Please Get Vaccinated

 

We are in the middle of another COVID spike in Texas, in much of the rest of the country and the world.  In Texas new infections are up by 300 to 400%.

Fear-mongering comes in the news in the form of Greek letters these days, but the fear-mongering has a kernel of truth to it.  Unvaccinated people are at increased risk of getting infected; as an adult, if you get infected you have a 10% chance of getting severe disease.  Leaving aside the chance of death, if you get severe disease you have a 30% chance of having long-term problems, like dementia, which in popular accounts is described as “brain fog”.  And the brain fog for those who get it is not going away.

So, according to the Wall Street Journal,  if you’re not vaccinated your chance of getting long-term problems or dying from COVID is 25 times greater than for those who are vaccinated.  Yes, the vaccines are incredibly effective and safe, better than most vaccines we’ve had before.  And they are still effective even against the Delta variant of COVID.   Pray to God that no resistant strains of the virus ever emerge, but the longer this pandemic drags on the more likely it is that resistant strains will emerge.  And this pandemic is going to keep going as long as people don’t get immunity, either through catching the disease or through vaccination.

Here in Podunkville, Texas, you can walk into any Big Box Drug Store and get jabbed, usually for free.  There’s a huge amount of evidence now that the vaccines are safe long-term.  If that’s not good enough for you then every single one of the medications and vaccines that we’ve ever used are not good enough for you.

Get vaccinated, my people.

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  1. Roderic Coolidge
    Roderic
    @rhfabian

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    Are there data on this?  Most of the reports I’ve seen on the long-term effects of covid define long term on the order of a few months, but I certainly haven’t been keeping up with the topic.

    Here’s a review from JAMA on this.  Their figures are worse than the ones I gave initially, that is, over 80% of people discharged from the hospital had complications 2 months later, including respiratory problems and cognitive and mood disorders.    This is not a surprise.  People who land in the ICU for any illness will have long term often disabling effects most of the time, according to the above linked article. Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    • #31
  2. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Roderic (View Comment):
    Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Isn’t there any treatment short of hospitalization in the ICU?

    • #32
  3. Boney Cole Member
    Boney Cole
    @BoneyCole

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    If this was a truly deadly virus like Ebola, they wouldn’t need to use forced coercion to sell the vaccine. People would be lining up to take it. Our government lied through their teeth about this virus all year, why should I suddenly trust them?

    The vaccine would kill you under Trump. It wasn’t ready yet. Do not take any vaccinations that were developed under the Trump administration.

    That was only in October. Now, it’s “take the vaccine or be excluded from civilization.” Huh?

    I have no reason to trust these parasites. I have eyes. I don’t see bodies piling up in the street. I don’t even know anyone who became seriously ill due to this. The virus is killing old people and fat people. I’m neither. I take care of my own health and that’s all I can do. You take care of yours. If that sounds like I do not care about you, you are right, I do not. I do not care about things that are not within my control. I am much more concerned about losing pesky inconveniences like free speech and basic civil liberties than I am of a virus that has a near 0 percent chance of killing me.

    I will never get a Covid vaccine, ever.

    I feel the same way, with one exception.  If I develop a co-morbidity  in the future, and the vaccine has proved to be more or less harmless in the next few years, I might consider taking the vaccine.  

    • #33
  4. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Roderic (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    Are there data on this? Most of the reports I’ve seen on the long-term effects of covid define long term on the order of a few months, but I certainly haven’t been keeping up with the topic.

    Here’s a review from JAMA on this. Their figures are worse than the ones I gave initially, that is, over 80% of people discharged from the hospital had complications 2 months later, including respiratory problems and cognitive and mood disorders. This is not a surprise. People who land in the ICU for any illness will have long term often disabling effects most of the time, according to the above linked article. Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Considering the age group most impacted, no surprise there. It is probably wise for the elderly to get the shot….but a young person….let them pick their path.

