"Hospitals are already overburdened by Delta patients, and the consequences of many infections in a short period will be increasingly deadly. Even cases among the vaccinated can still lead to long Covid.
Fortunately, there’s mounting evidence that a third shot, which the Food and Drug Administration authorized in November for all adults, can increase people’s defenses. But only around 28 percent of Americans have received a booster.
While policymakers are still urging people to do what they can to avoid spreading or contracting the virus, the response to Omicron has largely been to re-emphasize the need for boosters in order to bolster immunity against an infection that will be hard to keep at bay. More measures will likely be needed to lessen the toll on the health system. Rapid tests for every American could help prevent transmission by identifying infections early, for example.
With the eradication of Covid-19 off the table, the hope has been that one variant — in the best-case scenario, an innocuous one — would finally push the United States toward endemicity, a consistent but relatively contained level of infection. But the world will need a lot more immunity to get there. Ideally, people would be both vaccinated and regularly boosted so that they have protection against disease when they are exposed to any variant and at most feel they have a crummy cold and recover.
Annual shots, as with seasonal flu variants, and boosters, as with tetanus, have always been an accepted part of infectious disease prevention. And outside of the Covid pandemic, no one really speaks of breakthrough infections, though the term may still apply. In the future, getting Covid-19 boosters and breakthroughs will feel like the new normal, Dr. Ellebedy said.
While SARS-CoV-2 infections among the vaccinated may feel like a personal problem, they actually represent a societal and global one. In the United States, for example, the Delta variant has already pummeled health care infrastructure, putting strain on providers and making it more difficult for everyone from cancer patients to people experiencing appendicitis to seek care.
“We will continue to have variants of concern emerging as long as we have large swaths of the human population that are unprotected,” said the bioethicist Nancy Jecker, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine."
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/19/opinion/omicron-breakthroughs.html
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earlier...
>Omicron ("O") is HIGHLY transmissible...party in Oslo, Norway...111 attendees at a restaurant...80 came down with "O"...all vaccinated (not boosted??)...but NO hospitalizations
>Only one monoclonal anti-body treatment effective (Sotrovimab/S309)...all others, near zero effect on "O"
(*) Current "Full Vaccination" condition (i.e. 2 doses of mRNA) affords near zero protection from transmission...Booster shot restores to ~75% (Pfizer)...very important to get "Boosted" for "O".
(*) Natural Immunity no longer exists with "O"...HOWEVER...if vaccinated after COVID infection, then patient becomes "Super Immune"...very good protection.
>20% higher risk of hospitalization for children with "O"...concerning...
>What to do?...
- Get Vaccinated...GET BOOSTED!
- Act more cautiously (masking, social distancing, etc.)
(*) Oral treatment pill (i.e. Pfizer's PAXLOVID) is a "Game Changer" once approved...need to get patients in therapy ASAP,
>Each of the Grand Rounds ID Docs uses home COVID testing...especially for holiday gatherings...Ok to gather w/o masks IF...all attendees are vaccinated and boosted...have been tested shortly before entry to the gathering...must have a negative test to attend...if feeling 'unwell', e.g. scratchy throat, cough, malaise, etc....DON'T ATTEND...even with a negative test.
Very grateful that I received Booster in mid NOV.
Will be cautious over the holidays, but still active w/ family.
Collins said on Sunday that during his 12 years serving as NIH director, one thing he would have studied more carefully is hesitancy.
"I did not imagine there would be 60 million people who, faced with compelling evidence of the life-saving nature of Covid vaccines, would still say, 'No, not for me,'" he said.
Can’t fix moronity Doc.
None of these guys would make it in a marketing department. Hopefully someone will remember this and try to learn from this major fail by the medical establishment.
You can blame the morons all you want, but the experts definitely sucked at the job of promoting the vaccines.
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This has been the opposite of a success story.
experts. In fact some of those you mention are making a comeback due to anti vaxxers.
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Sadly, as part of joining their cult, the cult members have been programmed to reject truth, and invent their alternative brand of facts
As we see on this Board, they have wandered far away from rational thinking, and should be present a danger to themselves and a danger to others.
Thanks plague rats. You are already 85-90% of hospitalizations. Your best work is yet to come.
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Now let every one else live there lives and shut up about it.
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As a reminder...he's got you on ignore. He doesn't see your bullshi....I mean posts.
He can't "Mute" me ;-)...btw, how many physicians do you know who support not getting vaccinated?...and now, with exceptionally transmissible "Omicron"...Boosted?
Shouldn't such a person be "Called Out" for being so medically wrong?
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The Booster jab improves the odds that I will not become infected, but if infected, improves the odds I do not suffer a severe/lethal illness.
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Link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vaccine
vac·cine
/vakˈsēn/
noun
noun: vaccine; plural noun: vaccines
a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease
This shot does not offer immunity. It’s not a vaccine.
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I thought a liberal company like that would fall in line with the new CDC definition. You know how you schmucks like to change the rules to control the narrative.
serious illness and death is as well...and of foremost importance...see the link from CDC.
btw, getting "Boosted" with mRNA vaccines restores transmission protection to ~75% (see the UCSF Grand Rounds video I posted earlier).
Link: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/covid-19-vaccines-us.html
Vaccines are important in this time of COVID19?
I can’t say I didn’t see that coming.
Person immunity is not my fault. If you want to believe it does, it’s on you. I’m not blaming google. I’m just telling you what it gave back to me.
have issues admitting that unless they somehow felt that this fundamentally threatened their beliefs.
The 2 shot COVID "vaccines" still has significantly worthwhile preventaitive value, but you bring up a good (if esoteric ) point. It further demonstrates that this topic is religious dogma to some people.
They exhibit behavior seen with zealots who want to force their beliefs upon others rather than have frank and open discourse.
Medical professionals are obviously just idiots. Radio talk show hosts have the answers.
Live their lives. You have the shot, you’re protected. In other words, shut the fuck up about other peoples choices.
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