5 ms·

No matter who you are, vaccination is safer than catching covid. The vaccines are designed and tested for safety; covid gains evolutionary fitness from making y

No matter who you are, vaccination is safer than catching covid. The vaccines are designed and tested for safety; covid gains evolutionary fitness from making you sick. As a result, the risks from vaccination are orders of magnitude lower, no matter what the covid risk is. (Edit: Deleted second paragraph that wasn’t clearly worded.)

ummonk 6y ago
The chance of catching COVID between now and the other vaccines being made available is quite low.
overboard2 6y ago
Covid evolves to spread itself more effectively. The fewer symptoms it causes, the better it can spread.
- systemvoltage 6y ago
  This is what 99% of the people don't understand. The virus needs the host in order to spread. The virus doesn't have any other ulterior mechanism that wants to kill humans. This is why spanish-flu virus got weaker over time because as it evolves, if it kills humans rapidly, it cannot evolve. So, nature sorts it self out.
  - blueblimp 6y ago
    This is a more disputed theory than you think. http://www.iayork.com/MysteryRays/2007/08/26/rabbits-1-virus-1-evolution-of-viral-virulence/ http://www.iayork.com/MysteryRays/2007/08/26/rabbits-1-virus...
- GuB-42 6y ago
  It is somewhat true, but the virus doesn't know that, and there isn't a strong evolutionary pressure to make covid less lethal. Covid is transmitted mostly during its mild phase, it only becomes severe a week later, if you are unlucky. If you are lucky, you clear off the infection and gain relatively strong immunity. For the virus, both scenarios are similar. The only thing is that if it was just a cold, we wouldn't bother with preventive measures and the virus would spread more easily. However, when both the lethal and nonlethal variants are present, the nonlethal variant doesn't have an advantage since we treat everyone the same way, so it is unlikely for the nonlethal variant to take over on its own. At least not on a short timescale. The solution is to create our own nonlethal variant, also known as a vaccine. Well, vaccines don't spread, I guess we could make a vaccine that spreads but "what could possibly go wrong..."
blub 6y ago
Your claim is false, because for some (many?) people this disease doesn't seem to cause even mild symptoms. It's always possible that some terrible consequence will only be visible years later, like for Measles, but we don't know that.
- blueblimp 6y ago
  Without a crystal ball, there’s no way to know ahead of time who’s going to have an asymptomatic case. If there were a way to predict it with high accuracy, it’d be a different story, but for now that’s science fiction.

ummonk 6y ago

The chance of catching COVID between now and the other vaccines being made available is quite low.

overboard2 6y ago

Covid evolves to spread itself more effectively. The fewer symptoms it causes, the better it can spread.

systemvoltage 6y ago
This is what 99% of the people don't understand. The virus needs the host in order to spread. The virus doesn't have any other ulterior mechanism that wants to kill humans. This is why spanish-flu virus got weaker over time because as it evolves, if it kills humans rapidly, it cannot evolve. So, nature sorts it self out.
- blueblimp 6y ago
  This is a more disputed theory than you think. http://www.iayork.com/MysteryRays/2007/08/26/rabbits-1-virus-1-evolution-of-viral-virulence/ http://www.iayork.com/MysteryRays/2007/08/26/rabbits-1-virus...
GuB-42 6y ago
It is somewhat true, but the virus doesn't know that, and there isn't a strong evolutionary pressure to make covid less lethal. Covid is transmitted mostly during its mild phase, it only becomes severe a week later, if you are unlucky. If you are lucky, you clear off the infection and gain relatively strong immunity. For the virus, both scenarios are similar. The only thing is that if it was just a cold, we wouldn't bother with preventive measures and the virus would spread more easily. However, when both the lethal and nonlethal variants are present, the nonlethal variant doesn't have an advantage since we treat everyone the same way, so it is unlikely for the nonlethal variant to take over on its own. At least not on a short timescale. The solution is to create our own nonlethal variant, also known as a vaccine. Well, vaccines don't spread, I guess we could make a vaccine that spreads but "what could possibly go wrong..."

blub 6y ago

Your claim is false, because for some (many?) people this disease doesn't seem to cause even mild symptoms. It's always possible that some terrible consequence will only be visible years later, like for Measles, but we don't know that.

blueblimp 6y ago
Without a crystal ball, there’s no way to know ahead of time who’s going to have an asymptomatic case. If there were a way to predict it with high accuracy, it’d be a different story, but for now that’s science fiction.