    • #34
  5. She Member
    She
    @She

    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) (View Comment):
    I don’t know if the UK vaccine is not as good…

    Pfizer (94+% effective in over-65s), Moderna (95% effective), AstraZeneca (90% effective, depending on administration, not recommended for under-40), and and Janssen (one shot, 66% effective).  So I should think the odds are at least as good as they are here (the only one not currently given an EUA in the US is the AstraZeneca).  Source

     

    • #35
  6. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Edit: Never mind. This is the same article cited in the OP, which I hadn’t clicked on. I’ll leave it here anyway.

     

    There is a decent article on the editorial page of today’s WSJ, and it has links to scientific journal articles (which I haven’t yet followed up on):

    The Reassuring Data on the Delta Variant: There’s no sign of a surge in hospitalization or severe illness, and the vaccines remain extremely effective.

    It’s probably behind the paywall, though I can ask for workable links to be sent to the email of anyone who really wants it.

    Here is one paragraph:

    One of the most important questions is whether vaccines are still working well. The best way to answer that is to look at the number of vaccinated people getting serious Covid-19 symptoms or being hospitalized. A new study from the U.K. found that vaccines are still incredibly effective at preventing serious illness with the Delta variant circulating. The Pfizer vaccine was 96% effective after two doses at preventing hospitalization, meaning the average unvaccinated person in the study was more than 25 times as likely to be hospitalized with Covid as the average vaccinated one. (This almost certainly understates the protectiveness of the vaccine, as the vaccinated cohort was older and had a higher incidence of pre-existing conditions than the unvaccinated one.) The Johnson & Johnson vaccine produces strong neutralizing antibodies and cellular responses against the Delta variant, still present eight months after administration.

    And here is another:

    This is all excellent news, as is the finding that 99% of hospitalizations for Covid-19 are among unvaccinated people. The vaccines are as good as first heralded, even against new variants. That unvaccinated people are still being hospitalized underscores the continuing need to get as many people vaccinated as possible. That will also protect children under 12, who aren’t eligible for vaccines. Cases in kids have fallen in places with high vaccination rates among adults and adolescents.

    The one part I didn’t grok is in this sentence:

    If you choose a two-shot regimen such as Pfizer or Moderna, getting both shots is still important, as the booster may be necessary to recognize a range of variants.

    I wish somebody could explain to me how a booster could possibly help your body recognize a larger range of variants.  There was no link to other reports to back up that statement.

    • #36
  7. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Roderic (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    Are there data on this? Most of the reports I’ve seen on the long-term effects of covid define long term on the order of a few months, but I certainly haven’t been keeping up with the topic.

    Here’s a review from JAMA on this. Their figures are worse than the ones I gave initially, that is, over 80% of people discharged from the hospital had complications 2 months later, including respiratory problems and cognitive and mood disorders. This is not a surprise. People who land in the ICU for any illness will have long term often disabling effects most of the time, according to the above linked article. Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Thanks for the link. That article is from last October, though, and it refers to effects lasting two and three month, which is about the same length of time I had been reading about earlier.   I of course don’t disagree about the general effects on people who land in an ICU. 

    • #37
  8. Roderic Coolidge
    Roderic
    @rhfabian

    EHerring (View Comment):
    There is scare stuff out there. “Long term” signals opinion, not fact. We have no long term study of those who had COVID. I suspect the rise in scary headlines is to nudge people into getting the vaccine

    No, this is not true.  We have been in this pandemic for more than a year.  We have data from people who have been recovering.  Besides that, we’ve known for a long time that any illness that lands you in the ICU is going to result in serious long term effects most of the time.  This is not confined to older people.

    A group of patients hospitalized for COVID was followed in China for 6 months.  They found the following persistent effects:

    Fatigue, weakness – 63%

    Insomnia – 26%

    Depression, Anxiety – 24%

    Poor endurance (walking) – 24%

    Trouble breathing – 56%.

    This excludes patients who got dementia, psychosis, or had to be re-hospitalized.

    I think it’s important to realized that death is not the only serious outcome of COVID-19 infection.  There are other serious effects that are much more common than death and should be factored into one’s risk analysis.

