I got my covid vaccination today.........the first one. It was probably the easiest vaccination I've ever had. I had flu and tetanus both a few months back........ they don't bother me. The nurse commented that she could still see the scar from the Smallpox vaccine I had 55 years ago!! Some of my friends warned me about the dangers of getting this vaccine....... of course fed by social media BS (Facebook BS).
I wrote this brief bit of humor about the experience...... I eliminated the place names for obvious reasons. It's an entirely fictitious account:
I just got my first vaccination. I'm not on Facebook, and I'd appreciate it if you would circulate this for me........ NOBODY should ever have to go through this.
HW
Dear Facebook Friends:
I got my first Covid shot today at the B___T___ Civic Center.......... Frankly I was terrified! The help helicopter was idling in the parking lot of the IGA across the street waiting to medivac casualties. When I walked in, I was unceremoniously hustled to a table where two burly men held me firmly down as a big nurse with the largest syringe I've ever seen was chuckling evilly as she filled her syringe. The needle looked like a drinking straw.... gazing across the floor of the civic center briefly because I could not bear to watch, I saw paramedics treating a woman who was having convulsions. Another man was getting a epinephrine shot.... his arm swollen to triple it's normal size.... another patient lay twitching feebly on the floor with someone standing over him yelling for a paramedic. The place reeked of piss and poop from terrified people. As I returned my gaze to the to the nurse she asked which shoulder......... I said left, and she plunged the huge needle in....... OH MY GOD..... It was like liquid fire in my veins. Beads of sweat stood out on my forehead as I clamped my teeth shut and tried not to scream. I'm not ashamed to say I pissed myself. A red fog descended over my vision, and then everything went black... It must have been just moments. The nurse was holding smelling salts under my nose and slapping my face to bring me out of it..... "can you walk?".......... "I think so"..... With help I staggered over to a chair to wait the required 15 minutes. I was one of the lucky ones........As I left I saw men zipping someone into a body bag, and heard the roar of the help helicopter hauling the lady who had gone into convulsions to B_____ for further treatment.... as another touched down to await the next casualty. The scene was unimaginable........... a veritable hellscape. I dread to think that I will have to go back for yet another shot. Could the disease possibly be any worse than the cure?
HW
Good to know your TRUE story and experience was nothing at all like the FAKE one! :D
It will soon me 24 hours, and there is absolutely no soreness...... I've had countless vaccinations over the years. A flu or tetanus shot leaves just a bit of soreness...... I like to think I'm tough or have a high pain threshold........ but I don't think that's true. Years ago I had an RN.... A tall drink of water named Jeanie chasing me around with a tetanus shot demanding I drop my pants..... I argued with her and and flat refused to get it in the butt......she was just being a bully, and I developed an absolute intolerance for bullies as a child. She argued that I would not be able to use my arm for a day or two if I got it in the arm.......... utter nonsense..... I've had many tetanus shots over the years and none of them bothered me significantly. I turned and walked out the door saying I guess I didn't need the tetanus shot after all, and she pursued me out the door and gave it to me in the left arm out in the parking lot. I don't let women bully me, and particularly nurses, but I only see a doctor perhaps once in 10 years, and have never been in a hospital or had an operation or been seriously ill..........I don't take drugs and have no intention of taking drugs. At 65, I should probably be getting check ups........ I never have and never will as far as I'm concerned. Questionnaires ask "who is your primary care physician"............ what's that supposed to mean? Doctors turn over more often than I go to the doctor..... should I list my dentist on that line?
H.W.
My wife got hers last week (teacher). She got the one and done Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
She got pretty sick. Temperature just under 102. Chills. Muscle aches. The works. She started feeling better after 24 hours, and was pretty much back to normal at 48. I'm glad she doesn't have to go back for another.
It will be awhile before my name comes up.
I received my second shot two days ago. I had no reaction to the first one except a soreness in the arm. Second shot a little ache the second day but hard to tell how much more than my usual old age ache, no fever. Today I feel fine.
I go today at 1330. Can't wait to find out what it's like :-\
Godot, there is recent research that indicates a reaction for the first dose may mean that the patient had Covid previously. Your wife's reaction is typical of post Covid vaccination. Probably congratulations for strong health. You may have shared the infection with her, and now have Covid antibodies to prove it. If convenient, get that checked. Who knows which of you had it first?
