I tell anti-vaxxers I know that everyone will get the COVID at some point because low vaccination rates have let it get out of control. You just want to make sure you're fully vaccinated for when you do get it, to help keep you from dying.
People will get assault weapons anyway, and shoot up schools, movie theatres, churches, malls, and workplaces. ASSAULT WEAPON BANS DON'T WORK!
We're just sitting ducks because they couldn't possibly pass laws and enforce them, to keep us alive. How ever do they prevent this in every other nation on Earth?
Too many are hearing / seeing the insidious “vaccines don’t protect from infection” so are basically giving up and assuming everyone will get it so why risk the boosters? Hell, far too many didn’t even follow through with the second shot of mRNA to get fully vaxxed. I really long for the days when we respected experts and realized our own ignorance about many things. Knowing how to assess risk and having sufficient reading comprehension to actually understand things written at or above 11th grade level seems way out of the question now.
The phrase "Correlation does not prove causation" is important to understand, but it's above the comprehension level of too many Americans. It could be re-phrased as "After does not mean because."
The title is misleading and does not correlate with its main finding:
"As a group, the unvaccinated remain far more vulnerable to the worst consequences of infection — and are far more likely to die — than people who are vaccinated, and they are especially more at risk than people who have received a booster shot."
"The difference between the two groups is not statistically significant."
Yes, it does seem to be within the error bars. The error bars for "Partially Vaccinated" group are longer than the ones for "Not Vaccinated." I suppose that is because there are not many 80-year-old British people who are only "Partially Vaccinated." It is a small data set, so it has a large margin of error. From what I have heard, just about every old person in the UK has been fully vaccinated.
In Japan, NHK reported that 60% of population has been boosted. They are having a huge surge in infections. Obviously, breakthrough infections. That's the bad news. The good news is that deaths have hardly increased. In previous surges, deaths tracked total cases in the same ratio every time.
Japanese people I know say the surge was probably caused by a recent 3-day weekend when many people went travelling all around the country -- as they did before 2020. I think it might be a little soon for that, but I can't judge. Most people are still wearing masks as far as I know.
Wow. The Excel file from the ONS shows 98.5% of people age 80 and above are boosted. That leaves hardly anyone not boosted or not vaccinated. The population 85+ years old is 1.6 million:
Multiply by 1.5% gives 24,000 people. A very small data set. I expect only a small fraction of that is "not vaccinated." A few thousand? You cannot draw many conclusions from that. I'll bet they live in the middle of nowhere. They must be very healthy old geezers, or they would be dead from COVID. Very healthy or very lucky.
Jeffery Morris wrote a number of papers taking a close look at the UK COVID statistics. Such as this one. He described some statistical anomalies caused by the small data set.
In Maine, our governor has tested positive for Covid-but she is vaccinated and boosted. So how did she get it?
From the BDN:
Neither she nor many other prominent Maine politicians have been wearing masks in public in recent weeks after federal health officials relaxed guidelines in February.
Any questions about why I absolutely refuse to take off my mask, now?
It also stands to reason that as a larger percentage of the gen pop are vaccinated and there are fewer unvaxxed around, the number of new cases and deaths will trend in the vaxxed direction. If and when we hit 100% vaxxed, the point becomes moot.
Let's look at the overall trends though, new cases and deaths are trending mostly downward as predicted due to the vax. That's a good thang.
Anyone that laments the loss of an elderly or infirm vaxxed relative to covid but still argues against masking and mandates has absolutely no standing to grieve.
Even your t-cell response greatly benefits from having had a booster, I believe. Younger people seem to do just fine without a booster, but unboosted older people seem to be in trouble.
The main thing for ANY older or immune compromised person is to have a supply of tests at home, test every time you feel the least bit sick, and IMMEDIATELY go get paxlovid or the latest monoclonal if you test positive. If you're 75 and just got your fourth booster, doesn't matter, still immediately go get paxlovid or monoclonal if you pop positive. (Also, research and verify the monoclonal they're offering is the correct one; they offered Regenron to my father during the Omicron surge, and Regenron doesn't work on Omicron).
I have older folks in my family who got the original shots but decided the boosters were a bridge too far and don’t understand that boosters broaden the response to provide some protection for the new variants that aren’t so good a match to current vaccines. One had to go to the hospital for treatment and got pretty bad before he recovered. They wanted to give him monoclonal antibodies but none were available. Luckily he survived.
We had an older family member die last fall before boosters were available. Relatives found him. He wasn’t in a hospital.