    • #38
  9. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Roderic (View Comment):

    A group of patients hospitalized for COVID was followed in China for 6 months.  They found the following persistent effects:

    Fatigue, weakness – 63%

    Insomnia – 26%

    Depression, Anxiety – 24%

    Poor endurance (walking) – 24%

    Trouble breathing – 56%.

    This excludes patients who got dementia, psychosis, or had to be re-hospitalized.

    All of those can cause chronic irritability and depression. Depression spirals downward–the more the patient experiences it, the worse it gets. 

    Lack of oxygen to the brain, coupled with how hard it is to get things done, has serious mental health effects. The harder it is to get things done that you normally do, the less you do. The less you do, the greater the decline in the circulatory system. This is the profile of a patient with what doctors used to call “walking pneumonia.” 

    • #39
  10. Vince Guerra Inactive
    Vince Guerra
    @VinceGuerra

    I’d rather have Covid, much less risky. 

    • #40
  11. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Roderic (View Comment):
    Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Isn’t there any treatment short of hospitalization in the ICU?

    Not that the public is allowed to know about or use.  Fauci has a financial interest in the makers of the vaccine.  I understand that, for the vaccines to receive emergency authorization, there cannot be any other approved treatments.  I also understand that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, both very old OTC medicines, have been shown (sorry, no links right now but they can be found) to be effective in relieving symptoms of Covid.

    • #41
  12. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Roderic (View Comment):
    Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Isn’t there any treatment short of hospitalization in the ICU?

    Not that the public is allowed to know about or use. Fauci has a financial interest in the makers of the vaccine. I understand that, for the vaccines to receive emergency authorization, there cannot be any other approved treatments. I also understand that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, both very old OTC medicines, have been shown (sorry, no links right now but they can be found) to be effective in relieving symptoms of Covid.

    Actually, I know your response.  I was wondering where this plays into Roderic’s thinking. :)

    • #42
  13. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Flicker (View Comment):

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Roderic (View Comment):
    Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Isn’t there any treatment short of hospitalization in the ICU?

    Not that the public is allowed to know about or use. Fauci has a financial interest in the makers of the vaccine. I understand that, for the vaccines to receive emergency authorization, there cannot be any other approved treatments. I also understand that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, both very old OTC medicines, have been shown (sorry, no links right now but they can be found) to be effective in relieving symptoms of Covid.

    Actually, I know your response. I was wondering where this plays into Roderic’s thinking. :)

    Aw, c’mon, Man!  If you can treat covid at home with cheap remedies, why bother to get vaccinated and risk all the side effects?  If you get covid, you get natural immunity.  Unfortunately, too many of us have been scared spitless by our “betters” about the disease.

    • #43
  14. W Bob Member
    W Bob
    @WBob

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    If this was a truly deadly virus like Ebola, they wouldn’t need to use forced coercion to sell the vaccine. People would be lining up to take it. Our government lied through their teeth about this virus all year, why should I suddenly trust them?

    The vaccine would kill you under Trump. It wasn’t ready yet. Do not take any vaccinations that were developed under the Trump administration.

    That was only in October. Now, it’s “take the vaccine or be excluded from civilization.” Huh?

    I have no reason to trust these parasites. I have eyes. I don’t see bodies piling up in the street. I don’t even know anyone who became seriously ill due to this. The virus is killing old people and fat people. I’m neither. I take care of my own health and that’s all I can do. You take care of yours. If that sounds like I do not care about you, you are right, I do not. I do not care about things that are not within my control. I am much more concerned about losing pesky inconveniences like free speech and basic civil liberties than I am of a virus that has a near 0 percent chance of killing me.

    I will never get a Covid vaccine, ever.

    I’ll be reporting you to Dr. Fauci’s office. You’ll be hearing from him.

    • #44
  15. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Roderic: if you get severe disease you have a 30% chance of having long term problems, like dementia, which in popular accounts is described as “brain fog”. And the brain fog for those who get it is not going away.