Asymptomatic Covid is apparently much more common than believed. I know a family of 4 who did not realize they had all had Covid until the fourth developed stronger flu like symptoms, with a loss of taste function, and went to a Doctor. She and her husband, plus both children tested positive for antibodies, proving they each had Covid and had recovered naturally.
Shirley and I have had our first shots, no reaction at all. We have some friends who had reactions, and now recall that they did have "regular flu" this winter, and now suspect they had Covid with mild symptoms.
We also have a number of relatively old friends in poor health, living in elderly homes, who have taken the 2 shot sequence, and had only mild reaction to the second shot. None had debilitating reactions.
We are looking forward to the relatively better freedom to travel and interact with friends and family the shots will provide.
Which vaccine are you getting, Charlie? Barbara got the Moderna and I got the Phizer. Neither of us had anything more than a mild ache in the arm for both injections.
We took the advice from Dr. Fauchi: if one is available, take it, no matter which one it is.
Pfizer. No problems so far, other than a slight site soreness
That’s great👍👍
I've held since virtually the start of this that most asymptomatic cases are the result of extremely minimal exposure. That being exposed to just a few viral particles will allow your body's immune system to ramp up fast enough that you do not develop the full fledged disease. To my mind this has been borne out sufficiently and in enough ways that I was long ago convinced of it. The most obvious evidence of this early on was the intensity of the outbreak in NYC, and the fact that it tended to hit health care workers disproportionately hard. Also people in cultures with multigenerational living situations where many people were crowded together in a single home. It also left most rural people virtually untouched. I live in a rural area where a surprisingly large percentage of the population is over 80 and still works outdoors rarely going to town. Many of these people would be classed as vulnerable, and I've worked hard to get them in for vaccinations as many of them are long time friends. Among that group, quite a few have had light cases of covid, none have died or been hospitalized. Part of that is probably that their immune systems are probably quite robust due to being exposed to pathogens all the time because of the outdoor agricultural lifestyle exposed to livestock, etc. Part of it is most likely that they got a very light exposure. I'm one of very few people in the county who ever wears a mask.... I always do when going to town, but only inside buildings because there are no outdoor concentrations of people in the places I go. One couple in their 80's, who are close friends of mine both got it, and ended up losing taste and smell for about 10 days, and both have a slew of health issues that should have made them vulnerable.
Back at the end of the 1700s there was a smallpox epidemic in India. Doctors there (native "doctors") would dip a needle in a pustule of an infected person at a specific stage, and scratch a healthy person lightly. The result was that the healthy person would get an extremely mild illness for a few days and thereafter be immune. This was the first case of actual intentional vaccination against disease as far as I know. It worked, and it was a live virus vaccination. Interestingly our smallpox vaccine back in the '60's when I got one was a live virus..... I still carry a scar on my arm from it. It was however the related cowpox rather than the actual smallpox virus. I believe the polio vaccine was a killed virus.
Live virus vaccination is dangerous needless to say when you use the actual pathogen as in India......... but it does save lives. I believe many of us have been naturally vaccinated by tiny exposures to the Covid virus.
Interestingly recent articles have shown that the scientific community is looking seriously at this very idea. That mask wearing confers immunity by reducing exposure to the virus. They cannot even begin to stop a virus, but they work by absorbing the tiny droplets of moisture that carry it so that little if any actually makes it through, reducing exposure to an extent that you can develop immunity.
