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We were told only two shots were needed and that if we all did our part that this problem would go away and we'd go back to "normal". Now we need booster shots

We were told only two shots were needed and that if we all did our part that this problem would go away and we'd go back to "normal". Now we need booster shots because two doses of the vaccine that was touted as "safe and effective" isn't so effective after 5-6 months! What a surprise. Now because of this virus and the actions of governments worldwide, we're heading straight into an global economic recession with inflation at levels we haven't seen for decades. That's back to "normal"? I can't wait for governments who have implemented digital passports to invalidate everyone who have taken two shots and don't want to get a booster because of any number of reasons. (OH WAIT - Israel is already doing this! Lets arbitrarily deny rights to citizens based on what the government wants us to do!) This is a HUGE part of why people are vaccine hesitant. You've got people parroting mantras like they're fact and browbeating people with questions or concerns about it.

WorldMaker 5y ago
Anyone who "promised" "only two shots and done" was wrong and doesn't understand vaccines. Most vaccines need boosters over time depending on a huge number of variables including the virus' own mutation rate. Everyone should know we get annual Flu boosters, even if they don't remember that you are often recommended to get things like TDAP boosters every 10 years or so (because often it is your doctor's job to remember that for you), and that there are other booster cycles that's just the most recent one in my own memory. There was also plenty of notice anticipating that COVID may need boosters closer to the Flu range than the TDAP or longer range, especially at first because of how fast it has mutated even before we developed vaccines (we were already on the fourth Greek letter named variant, Delta!). That's in line with the fact that this virus family ("coronavirus") is one of the viruses that makes up the virus group we have long colloquially referred to as "the common cold" and that this "uncommon cold" of COVID still directly shares a lot of fast mutating properties that made "annual Cold shots" to go with our annual Flu shots not very economically sound. The jump to being a much more deadlier pathogen than previous "common Colds" greatly changes that equation to make vaccines economic for it, but has raised the question from the start of this pandemic if now is the time we start anticipating "annual Cold shots", perhaps in perpetuity, just as we try to get everyone to get their annual Flu shots to avoid Flu's "uncommon deadly reaction" pneumonia. (A lot of the references to the 1918-1919 Flu parallels included that's when we first started seeing a greater economic need for annual Flu shots, beyond just coinciding with when we were developing the first Flu shots, as before that pandemic the Flu itself was often seen in the same light today we see the "common cold", a mostly harmless irritant rather than a very deadly disease.) (The interesting flipside to some of this is that the pandemic has shown us that we actually have a chance at killing the Flu if we kept COVID restrictions such as social distancing and masking in our societies. The massive "demands" for "normal" that don't include such standards clearly don't want that and we aren't likely to actually cure the flu, but this weird glimpse in 2021 of how close we have come to it is startling. We could almost trade annual Flu shots for annual "Cold" shots right now, if we all did the right thing for a few more years, but most likely we're going to need both. Silver lining, Moderna says their early testing on combined Covid/Flu boosters is going well, so maybe we'll still keep it down to just one annual shot, we can hope.)
Arnt 5y ago
We were told that? By whom? Complain to them. Tell them you want your money back.
rootusrootus 5y ago
> if we all did our part Well there you go.
- scohesc 5y ago
  The people parroting/pushing empty phrases like "do your part", "we're in this together" and "safe and effective" that mean absolutely _nothing_ in the grand scheme of things are part of the problem. We never were "in this together", which is proven immediately by the hostility/acts of violence that people who are vaccine hesitant get from everybody for even daring to suggest they keep their job in the middle of the largest economic disruption in the past 4-5 decades! The vaccine isn't "safe and effective" - in pretty much every bit of media (social, corporate, or otherwise), it's taboo to talk about any specifics or any possibility of it causing harm like "we're now finding out that the vaccine only works for 6 months", "my cousin had the second dose of the vaccine and died a week later" - it's even encouraged and endorsed by the same outlets to make fun of people who are concerned - "people are taking horse dewormer! (and we'll conflate everyone that takes ivermectin as taking horse dewormer, even if they got it prescribed by a doctor or pharmacist!)". The media and the government is lying and being deceitful to the public in order to push an agenda. Remember when they lied about masks not being effective at stopping transmission because they were worried they didn't have enough stock for healthcare workers? You lie once, while being the government who is in ULTIMATE power over its citizens, and you lose all credibility to MILLIONS of people. What does "do your part" even mean? It's so vague and wishy-washy that the definition ends up being whatever the person parroting it decides it to be. Does it mean "mask up, get vaccinated, don't have private events but allow huge amounts of people in grocery stores/public places", or does it mean "wear a mask, socially distance from people, stay in your home 24/7 until the government says it's okay to go outside"?
  - brandon272 5y ago
    > The media and the government is lying and being deceitful to the public in order to push an agenda. Governments have no interest in keeping COVID around. Politicians who have allowed COVID to run rampant have watched their popularity levels suffer as a result, some have been booted out of office over it. So what's this coordinated global "agenda" that transcends country and political party? You're pressing others on being vague yet speak vaguely of this "agenda" and offer no specifics.
brandon272 5y ago
> and that if we all did our part We didn’t “all do our part”, though. Only 57% of the US population has been vaccinated. Insofar that any deal was made, we haven’t fulfilled our half of the bargain. The vaccines were never sold as something that would stop the virus in its tracks with only half the population vaccinated. They also weren’t sold as having unlimited durability. People needed to not only “do their part” but do it in a timely fashion. One unfortunate weakness of the vaccine is that it has to actually be injected to be effective.
- Arnt 5y ago
  To be fair, some vaccines offer lifetime protection and many people may not have realised how unusual that is. So since I don't recall the manufacturers emphasising that these vaccines were unlikely to offer lifetime protection, I can see one might make an unwarranted assumption. But I cannot see how one might be annoyed about it later.
- scohesc 5y ago
  What about the countries that did? There are quite a few countries that have 80%+ uptake rate (Singapore, Malta, UAE, Portugal are all around 85+% vaccinated)- are those countries going to mandate booster shots? You bet they are!
  - brandon272 5y ago
    What about them? They will mandate booster shots because the need to protect from COVID still exists. No country exists in a vacuum. I guess where I'm lost is how the fact that these booster shots are needed is being treated as some sort of trick or "gotcha". The potential for 3rd boosters was talked about early on. This is not a surprise. It seems like people want a magical fix that takes COVID away and there isn't one. The currently available vaccines, perfect or imperfect, are our only practical path forward toward a degree of normalacy.
- jdhn 5y ago
  >The vaccines were never sold as something that would stop the virus in its tracks with only half the population vaccinated. They were sold as a cure that would allow the person who received the vaccine to go back to pre-covid times because they were protected. Now you have states like California mandating masks indoors even for vaccinated people, which goes against what everyone was told earlier this year. For those who are hesitant towards getting the shot, how would this make them any less hesitant?
rsynnott 5y ago
> We were told only two shots were needed and that if we all did our part that this problem would go away and we'd go back to "normal". Who told you that? The question of whether boosters or new vaccines would be required has been around since before the first vaccines were even approved, though it did gain new urgency with the emergence of Delta. On the "all do our part" bit, very few countries have gotten to even the 70% total population figure that was the optimistic case for halting the less infectious pre-Delta variants. Clearly, we have not all "done our part".