    So now with the Delta variant of Covid Awareness Broadcasting, the fear is that it will not give you acute flu-like symptoms immediately but will cause long-term “dementia”.

    Is there any long-term data on the vaccination problems?

    Specifically, have any powerful animal studies been completed on vaccine safety? On mice, cats or ferrets, or anything?

    Dementia?  I think they’re afraid it will turn people conservative, and against government-mandated experimental vaccines, etc.  Which to them, of course, is “dementia.”

    • #45
  16. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Roderic (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):
    There is scare stuff out there. “Long term” signals opinion, not fact. We have no long term study of those who had COVID. I suspect the rise in scary headlines is to nudge people into getting the vaccine

    No, this is not true. We have been in this pandemic for more than a year. We have data from people who have been recovering. Besides that, we’ve known for a long time that any illness that lands you in the ICU is going to result in serious long term effects most of the time. This is not confined to older people.

    A group of patients hospitalized for COVID was followed in China for 6 months. They found the following persistent effects:

    Fatigue, weakness – 63%

    Insomnia – 26%

    Depression, Anxiety – 24%

    Poor endurance (walking) – 24%

    Trouble breathing – 56%.

    This excludes patients who got dementia, psychosis, or had to be re-hospitalized.

    I think it’s important to realized that death is not the only serious outcome of COVID-19 infection. There are other serious effects that are much more common than death and should be factored into one’s risk analysis.

    I don’t doubt covid carries risks but it is a personal matter which risks one wants to fear. The anecdotal stories are a very small number compared to the 35 million who have gotten covid.

    • #46
  17. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Roderic (View Comment):
    Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Isn’t there any treatment short of hospitalization in the ICU?

    Not that the public is allowed to know about or use. Fauci has a financial interest in the makers of the vaccine. I understand that, for the vaccines to receive emergency authorization, there cannot be any other approved treatments. I also understand that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, both very old OTC medicines, have been shown (sorry, no links right now but they can be found) to be effective in relieving symptoms of Covid.

    If Fauci et al feared covid that much they would embrace any and all possible medicines. 

    • #47
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    EHerring (View Comment):

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Roderic (View Comment):
    Given the nature of the lung damage in severe COVID, i.e., the alveoli are wrecked, the damage can be permanent.

    Isn’t there any treatment short of hospitalization in the ICU?

    Not that the public is allowed to know about or use. Fauci has a financial interest in the makers of the vaccine. I understand that, for the vaccines to receive emergency authorization, there cannot be any other approved treatments. I also understand that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, both very old OTC medicines, have been shown (sorry, no links right now but they can be found) to be effective in relieving symptoms of Covid.

    If Fauci et al feared covid that much they would embrace any and all possible medicines.

    Another good point.  It’s like the wealthy private-jet-flyers who yell about “climate change” in between buying oceanfront mansions.

    • #48
  19. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Roderic (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):
    There is scare stuff out there. “Long term” signals opinion, not fact. We have no long term study of those who had COVID. I suspect the rise in scary headlines is to nudge people into getting the vaccine

    No, this is not true. We have been in this pandemic for more than a year. We have data from people who have been recovering. Besides that, we’ve known for a long time that any illness that lands you in the ICU is going to result in serious long term effects most of the time. This is not confined to older people.

    A group of patients hospitalized for COVID was followed in China for 6 months. They found the following persistent effects:

    Fatigue, weakness – 63%

    Insomnia – 26%

    Depression, Anxiety – 24%

    Poor endurance (walking) – 24%

    Trouble breathing – 56%.

    This excludes patients who got dementia, psychosis, or had to be re-hospitalized.

    I think it’s important to realized that death is not the only serious outcome of COVID-19 infection. There are other serious effects that are much more common than death and should be factored into one’s risk analysis.

    I can appreciate the purpose of your post. You only wish the best for everyone; however, this isn’t a 50 year old vaccine but a new one pushed by people who have changed their covid advice weekly. I got the vaccine with no fear, thinking it was wiser at my age. I just respect the opinions of those who chose a different path. 