Another interesting study has shown that some SSRIs greatly reduce the severity of Covid.... So the shrinks may have inadvertently finally done somebody some good ;-) The prescription of SSRIs like Prosac is so common that there are detectable levels of prosac in the Thames River....... I'd be depressed too if I had to live in London and endure UK weather ;-) Londoners take SSRIs.... the Scotts are driven to eating Haggis and other disgusting practices ;-)
Quote from: Owly055 on March 12, 2021, 10:00:55 PM
I got my first Covid shot today at the B___T___ Civic Center.......... Frankly I was terrified! The help helicopter was idling in the parking lot of the IGA across the street waiting to medivac casualties. When I walked in, I was unceremoniously hustled to a table where two burly men held me firmly down as a big nurse with the largest syringe I've ever seen was chuckling evilly as she filled her syringe. The needle looked like a drinking straw.... gazing across the floor of the civic center briefly because I could not bear to watch, I saw paramedics treating a woman who was having convulsions. Another man was getting a epinephrine shot.... his arm swollen to triple it's normal size.... another patient lay twitching feebly on the floor with someone standing over him yelling for a paramedic. The place reeked of piss and poop from terrified people. As I returned my gaze to the to the nurse she asked which shoulder......... I said left, and she plunged the huge needle in....... OH MY GOD..... It was like liquid fire in my veins. Beads of sweat stood out on my forehead as I clamped my teeth shut and tried not to scream. I'm not ashamed to say I pissed myself. A red fog descended over my vision, and then everything went black... It must have been just moments. The nurse was holding smelling salts under my nose and slapping my face to bring me out of it..... "can you walk?".......... "I think so"..... With help I staggered over to a chair to wait the required 15 minutes. I was one of the lucky ones........As I left I saw men zipping someone into a body bag, and heard the roar of the help helicopter hauling the lady who had gone into convulsions to B_____ for further treatment.... as another touched down to await the next casualty. The scene was unimaginable........... a veritable hellscape. I dread to think that I will have to go back for yet another shot. Could the disease possibly be any worse than the cure?
HW
WOW! Your experience is amazingly similar to when my best friend and his unit got married in a group ceremony!
Tough guy that I've always been, I marched in on Friday around 11 am for my second covid vaccination expecting an anticlimatic event.... which it was. However about the middle my shoulder had swollen up, and I had a fever and an intense headache.... the next 24 hours were miserable. Fever and chills. I couldn't get warm, a headache crawling around my head, first here then there that acetaminophen couldn't knock down, stiff sore muscles, no appetite, no energy. I had to force myself to do anything at all during the day. Saturday night the fever and chills reached a series of climaxes leaving the bed soaked with sweat. The whole thing was like one of those 24 hour bugs (flu?) that have on a few occasions kicked my butt until they break in a flood of sweat, and like those, after the "flood", I felt fine this AM. It generally takes a lot to get me down. I rarely react to anything. I'll get a flu every 10 years or so, and it rarely hits me very hard. Of course I do not work among people, and I live alone, so my exposure when there is any, is far less than most more social people.
Apparently quite a few people have reacted to the second vaccination in variously similar ways.
H.W.
Wow, sorry you had this experience. Was it Moderna?
I had the same side affect after my second shot. Woke up the next day feeling great. By 5:00 that evening felt off. Two hours later, in bed. Felt fine the next morning. It was Moderna.
Guess it's a small price to pay if it provides protection.
It was Moderna...... and I agree that it is a small price to pay.
I took my second Pfizer shot yesterday, and it's shaping up to be close to everything Owly has stated. I haven't checked my temperature yet. It sure wasn't a placebo. Like I feel mostly fine, but I would flat out reject the idea of walking more than a block. (And yea I woke up this morning feeling GREAT, and headed out of the house looking to shake off what little effects I could feel. Come evening time, I'm pushing delirious....)
Yesterday evening, I got my vaccine booster at my local WalMart Superstore. I had read that the Moderna was only a half regular vaccine dose, but the Pfizer brand was a whole dose. Since I only had the wimpy J&J VAX, I chose Pfizer.
So the helpful and knowledgeable pharmacy associate gave me the shot, and let me go shopping without even sitting around for 15 minutes.
Everything was okay last night.
But when I got up this morning...
Now I like power boats. ???
🤣🤣🤣😂
Quote from: Jim_ME on December 03, 2021, 12:23:22 PM
Yesterday evening, I got my vaccine booster at my local WalMart Superstore. I had read that the Moderna was only a half regular vaccine dose, but the Pfizer brand was a whole dose. Since I only had the wimpy J&J VAX, I chose Pfizer.
So the helpful and knowledgeable pharmacy associate gave me the shot, and let me go shopping without even sitting around for 15 minutes.
Everything was okay last night.
But when I got up this morning...
Now I like power boats. ???