WorldMaker 5y ago

Anyone who "promised" "only two shots and done" was wrong and doesn't understand vaccines. Most vaccines need boosters over time depending on a huge number of variables including the virus' own mutation rate. Everyone should know we get annual Flu boosters, even if they don't remember that you are often recommended to get things like TDAP boosters every 10 years or so (because often it is your doctor's job to remember that for you), and that there are other booster cycles that's just the most recent one in my own memory. There was also plenty of notice anticipating that COVID may need boosters closer to the Flu range than the TDAP or longer range, especially at first because of how fast it has mutated even before we developed vaccines (we were already on the fourth Greek letter named variant, Delta!). That's in line with the fact that this virus family ("coronavirus") is one of the viruses that makes up the virus group we have long colloquially referred to as "the common cold" and that this "uncommon cold" of COVID still directly shares a lot of fast mutating properties that made "annual Cold shots" to go with our annual Flu shots not very economically sound. The jump to being a much more deadlier pathogen than previous "common Colds" greatly changes that equation to make vaccines economic for it, but has raised the question from the start of this pandemic if now is the time we start anticipating "annual Cold shots", perhaps in perpetuity, just as we try to get everyone to get their annual Flu shots to avoid Flu's "uncommon deadly reaction" pneumonia. (A lot of the references to the 1918-1919 Flu parallels included that's when we first started seeing a greater economic need for annual Flu shots, beyond just coinciding with when we were developing the first Flu shots, as before that pandemic the Flu itself was often seen in the same light today we see the "common cold", a mostly harmless irritant rather than a very deadly disease.) (The interesting flipside to some of this is that the pandemic has shown us that we actually have a chance at killing the Flu if we kept COVID restrictions such as social distancing and masking in our societies. The massive "demands" for "normal" that don't include such standards clearly don't want that and we aren't likely to actually cure the flu, but this weird glimpse in 2021 of how close we have come to it is startling. We could almost trade annual Flu shots for annual "Cold" shots right now, if we all did the right thing for a few more years, but most likely we're going to need both. Silver lining, Moderna says their early testing on combined Covid/Flu boosters is going well, so maybe we'll still keep it down to just one annual shot, we can hope.)

