Vaccination does not mean immunity

If I can't get back to licking doorknobs on the weekends what's even the point of a vaccine?

I will definitely be doing more stuff when I and a significant part of the population in my country are vaccinated (Within reason of course). What would be the point otherwise? I could sit a home for a year more but it's not sustainable. I'm an introvert but even I am starting to feel the effect of isolation after a year. It is not realistic to expect the population to keep staying in isolation for the forseeable future.

Do you want to ban all restaurant visits for years? How do you think the staff feels about not having an income for years to come?

@bleichman: We’re not talking about a hypothetical point in time where most of the population is vaccinated. The concern is the here and now where in many places the minority is still at risk and proper concern is still needed from those who have managed to get the vaccine.

Here in the states we are especially bad at thinking we see the finish line and scrambling to fall flat on our faces every time.

Normal for me is when we don't have to wear masks.

With higher vaccination rates and better treatment options for Covid patients, I want to believe that's possible. Sooner rather than later, I hope.

Being vaccinated sucks. I hope it's for something. Feeling miserable and missing work for nothing is no good; my friend's aunt was even hospitalized due to an extreme vaccine reaction (there is risk in everything). My understanding is that we are pushing toward herd immunity whether through new cases (bad) or vaccinations (good). Either way, you get there eventually. New strands complicate this. I have a hard time following everything.

I hope we will have concerts by the end of the year that check for vaccination status. I don't think that's unreasonable.

@efesell: Except that the OP explicitly was talking about "years to come" with the need for masking, distancing, etc. Approximately 14% of the US adult population is currently fully vaccinated (we need to remove kids from this discussion, because there's no current timeline for vaccination for them). I would guess a realistic goal would be for 60% of the adult population in the US to accept the vaccine. If we maintain just the current rate of vaccination, it would take approximately one year in total (approximately 8 - 9 months from now) to reach that milestone. In reality, it will likely be faster. Yes, we will continue to need to maintain masking and distancing in public places for a while after vaccinations are basically fully deployed, but to expect that to continue for "years to come," even when full expected vaccination will occur in less than one year from now, is being hyperbolic.

You previously asked me indirectly how I read so much gloom and doom into this, and that's how.

The vaccine side effects for most people are pretty mild. This is not discounting the rare serious effects (usually an allergic reaction) that were mentioned as having occurred to the poster's friend's aunt. Personally, I had some chills and a low-grade fever approximately 12 hours after the second dose of the vaccine, and was a little lethargic the day after. Other than that and sore arm, it was fine. If you think that's a good enough reason to avoid getting vaccinated, I hope you avoid getting Covid, because it's probably gonna be a whole lot worse even with a mild case.

@ralphmoustaccio:Yeah. I mean, I know people who have a really nasty reaction to the flu shot every year. But, odds are, if you are getting hit hard by a small "harmless" version of the virus then you are going to get wiped out by the real thing.

If you have concerns that you might get hit hard, take a sick day: That is what they are there for. And while I understand there are people for whom that is not an option:... odds are you also have the kind of job where you are very likely to get exposed so... it sucks all around but I would say take the vaccine

And with how people are so picky about which vaccine they "trust" and the inevitable wave of anti-vacc fuckheads... 60% is probably gonna be optimistic.

@gundato: Sadly, you're probably right that 60% is high.

Get You vaccinated, wear a mask when in public, socially distance....and get used to that.

Consider polio. Following the widespread use of poliovirus vaccine in the mid-1950s, the incidence of poliomyelitis declined rapidly in many industrialized countries. But it too until the about 2015 to eradicate Polio as a worldwide problem. So, 65 to 70 years of work where great strides were made in the first 40 years, but that last few percent took another 30-40 years.

My guess if it could take decades to stamp out Corona-19 and it variants. Second, vacationing abroad (Australia/Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South America) might prove to be far more restricted and far more likely to REQURE you to wear a mask.

Yeah, I can see airport testing become a regular occurrence, annual jabs for the at-risk groups and contact tracing being commonplace.

The one advantage we have is how quickly we managed to produce an effective vaccine. That might speed things up but Covid's shown a resilience we haven't seen in a new virus since, I dunno, AIDS? A terrible comparison to make but it's the only non-seasonal thing I can think of.

@efesell: What are you talking about, most are probably going to be vaccinated in the us and a bunch if other places in the near future?

@bleichman: Our rollout right now is trash.

I'm sure I'll get blasted for this but I honestly can't stand the moralizing anymore.

My spouse is already vacinated, and I will be vacinated in a week. I'm 35 and in exceptional shape -- I run a sub 6 minute mile and do triatholons regularly. I have no relatives over the age of 60 and no children.

I've already literally sacrificed a year of my life, including literally cancelling my own wedding, over COVID because of the risk that the disease poses to the elderly despite the fact that that generation has (1) destroyed the planet, (2) left my generation with a massive unsustainable national deficit , (3) hoarded global wealth and property with reckless abandon, (4) raided the social security fund to the point where there will be nothing left by the time I retire, and (5) repeatedly voted for garbage humans who treat immigrants, black people and LBTQ folk inhumanely.