You were told wrong........Actually the Moderna and Pfizer are essentially the same active ingredient, but the Moderna has many times the quantity of the active ingredient...An MRNA messenger molecule that programs cells to produce the spike protein. The only real difference is the lipid used to carry it. This is all documented, but I cannot give you the reference as I don't save that sort of thing. I believe the figure was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 times as much.
Omicron being apparently fairly "harmless" as far as anybody has observed so far, is probably the most dangerous variant yet because of that. People are quickly concluding that the virus will naturally evolve to be less dangerous. Nothing could be further from the truth! Mutations are RANDOM. The result of Omicron will be that people will say "see, I told you so", and forego vaccination. It's ability to overcome immunity, and people's attitude toward it, will create a much larger pool of infected people, increasing mutations...which are constant and random in viruses. Survival or death of the victim is essentially of zero consequence to the virus in the evolutionary sense.
It has been suggested somewhat correctly I think, that Omicron will act like a vaccine. Minor symptoms.... fatigue, sore muscles, headache. Your body will develop antibodies to it which may give resistance to future mutations.............. But how much protection is this actually. Look at colds and flu. Like Omicron itself, the virus will continue to mutate, and eventually overcome this resistance. Viral mutation is rapid and constant due to the very short generations (hours) compared to animals. A compressed snapshot of evolution.
H.W.
I had read this information [about] the booster doses from the website such as this CDC one...
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html
FAQ:"Are booster shots the same formulation as existing vaccines?
[Answer] Yes. COVID-19 booster shots are the same formulation as the current COVID-19 vaccines. However, in the case of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, it is half the dose of the vaccine people get for their primary series."
The WalMart Pharmacist offered a choice of Moderna, Pfizer or J&J. She confirmed that the Moderna was half a regular vaccine dose, but Pfizer was a full dose.
[Edited to add: Looks like they were comparing the booster dose to the vaccine dose, not comparing the strength of the Moderna and Pfizer to each other. I did assume that they were more similar than they apparently are, based on what you have written. If the Moderna is considerably stronger (by volume), that would explain why its booster shot dose has been cut in half.]
If they had only offered the Moderna booster, I would have been content with that, too.
:) Booster done here, Pfizer, tired easily next day, then normal.
One of Shirley's distant relatives has died of Covid in Missouri. Many of her relatives out there are antivax, so most of the people that I know who have been infected are out there.
I still compare the vaccine to seat belts. I installed seat belts in my first new car, when they were not a factory available option, and used them ALL the time. Today, they are mandatory in all cars, and use is required, but I know people who sit on theirs. Coincidentally, they are antivaxxers. :-[
Before the election, Harris and Pelosi were the prime drivers of the idea that the "Unsafe Trump vaccine" should be avoided, and we should wait for a "conventional" and safe vaccine. Now both are demanding that as good citizens, we MUST get vaccinated with that same vaccine. ::)
No "conventional vaccine" is even in the works for a safe rollout in 3 to 5 years.
Trump himself, the sitting president while the new vaccine was invented, downplayed its use, as "healthy people had natural immunity", and he himself had survived. He ignored that the drugs he received were in very short supply, slow to manufacture, and well beyond the financial reach of ordinary citizens. >:(
Thus, three of our most prominent political leaders have been well publicized antivaxxers. When our political leaders in both parties lie to us for their own parties short term advantage, it is understandable that the public is truly confused and miss led. >:(
And the vaxxers will be more likely to survive. ;D
All that just MY opinion, you are welcome to a different one of your own. We will each live with what our choice brings to us.
Quote from: Norman on December 18, 2021, 10:29:30 AM
:) Booster done here, Pfizer, tired easily next day, then normal.
One of Shirley's distant relatives has died of Covid in Missouri. Many of her relatives out there are antivax, so most of the people that I know who have been infected are out there.
I still compare the vaccine to seat belts. I installed seat belts in my first new car, when they were not a factory available option, and used them ALL the time. Today, they are mandatory in all cars, and use is required, but I know people who sit on theirs. Coincidentally, they are antivaxxers. :-[
Before the election, Harris and Pelosi were the prime drivers of the idea that the "Unsafe Trump vaccine" should be avoided, and we should wait for a "conventional" and safe vaccine. Now both are demanding that as good citizens, we MUST get vaccinated with that same vaccine. ::)
No "conventional vaccine" is even in the works for a safe rollout in 3 to 5 years.