    • #49
  20. EB Thatcher
    EB
    @EB

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):
    But an associate revealed the other day that she has read otherwise.

    Yeah, but where did she read it?  Wackadoo News Today?  Or from “I’m a personal trainer/nutritionist, trust my newsletter.”

    • #50
  21. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    And here is another:

    This is all excellent news, as is the finding that 99% of hospitalizations for Covid-19 are among unvaccinated people.

    This 99% number is deceptive.   It is fact checked against against numbers starting in January, when the vaccination rate was near zero.  The article also says the CDC doesn’t track Covid deaths for vaccinated people.  The last thing is that the population of people vaccinated is not the same as the population of people not vaccinated.  People self-select and those choosing to get vaccinated are more likely to self-isolate.  Anyway, the best data says that mRNA vaccines reduce death rate by 90-95%.  That is good and worth the risk for people over 50.  For young people, the trade-off is a 1:1,000,000 chance of dying from Wuhan Lab Flu against a 1:1,000,000 chance of dying from the vaccine.

    • #51
  22. Vince Guerra Inactive
    Vince Guerra
    @VinceGuerra

    Roderic: you can walk into any Big Box Drug Store and get jabbed, usually for free. 

    Ask them to show you the warnings/side effects insert. 

    • #52
  23. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Vince Guerra (View Comment):

    Roderic: you can walk into any Big Box Drug Store and get jabbed, usually for free.

    Ask them to show you the warnings/side effects insert.

    Do the covid jabs even have those, yet?

    Maybe that was your point…

    • #53
  24. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    OkieSailor (View Comment):
    hopefully an informed decision.

    Informed by who?

    WHO? Fauci? Biden? Little Nickelodeon actress/singer? 

    • #54
  25. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Jules PA (View Comment):

    OkieSailor (View Comment):
    hopefully an informed decision.

    Informed by who?

    WHO? Fauci? Biden? Little Nickelodeon actress/singer?

    Robin Sparkles!

    Well, she was kinda on “Canadian Nickelodeon” (so they said) but still counts, right?

     

    • #55
  26. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Vince Guerra (View Comment):

    Roderic: you can walk into any Big Box Drug Store and get jabbed, usually for free.

    Ask them to show you the warnings/side effects insert.

    Or ask for the ingredients list. 

    • #56
  27. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    The virus is killing old people and fat people.

    40% of the deaths were diabetic.

    Nearly 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in the US were among people with diabetes, expert suggests | Daily Mail Online

    • #57
  28. James Salerno Inactive
    James Salerno
    @JamesSalerno

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    The virus is killing old people and fat people.

    40% of the deaths were diabetic.

    Nearly 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in the US were among people with diabetes, expert suggests | Daily Mail Online

    I am a diabetic. Type 1 diabetic since age seven. The problem here is that type 1 and 2 are treated as the same disease when they are not. Obesity is almost always the leading cause in Type 2, so then we are just looking at the same spot on the Venn diagram.

    • #58
  29. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    James Salerno (View Comment):
    The virus is killing old people and fat people.

    40% of the deaths were diabetic.

    Nearly 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in the US were among people with diabetes, expert suggests | Daily Mail Online

    That sounds about right, considering all the people in the U.S. who have diabetes.  Being overweight is bad for your immune system, too. Most of your Vitamin D is held in inactive form in fat tissue.

    • #59
  30. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) (View Comment):

    She (View Comment):

    That means that of those 5.5 million people, about 12.5K people contracted COVID last week.

    Source for the above: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/coronavirus–covid-19–cases

    This headline: Almost half UK Covid infections are in people … at least partly vaccinated…but the cases were much milder, may be significant. It’s not specific to London, though.

    Britain has a pretty high vaccination rate. Total percentage, age 18 and over who’ve received one dose is about almost 88%. Two doses, almost 68%.

    I don’t know if the UK vaccine is not as good or we are moving to the endemic stage where this thing circulates forever. Either way, it is good time to stock up on anti-viral treatments for the home.

    There are no effective anti-virals

    • #60
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