I don’t assume that a breakthrough infection is as good as a shot. It could be worse, better, I have no idea. It just seems likely to directionally act similarly to a booster so it makes sense that it should impact my timing of whatever booster shot I get.
These are both good points, I guess I’m more hesitant to call someone anti-vaxx based on their statements here because I trust that when talking to people IRL Keeed says “you should vaccinated, vaccines are good” and doesn’t do what I would think of as being anti-vaxx and say something like “I got double vaccinated and still got a breakthrough case, don’t bother”.
Basically I think it’s better if people can have honest discussions about their actual beliefs on here as opposed to having to carefully craft their posts to fit the overall narrative of the thread because then we’re just an echo chamber circle jerking about how great vaccines are and that’s boring.
Was going to have my first concert since pre covid today, but one of the touring staff tested pos 3 hours ago.
That’s true, most anti vaxxers are just like me: trying to do what they calculate as best for themselves in an uncertain environment.
They’re generally working with worse information than me, which is why my decisions have been generally better than theirs, in my opinion. And now we’re left quibbling if it is necessary or prudent for someone who’s had a breakthrough case to get a booster now or three or six months from now. Infinitesimal amounts of risk either way. My god who cares.
But yeah, you should treat the unwashed hordes of the unvaccinated differently: with compassion and understanding.
Obviously US authorities are not going to recommend anything like this, but there’s definitely a respectable view that infection and immunization are somewhat interchangeable.
https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1434201376247070723?s=21
Really, how could infection not strengthen immunity? Vaccines work by simulating an infection. Maybe a booster works better than vax + infection, but nobody really knows.
I’m not sure exactly what this guy is suggesting, but even if infection provided perfect immunization there is a very good reason not to promote infection as an alternative Personal Choice for obtaining immunization. We know vaccination doesn’t overwhelm hospital resources. We know infection does.
Right but no one in this thread is arguing for covid parties or whatever. I had a breakthrough infection. That happened. I didn’t want it to happen but it did. So of course that breakthrough infection should impact the timing of any subsequent boosters, right? How could it not?
Yeah, the argument isn’t that people should have COVID parties so they get COVID so they can’t get COVID. Obviously. The argument is that people who have gotten COVID (a bad thing, but it does happen) acquire a degree of immunity to the virus, and that fact should be considered in vaccine recommendations so that scarce doses of vaccine are allocated appropriately.
Or maybe Topol’s an antivaxxer COVID denialist too, who knows.
I would not call vaccine doses “scarce” in USA#59 by any stretch of the imagination.
This is dumb for a really simple reason:
How you going to confirm infection?
Also, vaccines aren’t scarce
I still don’t think going out to a movie and not eating in an n95 when boosted is high risk. It certainly isn’t zero risk, and could be made lower by collective action, but if you test and really don’t take your mask off I’d personally be comfortable doing it if seeing that movie with my kid was very important to me and I don’t think it is adding much to community risk. So I hear you, but I think I’m still fine with my advice.
I do think, broadly, we have a moral responsibility to at least think about our actions on a deeper level than the “vaxxed and relaxed”strategy that had been the cornerstone of the current administrations response even if vaxxed and boosted.
So in my personal case, where my symptomatic case was confirmed by a test, is it reasonable for me to make a choice to delay a booster shot based on my breakthrough case?
Good point. We’d need some sort of reliable test to determine whether someone was infected with COVID for this to even be worth discussing. It’s just wild-eyed dreaming until then. I mean, Keed might think he had COVID, but no one could possibly know that for sure.
People can be damn sure I was vaccinated though. I have a handwritten notation on a piece of card stock to prove it.
Vaccines are designed to get the largest possible immune response from your system. There’s also no standardized way to get an infection and… this is just dumb on every level. We’ve already been over this shit already.
It’s not just that it’s fun, it’s the only thing we can do. Asking nicely doesn’t work, watching people die doesn’t work, the government sure as fuck isn’t going to do anything, all I have is laughing at dead covidiots.
Yeah, It think it’s probably not helping our cause that we are lumping all people “against” the vaccine into he same group here. In my experience you have good faith “anti-vaxxers” and bad faith “anti-vaxxers.” The good faith anti-vaxxers are the vaccine hesitant, who are probably gettable over time, but not with brute force. They have a sincerely held belief about the dangers of hte vaccine based upon misinformation, or misunderstanding, or just plain superstition/fear.
The bad faith anti-vaxxers are the Sean Hannity/Tucker Carlson types. They’re anti-vaccine for the power of it. They don’t really believe the bullshit they are saying, but they are using anti-vax propaganda to achieve a purpose. That purpose might be as grand as amassing political power, or as petty as “owning” some people on a message board they don’t like, but they don’t really believe the bullshit they are saying, and they are intentionally misrepresenting data about the vaccines to either sell that the vaccines are dangerous, or that the vaccines don’t work, or both.
I had a good employee like this who finally, finally, after months of conversations with got the shot (at the risk of losing her job). She was legitimately worried about fertility issues because of social media. I am confident that she represents like 90 percent of the anti-vax population.
The problem is the vaccines are great, and circle jerk or boring as that may be, taking a contrary position to this for the lolz is objectively bad.
Just to be clear, Topol is not telling people to not get the vaccine in that tweet. idk why he’s suddenly more of an authority than the NIH, but let’s at least be clear what he’s saying.
Why not? What exactly are you insinuating here? Why am I feeding the trolls?
I agree 100 percent. It is the people who know better and spread disinformation on purpose who deserve our scorn.
If not for omicron I actually think I would agree with you on waiting to get the booster. Not eschewing the booster entirely, but waiting. However, Omicron changes that calculus and you should get boosted as soon as possible, and it’s not even close.