Trump himself, the sitting president while the new vaccine was invented, downplayed its use, as "healthy people had natural immunity", and he himself had survived. He ignored that the drugs he received were in very short supply, slow to manufacture, and well beyond the financial reach of ordinary citizens. >:(
Thus, three of our most prominent political leaders have been well publicized antivaxxers. When our political leaders in both parties lie to us for their own parties short term advantage, it is understandable that the public is truly confused and miss led. >:(
And the vaxxers will be more likely to survive. ;D
All that just MY opinion, you are welcome to a different one of your own. We will each live with what our choice brings to us.
The political comments in this post ( Pelosi / Harris) are considerably less than accurate as you can find out from sites like Snopes and news sites that publish accurate news.
Politics has no place on this forum, particularly when filtered through Faux news.
Here is a link to a Newsweek piece that puts things in the proper perspective: https://www.newsweek.com/anti-vaccine-covid-trust-skepticism-democrat-politicization-1535559 (https://www.newsweek.com/anti-vaccine-covid-trust-skepticism-democrat-politicization-1535559)
H.W.
I am criticizing both parties and the key spokespersons here. I am not implying that either party is doing better. Snopes may say that the politicians did not say what I heard them say, but Newsweek printed otherwise.
Some quotes from the "Relatively reliable source", NEWSWEEK, you posted:
Green is my emphasis, showing how much the political posturing hurt the public perception of the vaccine.
Kennedy, a lawyer and prominent anti-vaccine activist, said that around the middle of Augustâ€"when the Trump administration began suggesting a vaccine may be ready before the November 3 electionâ€"Democratic leaders started voicing skepticism about the development process for the first time. And concerns about the speed at which vaccines are being developed, and the potential for their release via Emergency Use Authorization (EUA,) have now been raised by many political leaders.
"[Politicization is] causing enormous problems with public trust," he told Newsweek, adding that Trump is not even communicating with his own best interests in mind. "He shoots from the hip all the time… He does a lot to undermine his own case. Starting with the name Operation Warp Speed. [That] would not have been my choice for the name of a program if I was strategically trying to get people's confidence."
At the start of September, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris said she would not trust President Donald Trump's word alone that any vaccine developed is safe and efficient.
A week later, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden made similar remarks during a speech in Delaware, saying, "I trust vaccines, I trust scientists, but I don't trust Donald Trump."
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has said any vaccine must meet safety standards before being released if it is to be accepted by the public.
According to a survey from the Pew Research Center carried out between September 8 and 13, half of U.S. adults now say they probably or definitely would not get a vaccine to prevent COVID-19, if it were available today.
While vaccine skepticism was still higher among Republicansâ€"as it has been historicallyâ€"there was a marked increase among Democrats. In May, 50 percent said they would "definitely" get the vaccine. By September, this had fallen to 24 percent.
"What's uniting many people are concerns that this potentially fast-tracked, liability-free vaccine will be mandated to return to normal life," she said. "Having top Democrat leaders raise these questions has given an even greater voice to the concerns shared by many who believe in sound science, safe vaccines, and industry accountability."
Not a political argument of who is right or wrong, just an explanation of why so many people in each party have a resistance to vaccination. During the summer, the Democrats were saying that a safe, tested vaccine could not be ready for at least another year.
I have a friend who was a lifelong Democrat, who will not get the 'Trump' vaccine.
I wonder why some people believe that Trump actually had anything to do with the vaccine?
Quote from: Owly055 on December 17, 2021, 10:24:31 AM
Quote from: Jim_ME on December 03, 2021, 12:23:22 PM
Yesterday evening, I got my vaccine booster at my local WalMart Superstore. I had read that the Moderna was only a half regular vaccine dose, but the Pfizer brand was a whole dose. Since I only had the wimpy J&J VAX, I chose Pfizer.
So the helpful and knowledgeable pharmacy associate gave me the shot, and let me go shopping without even sitting around for 15 minutes.
Everything was okay last night.
But when I got up this morning...
Now I like power boats. ???
You were told wrong........Actually the Moderna and Pfizer are essentially the same active ingredient, but the Moderna has many times the quantity of the active ingredient...An MRNA messenger molecule that programs cells to produce the spike protein. The only real difference is the lipid used to carry it. This is all documented, but I cannot give you the reference as I don't save that sort of thing. I believe the figure was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 times as much.
