People are really piss poor at judging risk. The risk of a life threatening reaction to the vaccine is on the order of getting struck by lightning - your risk of dying from taking a dose of penicillin is higher. Versus the risk of dying from Covid, which is 1 in 200 for the total population, but increases with age and risk factors - about 3-5% for people in their 60's, for instance. Would you get on an airplane if I told you there was a 1 in 100 chance it would crash today - or a 1 in 20 chance if you're older? And while yes, people with risk factors are more likely to die, some people - even young people - appear to have genetic or other quirks making them especially susceptible, and most would not know this. (They have studied families with high Covid death rates and found some candidate minor mutations in interferon genes, for example. Silent ticking time bombs that cause no symptoms but predispose to severe Covid.)
As for people who have had Covid before - unfortunately, people can and do get Covid twice. The immunity from the vaccine seems to be stronger and longer lasting than immunity from the infection, so they are vaccinating people as early as 2 months after a Covid infection. However, the science does suggest that they might be fine with a single vaccine shot, as their antibodies after one shot are as high as others after two shots. This is not official policy yet though as this is based on preliminary data.
So sorry to hear about your sister’s friend KML. Very, very sad. Not an anomaly, I’m afraid. I read a story the other day about a 30 year old Texan who decided to go to a “Covid” party (party with someone who has been diagnosed) so they could prove that Covid is a hoax. He realized he made a stupid mistake the day before he died after being put on a ventilator.
I agree...people are really poor at judging risk. I think one of the main reasons is that so many people these days rely on “sound bites” or headlines to make their decisions. They don’t really research and even when they do, they aren’t great at discerning reputable sources from disreputable ones. This combined with an ever-growing distrust in authority and large organizations in general...it’s a deadly combination. TDH was a classic example. Not a stupid person, by any stretch of the imagination, but super distrusting of anything mainstream.
I also think that Al Gore nailed it when he entitled his documentary “The Uncomfortable Truth”. People don’t want to face things that may cause them to have to live their life in a different way so they dismiss it. Just look at all the anti-maskers. Classic example of that.
Anyway...the good news is that the vast majority of people are doing their part. My area has over 50% vaccinated and we are now down to the single digits in new cases. Three weeks ago, we were seeing 30-40 new cases a day. Yesterday was nine, the day before eight and the day before that three. We are getting there. Hoping for an almost normal summer!!! Okay...back to packing. (((HUGS)))
So sorry to hear about your sister’s friend KML. Very, very sad. Not an anomaly, I’m afraid. I read a story the other day about a 30 year old Texan who decided to go to a “Covid” party (party with someone who has been diagnosed) so they could prove that Covid is a hoax. He realized he made a stupid mistake the day before he died after being put on a ventilator.)))
Any way you look at it, it’s really really stupid for anyone to purposely put themselves at risk like this. Just stupid. But let’s keep it in perspective. Multiple news outlets including the New York Times could not verify this reported story after multiple attempts even with the hospital and the patients family. They cast serious doubt it’s accurate and debunked other reports of “covid parties” as false. So keep that in mind. Next, at least in my state, less than 2% of people in the 30 age group are even hospitalized, 98% are not. Then 0.00023 in this age group have died (23 deaths out of 113,827 cases). So if you’re 30 and die of covid you either have really bad luck or serious already existing conditions. I’m not going to avoid living because of a 0.00023 percent chance of dying. That’s just crazy.
Let me be clear, if this guy really did try to purposely get infected, that was very stupid on his part but perpetuating and skewing the statistics to try to continue to fear monger is just as bad. People are thinking covid is a hoax due in part to these one off stories that likely are not even true. Then when they find out it’s not true they really think it is a hoax - which it is not, it’s very real. It’s just not killing 30 year olds by the score. 80 and 90 year olds yes (13.4% and 24.4% death rate in my state) but not those under 30 with 26 total deaths out of over 200,000 cases! Let’s just keep it real. And BTW 50% vaccination rates seem to be the norm pretty much everywhere. We’ve gone from people begging to get vaccinated to officials begging people to now get vaccinated. It may be a struggle to get to the 70% goal and all of the misinformation, lies, and fake news by all sorts of people regardless of politics isn’t helping.
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
As for people who have had Covid before - unfortunately, people can and do get Covid twice. The immunity from the vaccine seems to be stronger and longer lasting than immunity from the infection, so they are vaccinating people as early as 2 months after a Covid infection. However, the science does suggest that they might be fine with a single vaccine shot, as their antibodies after one shot are as high as others after two shots. This is not official policy yet though as this is based on preliminary data.
The real problem is post covid or long haulers.
There is no allowable treatment for covid or long haulers and I think it is much more likely to get long haul covid than getting covid twice.
The tests are unreliable and not too many doctors really know too much about what is really going on.
If we had some way to treat it, then getting the vaccine would not be so bad.
We need to push through the anti-virals or some other treatment method.
My hero nurse still has long haul covid and went from hero nurse to zero nurse but she is still a hero to me.
Long haul Covid is a terrible problem - another reason to get vaccinated. I had a perfectly healthy 35 year old woman with no risk factors and a mild outpatient case who couldn’t work for a year, was so fatigued and cognitively impaired they had to move in with her parents to help care for her kids. My business partners 30 year old son is also a long hauler, although he’s milder and is improving after a year. People who think “ oh, it’s only got a 1 in 200 chance of killing me” have no idea the other havoc it can cause, even in young healthy people with mild cases.
I’ve followed a FB group of long haulers. The most helpful intervention seems to be a low histamine diet with H1 and H 2 antihistamines - doesn’t works for everybody, of course. Some develop autoimmune disorders like lupus. Some have cardiac disease that only shows up on cardiac mri. Some develop POTS or small fiber neuropathy.
I have a good friend I used to work with who is mid-30's and fairly healthy, eats right, exercises. She is a long hauler and it has her nearly completely debilitated. She hasn't worked in nearly a year and can't even carry out basic tasks like grocery shopping without assistance because she gets so worn out. More often than not, her husband has to help her shower and attend to her own basic needs. She has always been pretty healthy, but does have a few allergies, but this has done a long-lasting number on her. Probably the saddest part was that she got pregnant before she caught Covid and ultimately miscarried and now they can't try again because she's too sick. Hopefully, they will eventually be able to, but for now, that is not even a consideration. Just sad. If stories like that are not enough to make folks want to get vaccinated, I don't know what is.
Me 52, H53 Bomb drop 9/29/2014 Divorce from XH final 12/17/2014 Marriage #2 12/31/2019 5 adult (step)daughters (3 from XH's first marriage, 2 from current H's previous relationships) 6 grandkids
