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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   4056 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 16, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Does it make sense for a young person to get the latest covid vaccine?

That's what Moderna CEO thinks:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11327615/Modernas-CEO-admits-vulnerable-need-Covid-booster-shot.html

Mr Bancel told a finance conference on Monday: 'I think it's going to be like the flu. If you're a 25-year-old, do you need an annual booster every year if you're healthy?

‘You might want to... but I think it's going to be similar to flu where it's going to be people at high-risk, people above 50 years of age, people with comorbidities, people with cancer and other conditions, people with transplants.’

Do we even have enough research to show they work or not work or what sort of side effects they might have? Last I have seen, they were tested on like a dozen mice and produced some antibodies and that was the whole extent of their testing.

Personally I’m in the same age group and I avoid it because it’s advertised benefits are personally pointless to me and I want the number of people who ignore government dictates on my body to be as high as possible so the bureaucrats think twice before issuing dictates the next time. The benefits of this is in my opinion larger than anything the vax could provide

I agree with the kebab here. The medical side of it is fishy and marginal, but politically there's a clear signal to be sent.

Doesn't matter either way. Risk of myocarditis from vaccine is tiny, and is plausibly lower than the risk of myocarditis from covid itself. On the other hand, the risk of death from covid for a 25yo person is significantly lower than that of the flu. And 'stopping transmission' doesn't matter because it's endemic anyway.

If it doesn't matter either way, then I shouldn't get it, because my time is worth something. I know many people who didn't feel well for a day because of it. On the other hand, the people I know who have got covid were usually sick for several days.

I know my risk of dying from covid is tiny. I'm more worried about the other symptoms.

I look at it similarly, but that I can schedule when I feel like dung.

At my job, there are certain weeks where unless I’ve been admitted to the hospital or the like, I’m not allowed time off. (This isn’t a huge imposition as these are scheduled well in advance.) So, I always get flu shots (and now COVID boosters) on Friday evenings of weekends I have open. Better for me to sacrifice a lazy Saturday if I can lower the likelihood of having to slog through a busy week while under the weather.

Not only should you not get it, but strictly from a health outcomes perspective the effort you've spent asking the question was not worth it.

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm not concerned about danger from either the infection or the vaccine, both of which seem fairly minimal. Instead I'm trying to figure out if I'm appreciably less likely to get sick this winter if I get it, which would make it worth it in my opinion. But it seems like I'll have to wait a while to find out whether that's the case.

Yes, if I could get a vaccine for the cold, I would, though I haven't had a cold in years.

No. It’s a trivial risk for you and the vaccine doesn’t even work that well these days.

This is the bivalent vaccine that is supposed to offer better protection from Omicron. It doesn't work that well?

None of the past vaccines have worked as well as they've been advertised. Personally I would expect this to be largely in the same mold.

Meaning what? The original vaccine was reported to reduce severe illness and death by something like 97%. Was that inaccurate? I understand that the protection against infection dropped down to around 35% after a few months instead of 80% or whatever it was initially.

The original Wuhan strain and its deadlier Delta variant caused far more severe illness and death than Omicron, except in geriatric males who are liable to die of flu or a bad cold anyway.

Here’s my anecdote:

My choice not to get any of the vaccines was largely caused by the government-driven high social cost of not taking them. As the kids say, “seems a little sus.” As time went on and the myocarditis risk from the vaccines became both more prominently apparent and highly censored, I felt validated.

My unvaxxed 70-year-old parents and I caught it in November, either Wuhan or Delta wave. None of us have Long Covid, though my dad developed a-fib and I lost my nasal sense for three months. We’re both better now.

My sisters (40-ish, my age) both had the vaccines, and both have had scary heart symptoms they sought treatment for, and they both later caught Omicron anyway, having avoided Wuhan and Delta through distancing.

For me, Omicron was a light cold in June, and I actually felt spry and energized after it ran its course in two days. I treated it with vitamin D + direct sunshine, and zinc + tonic water at mealtimes.

What did they end up doing for that treatment? I’ve been struggling with some arrhythmia, which does not synergize well with anxiety.

I’ll see about asking. I wasn’t privy to what medications those treatments were. My dad’s A-Fib needed “heart ablation” surgery.

The chance of severe illness and death for a young person is very small. So it's like buying insurance against a being struck by lightning while being chased by a shark. Sure, it may be a reputable company (some may doubt that but let's assume they are) and they'll pay out if that happens in 97% of cases, but should you really bother?

The risk of severe illness doesn't rise with age nearly as quickly as the risk of death.

So it's like buying insurance against a being struck by lightning while being chased by a shark.

I can't be bothered to do the math, but the risk is many orders of magnitude greater than that.

To further your analogy, why are they trying so hard to sell me lightning shark insurance?

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