I don't think he is wrong at all. Moderna has one dose for the first and second shots, and a half dose for the Booster. Pfizer is the same dose for one, two and booster.
I've had the shots. I've been boosted. pfizer. Day one was fine. Day two on each had me sick for five or six hours to the point where I couldn't leave the couch, after which I rapidly and completely recovered. Nothing like the scary experience my wife had with the J&J vaccine. She boosted with Pfizer and had zero symptoms.
I'm done being afraid of this virus. I'll dutifully take my shots, at least for now. I'll wear a mask where it is required (work, sadly, even though I rarely come in close contact with anyone there). I, honestly, don't really believe masks, especially the silly cloth masks everyone wears, to be particularly effective; but even if they are, I'm simply no longer willing to voluntarily wear them. I am otherwise going on about my life, because I'd rather take a bullet than live the life our psychopathic elected elites seem to want us to live.
Life is risky. I've known some older, sick people (one an 80 year old diabetic with Leukemia, and my Uncle who frankly ruined his body with out of control alcoholism) who have died. I've known a couple folks who have had it and describe it as being like a really bad flu, the worst they've ever experienced. I've known maybe a dozen who had it but barely noticed (if contact tracing didn't force them to get tested, many probably wouldn't have bothered). And if I don't miss my guess, I probably know people who have had it and never even noticed. We've been affected by it at work, and have had to deal with minimal staffing as a result. None who ended up sick or quarantined reported anything serious.
So...add it to the list of things that may (but probably won't) kill me some day. The list is already long. I'm done caring.
I think that Owly was saying that the pharmacist was telling me something that was wrong. It may not have been [in the particular sense of the term "dose" that she meant], but it may have had the effect of being misleading to me, because of my assumption that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine doses were of similar strength (or active ingredient). I assumed this because both were two-dose vaccinations, and had similar reports of efficacy from the clinical trials (I believe over 90% on the initial Covid-19 strain).
I guess, technically, I asked the wrong question. I should have asked which booster had the most strength [active ingredient]. If the Moderna vaccine dose has three times the active ingredient as the Pfizer, even though it was cut in half for the booster, that should still be 1.5 times that of the Pfizer ["full dose" booster]. I didn't know this, and even the pharmacist may not have--had I asked the right question.
I mainly wanted to [avoid] repeating the situation where I had gotten the J&J, since the advice [at that time] was that "the best vaccine type is the one that is [first] offered you", and then find out that it lost enough of its efficacy after only two months to warrant a booster, whereas either the Pfizer or Moderna provided protection for 6 months [and this time may also have been reduced as new variants emerged that the vaccines were not as effective against].
Last thing before bed, I happened to read this story (https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/opinions/nurse-audrey-wendt-michigan-covid-message-goldynia/index.html) that touches on some of the issues of lack of trust that have been raised in previous posts, from the perspective of a compassionate ER nurse. I found it very sincere and moving, and hopefully worth reading, whatever your position may be on this subject.
Outstanding link, Jim_ME, Shirley just lost an unvaccinated cousin, and
has a vaccinated cousin recovering even though he has the equivalent to black lung disease. He is suffering from pneumonia, but improving. Without the vaccine, the Covid would have been much more severe, and he would almost certainly be gone.
Both cousins are related by marriage, not genetic, but in this case, that is immaterial.
The before and after pictures of "Uncle John" were quite compelling.
Norman, Condolences to you and your wife on the loss of her cousin. Best wishes to the cousin who is recovering.
Sorry for your loss......... I've lost 4 friends so far, no relatives, and a large percentage of the people I interact with daily have had covid. Many are contemptuous of the vaccine... thanks to Faux News, and Facebook. A friend of mine who is very religious was horrified when I told her that I had gotten the vax and booster as soon as it was available.... Her opinion was that faith would protect her..... how stupid can you get? I related the parable about the man who believed God would protect him as his neighborhood flooded. He refused evacuation by car, then by boat (from the second floor), then helicopter (from the roof).... and of course drowned. He was very upset when he got to heaven, and had words with God, who said "I gave you three chances... what more do you want?" The same applies to Covid. God WILL protect you, but you have to accept that the "miracle" you are looking for may not be a dramatic old testament miracle....... The vaccine itself, and the capability to create it and produce it is the miracle God has provided, not some evil conspiracy.
