks are Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.  It would never have been accomplished had childhood vaccination for the virus been treated as some matter of autonomy rather than what it truly is, a matter of public health.

As for vaccine safety, the real world data collected by every developed country from hundreds of millions of study participants and over a billion inoculations are clear.  The DNA-based JNJ vaccine was taken off the market for an inferior safety record, whereas the RNA- and protein-based vaccines have stellar safety records.  So yes, one can choose to live in fear of vaccination, but on the risk/reward continuum those fears aren't easy to justify.  We used to hear a lot of biologically fallacious reasons for avoidance of the RNA vaccines, but besides the fact that the objections aren't consistent with their known human biology there's been a protein-based alternative available for a couple of years now that renders those objections moot.

As to the timing, coronavirus vaccine development has been twenty years in the making.  Barney Graham's breakthrough studies of the spike protein of the SARS virus dating back to 2005 provided the basis for design of the spike protein of SARS-CoV2 that made it especially of the right shape for eliciting neutralizing immune responses after vaccination.

[MrBirdman]

39 minutes ago, Namisgr11 said:

So yes, one can choose to live in fear of vaccination, but on the risk/reward continuum those fears aren't easy to justify.  We used to hear a lot of biologically fallacious reasons for avoidance of the RNA vaccines, but besides the fact that the objections aren't consistent with their known human biology there's been a protein-based alternative available for a couple of years now that renders those objections moot.

Thank you

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Autonomy.   One should be able to decide what treatments and medicines that want to take or avoid. 

Absolutely - until that decision threatens others. Your freedom to move your fist ends where my face begins. 

[BrightonCorgi]

14 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

Absolutely - until that decision threatens others. Your freedom to move your fist ends where my face begins. 

Do you know of anyone who got the vaccine yet still contracted Covid? 

Should be we ban smoking in proximity to anyone since 2nd hand smoke is a known to cause cancer?

[TacoSauce]

8 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Should be we ban smoking in proximity to anyone since 2nd hand smoke is a known to cause cancer?

This is an interesting point. The same logic that justifies mandatory/forced vaccination on the basis of "public health" can easily justify a forced ban of *all* smoking *everywhere* on the basis of that same "public health." It seems that if one wants to hold logically consistent views, it would be difficult to support forced vaccination and also support an individual's freedom to smoke.

[Fuzz]

3 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Do you know of anyone who got the vaccine yet still contracted Covid? 

Should be we ban smoking in proximity to anyone since 2nd hand smoke is a known to cause cancer?

No vaccine is 100% effective in stopping a virus, and that is not it's job anyway. Even after getting the MMR vaccine as a kid, I still got rubella and mumps, but the symptoms were far less than if I were unvaccinated. The point of the vaccines is to stimulate your immune system to create a stronger response to a virus and lessen the seriousness of the illness.

People are already banned from smoking around other people. Here in Aus, you cannot smoke where there are no smoking signs, you can't smoke in a publlic building, within 4m of a restaurant entrance, in a park near children, at bus stops or train stations, etc etc etc. And it is an offence to smoke in a car with someone under the age of 16. So yeah, we have banned people from smoking in proximity to others under certain conditions.

[Namisgr11]

39 minutes ago, TacoSauce said:

 It seems that if one wants to hold logically consistent views, it would be difficult to support forced vaccination and also support an individual's freedom to smoke.

I believe it's actually an easy differentiation.  In just the US, COVID caused 600,000 deaths in the first 12 months alone.  So while it's unclear exactly how many cancer and emphysema fatalities can be ascribed to secondhand smoke in the indoor and outdoor settings each, it's a certainty that the numbers are many, many, many times less.  Put another way, the public health issues surrounding COVID, like polio before it, and secondhand smoke are entirely different.  

And personally I'm not a believer in someone's individual right to contract polio, knowing that extremely high vaccine compliance is what led to its eradication.   This holds for an individual's freedom to contract smallpox as well.  Regardless, there were no efforts, in the US at least, for forced vaccination against COVID of the populace at large.  

 

[BrightonCorgi]

25 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

No vaccine is 100% effective in stopping a virus, and that is not it's job anyway. Even after getting the MMR vaccine as a kid, I still got rubella and mumps, but the symptoms were far less than if I were unvaccinated. The point of the vaccines is to stimulate your immune system to create a stronger response to a virus and lessen the seriousness of the illness.

You can still spread Covid if you are vaccinated. 

[Fuzz]

2 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

You can still spread Covid if you are vaccinated. 

Again, not the point of the vaccine. A vaccine is not going to prevent you spreading the virus, just increase your own immune response to the virus.

Now a mask that is a physical barrier preventing bodily fluids from being ejected into the air, and hand sanitiser that cleans your hands before you touch your face, that limits the spread of a virus.

[BrightonCorgi]

17 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Again, not the point of the vaccine. A vaccine is not going to prevent you spreading the virus, just increase your own immune response to the virus.

Then why have a mandate on that vaccine?  We are allowed to do other things that are harmful to ourselves.

[DaBoot]

I believe you must do what is in your best interest to survive. 
I will not put an untested virus in my body, I will not wear a hazmat suit to go to work or the store,

If you live in fear, you have already lost 

 

[MrBirdman]

28 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Then why have a mandate on that vaccine?  We are allowed to do other things that are harmful to ourselves.

See my prior post 🙂.