At this point, I'm going to make decisions about what I think is best for myself and my family -- including both our collective mental and physical health, and I have zero interest in other people's opinions about it.

@nevergameover: Fighting selfishness with selfishness.

I for one would be thrilled if a mod could lock this thread.

@nevergameover: Wow, did you take a bow for yourself after you typed that?

I appreciate the example of why this idea is still important taking the time to come backflip onto the stage and take a bow.

The audacity of a total stranger to call *me* selfish after I've literally cancelled my wedding and forfeited a large portion of my life savings in order to avoid further spread of this disease is frankly staggering. Please refer to the last sentence of my post.

Just remember we are not out of the woods. Just keep on wearing a mask. And social distancing. For those who have not yet gotten vaccinated.

I think the greater fact is that there is no 'back to 2019' that can occur. Immunologist have warned us over and over again that flying around the globe with neglectful/lax health checks is a high stakes bet that we can -statistically speaking- lose.

There *might* be nations that will say, "Hello, welcome to our country from overseas. Up ahead at customs portal, you will be providing the paperwork from the health check you received prior to your trip. Please have a copy of your Quarantine Hotel reservation ready, we will direct you to the proper 'quarantine shuttles. Keep in mind after release from any of our 'quarantine hotels' you will be expected to wear a mask for the first 10 days of your stay. If you are found without you mask during that time a fine of no less than $10,000 USD (8,500 EUR, 747,326 INR, 1Mill YEN) will be given. Thank you, and welcome to ____________."

That might sound crazy but., with 134 million cases of Covid-19; 76.2 million recovered by possibly with long lasting hath issues; and nearly 3 million people have died, there will be no going back to effortless unplanned travel. While there is no way to tell exactly what the economic damage from the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has been, early estimates predicated most major economies will lose at least 2.9 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) over 2020 - a GDP loss of 4.5 percent. To put this number in perspective, global GDP was estimated at around 87.55 trillion U.S. dollars in 2019 – meaning that a 4.5 percent drop in economic growth amounts to almost 3.94 trillion U.S. dollars in lost economic output.

So, YES, countries will risk a loss in tourism or business travel to be more careful. Traveler will pay the costs of these increased restrictions because making it easy to enter a country without health checks could cost them billions or hundred of billions.

Friendly reminder that this is a website about goofy people playing video games and any person who believes their opinion on viral spread, immunity, virology in general, or that this is in any way an appropriate place to broach these topics is a jackass. Know the place for this and keeps it to yourself. Edited to be less angry as I can't help but be irritated when people start talking about this virus garbage that has been allowed to continue for too long. It's scary to get sick. It's the world though and you will always have a chance of getting sick. I'm tired of hearing the every day layman espousing viral load and mask effectiveness. Stay inside forever or risk danger like everyone else and live your life.

@benwayne: These conversations are valid everywhere because we are all responsible in our own ways for dealing with the current situation.

Don't take medical advice from a forum is a sound warning, shut up and go play with your toys is a load of shit.

Got my first dose a couple weeks ago. Going back for my 2nd at the end of the month.

I keep thinking about what things would be like if this had happened back in the 1980s when I was in school. Online learning/working was technologically inadequate and they wouldn't have had the ability to come up with a vaccine for at least a few years.

Honestly, I think people 35 years ago would have sucked it up and gone back to school or work even with the dangers of getting sick. There would have been no lock down, at least not at the level we've seen. What other choice would they have had?

@berfunkle:Yeah, that's what they did during the Kansas Flu epidemic, they just 'got on with it' and life didn't change at ALL. If this had happened in the '80s, people breaking the mask mandates would probably be in jail because the stakes would be so much higher than they are now. We live in privileged times, and we're ONLY JUST NOW figuring out HOW privileged we could have been living for years now.

@nevergameover: It's a real damn shame that happened to you. I got married in 2016, the year that was stolen from us by tragedy, and it's always a strangely bittersweet time. It's difficult to live now, being forced to give up things we wouldn't for our neighbors we barely know, but I might suggest that not recognizing that more people died in this than both atomic bomb attacks on Japan is the TEXTBOOK DEFINITION OF BEING SELFISH. Even your examples: you cancelled YOUR wedding, you spent YOUR life-savings are SELFISH EXAMPLES.

It's okay to be selfish sometimes (when self-caring, when one's life is in danger, when one has to choose between a friend and a stranger), but don't act selfish and try to frame it as taking a STAND. Because you're literally setting yourself up to fight against altruism, which might work on the campaign trail, but probably won't win you any points in a videogame forum you want to frequent.

@berfunkle: I mean it's hard to say but I suspect it would be very similar 35 years ago in the same way it was very similar 103 years ago. 1918s flu saw businesses/schools closed for months, distancing, mask mandates, anti-mask protesting, churches screaming about how dare you tell us we can't worship in groups and get people sick, ect. You can't draw parallels too closely but I'm sure we would recognize the tune if we heard it.

It'd be like an AIDS panic we could all catch. Of course 80s Everywhere would shut.