While I do NOT advocate intentional or careless exposure to Covid or any other disease, this article that I found on Yahoo News has reached exactly the conclusion I reached a long time ago. That exposure fairly soon after vaccination acts as a booster and will increase your resistance. Omicron with it's apparently mild symptoms may be a blessing in this sense....... though the huge number of cases means that the probability of more mutations, and possibly more dangerous mutations is increased. It is a mistake to conclude that the virus will become less dangerous through it's evolution. There is an evolutionary advantage to the ability to overcome immunity, but no advantage or disadvantage related to how deadly it beomes for practical purposes. Using reasonable caution .... masking when among large numbers of people, and generally avoiding crowded situations is no hardship to me..... I don't like crowds anyway.
Full vaccination against COVID-19 and a breakthrough infection builds 'super immunity,' study finds
Elizabeth Weise
Fri, December 17, 2021, 4:02 AM·3 min read
A study by Oregon researchers finds that people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 who have a breakthrough infection end up with what the authors call "super immunity."
They caution the vaccinated should not seek COVID-19 infection, but the "hybrid immunity" offers some solace for those who catch one despite having been vaccinated.
"The bottom line of the study is that vaccine provides you with foundational immunity for whatever comes next," said Fikadu Tafesse, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland, Oregon.
The study matched 26 vaccinated Oregon Health & Science University staff people who had breakthrough infections with a similar group who were vaccinated but hadn't had COVID-19.
The people who were vaccinated and then got COVID-19 showed a substantial increase in antibody levels, said Tafesse.
"The increases were substantial, up to a 1,000% increase and sometimes up to 2,000%, so it's really high immunity," he said. "It's almost 'super immunity.'"
Multiple other studies have shown that infection with COVID-19 followed by one dose of the vaccine is very protective against re-infection.
“This is one of the first that shows a breakthrough infection following vaccination generates stronger immunity than prior infection or vaccination alone,†said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco.
While possibly equally protective, the reverse order is not recommended. Getting COVID-19 before being vaccinated is dangerous because “we cannot predict who will get very ill with COVID,†Gandhi said.
As the highly contagious omicron variant continues to spread in the United States, the findings will be of interest to many, and "is likely what the future will hold for most vaccinated individuals," Gandi said.
Omicron appears to be able to infect even fully vaccinated people, though they so far appear to come down with mild or even asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
"What we're saying is, we know life happens. If you happen to be exposed to the virus, you'll have this amazing immune response," Tafesse said. "It mirrors the immunity response we get to the booster."
The finding shows what a good job the immune system does, said Shane Crotty, a professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California.
Every time the immune system sees the vaccine or the virus, it is learning more and better able to fight it and potential other variants.
“This is what the immune system evolved to do, to make guesses from something it’s been exposed,†he said.
There is some information being spread online claiming that getting vaccinated after having recovered from COVID-19 is dangerous because it could overstimulate the immune system.
"That's completely made up, it's total rubbish," said Crotty. "It was tested in all the vaccine trials. Getting vaccinated after COVID-19 exposure is totally safe."
Getting a booster is still safer than getting COVID-19, said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, particularly for those at risk for severe disease, including those over 70, people with diabetes and those with weakened immune systems.
"Best is getting three doses of an mRNA vaccine and never getting infected. Complications, including long COVID and transmission to others, represent a risk even in that scenario," Poland said.
He offered a hierarchy of safety:
Best scenario: Fully vaccinated and boosted, no infection upon exposure
Next best: Fully vaccinated, boosted and asymptomatic or mild disease upon exposure/infection
Next best: Fully vaccinated, boosted, moderate disease and attendant complication risks upon infection
Worse: not fully vaccinated or boosted and risk severe disease/death and its risks upon infection
For those who have had COVID-19 and don't think they need to get vaccinated, Crotty suggested thinking of it another way.
"If you get at least one dose of vaccine, you'll have the best immunity of anyone," he said. "You'll have amazing immunity against omicron and any variant that's been identified."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID vaccination and previous infection may deliver 'super immunity'