Arnt 5y ago

We were told that? By whom? Complain to them. Tell them you want your money back.

rootusrootus 5y ago

> if we all did our part Well there you go.

scohesc 5y ago
The people parroting/pushing empty phrases like "do your part", "we're in this together" and "safe and effective" that mean absolutely _nothing_ in the grand scheme of things are part of the problem. We never were "in this together", which is proven immediately by the hostility/acts of violence that people who are vaccine hesitant get from everybody for even daring to suggest they keep their job in the middle of the largest economic disruption in the past 4-5 decades! The vaccine isn't "safe and effective" - in pretty much every bit of media (social, corporate, or otherwise), it's taboo to talk about any specifics or any possibility of it causing harm like "we're now finding out that the vaccine only works for 6 months", "my cousin had the second dose of the vaccine and died a week later" - it's even encouraged and endorsed by the same outlets to make fun of people who are concerned - "people are taking horse dewormer! (and we'll conflate everyone that takes ivermectin as taking horse dewormer, even if they got it prescribed by a doctor or pharmacist!)". The media and the government is lying and being deceitful to the public in order to push an agenda. Remember when they lied about masks not being effective at stopping transmission because they were worried they didn't have enough stock for healthcare workers? You lie once, while being the government who is in ULTIMATE power over its citizens, and you lose all credibility to MILLIONS of people. What does "do your part" even mean? It's so vague and wishy-washy that the definition ends up being whatever the person parroting it decides it to be. Does it mean "mask up, get vaccinated, don't have private events but allow huge amounts of people in grocery stores/public places", or does it mean "wear a mask, socially distance from people, stay in your home 24/7 until the government says it's okay to go outside"?
- brandon272 5y ago
  > The media and the government is lying and being deceitful to the public in order to push an agenda. Governments have no interest in keeping COVID around. Politicians who have allowed COVID to run rampant have watched their popularity levels suffer as a result, some have been booted out of office over it. So what's this coordinated global "agenda" that transcends country and political party? You're pressing others on being vague yet speak vaguely of this "agenda" and offer no specifics.

brandon272 5y ago

> and that if we all did our part We didn’t “all do our part”, though. Only 57% of the US population has been vaccinated. Insofar that any deal was made, we haven’t fulfilled our half of the bargain. The vaccines were never sold as something that would stop the virus in its tracks with only half the population vaccinated. They also weren’t sold as having unlimited durability. People needed to not only “do their part” but do it in a timely fashion. One unfortunate weakness of the vaccine is that it has to actually be injected to be effective.

Arnt 5y ago
To be fair, some vaccines offer lifetime protection and many people may not have realised how unusual that is. So since I don't recall the manufacturers emphasising that these vaccines were unlikely to offer lifetime protection, I can see one might make an unwarranted assumption. But I cannot see how one might be annoyed about it later.
scohesc 5y ago
What about the countries that did? There are quite a few countries that have 80%+ uptake rate (Singapore, Malta, UAE, Portugal are all around 85+% vaccinated)- are those countries going to mandate booster shots? You bet they are!
- brandon272 5y ago
  What about them? They will mandate booster shots because the need to protect from COVID still exists. No country exists in a vacuum. I guess where I'm lost is how the fact that these booster shots are needed is being treated as some sort of trick or "gotcha". The potential for 3rd boosters was talked about early on. This is not a surprise. It seems like people want a magical fix that takes COVID away and there isn't one. The currently available vaccines, perfect or imperfect, are our only practical path forward toward a degree of normalacy.
jdhn 5y ago
>The vaccines were never sold as something that would stop the virus in its tracks with only half the population vaccinated. They were sold as a cure that would allow the person who received the vaccine to go back to pre-covid times because they were protected. Now you have states like California mandating masks indoors even for vaccinated people, which goes against what everyone was told earlier this year. For those who are hesitant towards getting the shot, how would this make them any less hesitant?

rsynnott 5y ago

> We were told only two shots were needed and that if we all did our part that this problem would go away and we'd go back to "normal". Who told you that? The question of whether boosters or new vaccines would be required has been around since before the first vaccines were even approved, though it did gain new urgency with the emergence of Delta. On the "all do our part" bit, very few countries have gotten to even the 70% total population figure that was the optimistic case for halting the less infectious pre-Delta variants. Clearly, we have not all "done our part".