It happens, unfortunately. But the numbers should still swing mostly to unvaccinated as vaccination still keeps most out of the hospital. But the elderly are still somewhat vulnerable. It’s why masking, distancing, and vaccination is still important because it helps protect them.
Meanwhile, it’s the younger unvaccinated getting hit by covid dying now too. And it’s important to remember that the metric of life or death leaves out a lot of suffering after getting covid and “surviving”. QT is a great example. Her health is ruined and she will always be an invalid or at least have a tremendously reduced quality of life.
And then there’s hospital bills. Vaccinated usually don’t even need to go to the hospital but lots of unvaxxed rack up crippling debt with their visits.
I’m scheduled to get my 2nd booster on Monday. Damn straight I’ll be getting it and any subsequent boosters too. Vaccination saves lives, time, and money.
I tell anti-vaxxers I know that everyone will get the COVID at some point because low vaccination rates have let it get out of control. You just want to make sure you're fully vaccinated for when you do get it, to help keep you from dying.
Too many are hearing / seeing the insidious “vaccines don’t protect from infection” so are basically giving up and assuming everyone will get it so why risk the boosters? Hell, far too many didn’t even follow through with the second shot of mRNA to get fully vaxxed. I really long for the days when we respected experts and realized our own ignorance about many things. Knowing how to assess risk and having sufficient reading comprehension to actually understand things written at or above 11th grade level seems way out of the question now.
The title is misleading and does not correlate with its main finding:
"As a group, the unvaccinated remain far more vulnerable to the worst consequences of infection — and are far more likely to die — than people who are vaccinated, and they are especially more at risk than people who have received a booster shot."
Two comments:
1. This newspaper article may have a base rate fallacy. They should have presented per capita death rates.
2. This graph from the UK shows that old people must get booster shots! Look at the 80+ group.
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/health/doh-vaccination-status-weeks-03-06.pdf
In Maine, our governor has tested positive for Covid-but she is vaccinated and boosted. So how did she get it?
From the BDN:
Any questions about why I absolutely refuse to take off my mask, now?
It also stands to reason that as a larger percentage of the gen pop are vaccinated and there are fewer unvaxxed around, the number of new cases and deaths will trend in the vaxxed direction. If and when we hit 100% vaxxed, the point becomes moot.
Let's look at the overall trends though, new cases and deaths are trending mostly downward as predicted due to the vax. That's a good thang.
Anyone that laments the loss of an elderly or infirm vaxxed relative to covid but still argues against masking and mandates has absolutely no standing to grieve.
Even your t-cell response greatly benefits from having had a booster, I believe. Younger people seem to do just fine without a booster, but unboosted older people seem to be in trouble.
The main thing for ANY older or immune compromised person is to have a supply of tests at home, test every time you feel the least bit sick, and IMMEDIATELY go get paxlovid or the latest monoclonal if you test positive. If you're 75 and just got your fourth booster, doesn't matter, still immediately go get paxlovid or monoclonal if you pop positive. (Also, research and verify the monoclonal they're offering is the correct one; they offered Regenron to my father during the Omicron surge, and Regenron doesn't work on Omicron).
I have older folks in my family who got the original shots but decided the boosters were a bridge too far and don’t understand that boosters broaden the response to provide some protection for the new variants that aren’t so good a match to current vaccines. One had to go to the hospital for treatment and got pretty bad before he recovered. They wanted to give him monoclonal antibodies but none were available. Luckily he survived.
We had an older family member die last fall before boosters were available. Relatives found him. He wasn’t in a hospital.
It happens, unfortunately. But the numbers should still swing mostly to unvaccinated as vaccination still keeps most out of the hospital. But the elderly are still somewhat vulnerable. It’s why masking, distancing, and vaccination is still important because it helps protect them.
Meanwhile, it’s the younger unvaccinated getting hit by covid dying now too. And it’s important to remember that the metric of life or death leaves out a lot of suffering after getting covid and “surviving”. QT is a great example. Her health is ruined and she will always be an invalid or at least have a tremendously reduced quality of life.
And then there’s hospital bills. Vaccinated usually don’t even need to go to the hospital but lots of unvaxxed rack up crippling debt with their visits.
I’m scheduled to get my 2nd booster on Monday. Damn straight I’ll be getting it and any subsequent boosters too. Vaccination saves lives, time, and money.
“The bulk of vaccinated deaths are among people who did not get a booster shot.”