Good info. I had seen a similar headline about the mRNA vax longevity, but hadn't had a chance to digest a full article on it yet. Encouraging - for us microchipped folx anyway!
I lol'd.
I'm watching the governor's weekly press conference that is mostly focused on covid, certainly focused on covid this week at least. He has the chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (big hospital here) as a guest speaker. The chancellor said there were some workers at UAMS that roate between places and as part of that rotation, they get tested. A couple vaxxed workers did test positive for the delta variant in this program and remained asymptomatic, they're transmissibility was not mentioned.
Having the vaccine - even the mRNA versions - does not mean you are immune from getting sick. It means you *probably* won't need to go to the hospital and are very unlikely to die.
You can still get it. Your body will just fight it off much more quickly. You may not even realize you had it. But it sounds like it's still possible that you could wind up with the long term issues.
People going to work (especially meetings) sick is just disrespectful and needs to stop. It shouldn't have been a thing before Covid but given all the progress we've made with online meetings, it needs to end completely now. Very frustrating.
That said, I mean, the vaccines are 95% effective at preventing infection, not 100%. Some 150M people in the US are vaxxed. Of course there are going to be breakthrough cases. This lady seems upset that the world didn't stop to make her feel special for being one such case and like she should have been 100% protected from infection from the vaccine, which no one has claimed is true. From her thread, neither her or her husband were hospitalized, they're sequencing the virus which kudos to her for making sure they did and those results aren't yet available from what I could tell. The CDC along with state DOHs should have a protocol in place to sequence every breakthrough case to monitor variants, agree with her wholeheartedly there. Perhaps they're working on it.
Regarding tests, the PCR and antigen (rapid) tests are not affected by vaccinations. Her PCP sounds like he/she may not be up to speed on everything, but apparently he/she was fine testing the vaxxed husband? I'd be frustrated too with the confusion, but a quick google search would also reveal the same info I just posted, namely, PCR isn't affected by vaccination. So....go to Walgreens, not a doctors office, and get a test.
Anecdotally, I was vaxxed on a Friday, Mrs. AW tested positive the following Tuesday and I tested negative on an antigen test the following day or somewhere around that time. Just because you're vaxxed, nothing really changes. If you have symptoms, regardless of being vaxxed, obviously you need to quarantine. The CDC doesn't require the 2 week quarantine for vaxxed people after an exposure who remain asymptomatic, but that obviously changes if you show symptoms. And, regardless of vax status, you should obviously not tempt fate by hanging around infected people which...duh.
One interesting point she brought up though, which has been confusing since the begining, is how viral load affects transmission/outocme. Will the 95% efficacy - which was established in studies where everyone was masking and distancing mostly - hold up in an environment where masking and distancing are becoming less common and therefore recipients will be exposed to higher inoculation doses? It's a good question.
Little more info into the inner thought process at the VA - at least around here.
I mentioned in the politics thread cases and hospitalizations are up in AR necessitating the re-opening of the covid wings. They're struggling to find personnel this time around because, well, apparently the delta variant [expletive] children up too and, well, a lot of the staff have children too young to be vaxxed. And, there are a handful, at this point, of breakthrough cases of the delta variant in vaxxed medical staff. Concern isn't over health of staff as much as transmission to family...not known if it's possible in asymptomatic carriers. I also mentioned in the other thread about the 25 year old lady that died from covid a couple days ago.
So, to recap, the VA is trying to find staff without children to deal with the delta variant and a 25 year old connected to a co-worker passed away. They updated the numbers and apparently 98.3% of hospitalizations at this point are non-vaxxed people.
Throw on top of that the recent study suggesting vaccines provide long lasting immunity which coincides with every single scientific explanation I've seen.
With each passing day, and we're almost a year into the beginning of human trials of the vaccines, I get further and further into the this debate is settled and it's time for everyone over the age of 18 to get vaxxed.
That'll never happen, but I'd also be open to some form of the idea of not requiring insurance to cover medical costs associated with covid for non-vaxxed people. Average cost per hospitalized patient is around $60K. Half of that required up front for the hospital. And, I say that knowing it's a really heavy hammer to swing and one that favors the insurance companies - whom I despise. At the same time, I don't see many good alternatives. The unvaxxed are becoming an unfair burden on those that are vaxxed. Or, to put it another way in terms of risk, those that chose to avoid the risk of the vaccine in favor of the risk of the virus are now causing risk to those that chose the risk of the vaccine over the risk of the virus and while doing so are also costing the vaxxed money through use of resources, staff, overtime, equipment, etc etc etc.
I still don't think requiring the vax for adolescents is the best route, so it may take a heavy hammer to push those over the edge.
The only other option I see at being effective would be to....refuse treatment to non-vaxxed which, I mean, that's pretty absurd.
I agree with you 100%. It's not a good situation and anyone in a position to "swing" such a hammer is between a rock and a hard place. Do you just allow status quo and continue to risk the well being of everyone, the economy, etc? Or do you enforce something that's going to be REALLY unpopular with these "Don't tread on me" antivaxxers. Tough spot indeed.
I’m tired of paying for the obesity pandemic and lifestyle diseases that are completely within people’s control as well, but I guess those problems are something we all have to pay for.
And blaming these variants on the unvaccinated is complete BS. Maybe it’s the virus that’s able to mutate to a variant that renders the vaccine useless, but oh wait....just get a booster!!!
There’s plenty of evidence out there that show HIGH risk people should get the vaccine, and I agree with that. But for healthy individuals, or those who may potentially have risks associated w/ getting the vaccine should have the choice and NOT forced to pay the medical bills if they get COVID as our sick care system hemorrhages money from people willingly doing themselves in on a daily basis.
Oh and don’t forget your free donut or case of beer if you get your vaccine!!!
I’m tired of paying for the obesity pandemic and lifestyle diseases that are completely within people’s control as well, but I guess those problems are something we all have to pay for.
And blaming these variants on the unvaccinated is complete BS. Maybe it’s the virus that’s able to mutate to a variant that renders the vaccine useless, but oh wait....just get a booster!!!
There’s plenty of evidence out there that show HIGH risk people should get the vaccine, and I agree with that. But for healthy individuals, or those who may potentially have risks associated w/ getting the vaccine should have the choice and NOT forced to pay the medical bills if they get COVID as our sick care system hemorrhages money from people willingly doing themselves in on a daily basis.
Oh and don’t forget your free donut or case of beer if you get your vaccine!!!
Just so I'm certain I'm following you - because people get fat, you want to die of a disease there's a bunch of vaccines for?
