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Is there any other option? Vaccination would not help because it works exactly the same way. Vaccination certainly helps for the initial response, so people d

• autoexec 4y ago
  > Is there any other option? Not spreading the virus around would be the ideal. If we got people protected with vaccines and kept community spread low the number of variants wouldn't rise as quickly. Fewer variants would mean vaccines would stay effective longer and we wouldn't be rolling the dice on any new nasty features as often. I don't think we can ever hope to eradicate the virus from the earth now that it's here, but we could do a lot more to keep it from spreading at the kinds of rates it has been. > Vaccination would not help because it works exactly the same way. Vaccination doesn't work the same way because you gain the immunity without having the virus. No virus in you, no chance for the virus to mutate or spread and then mutate. You might still get infected by someone else later, but you aren't depending on getting infected to maintain your immune system's preparedness and if community spread is low because people are vaccinating instead of virus swapping your odds of getting the actual virus will be low as well. > Vaccination certainly helps for the initial response, so people don't get as sick. But after that natural immunity is superior to vaccination. From the evidence we have right now a combination of vaccine+infection gives the most robust protection, however that still involves getting infected and taking your chances with lasting heart lung and kidney problems. In my book, not having to take my chances with complications or long covid more than makes up for the difference which makes vaccines without infection superior. The odds of ending up with long covid was 1 in 5 in a recent study (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7121e1.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7121e1.htm) but different variants will carry different levels of risk. Even if you like your odds today, if you're just passing the virus around incubating new variants all the time who knows what odds you'll end up with later. There's evidence that people who get reinfected with the virus have an increase in their risks for long covid too. > But it's not true what you say, a mutated virus can still elicit a partial response. It all depends on what the mutations are. If a virus changes enough it may no longer be recognizable as the virus you were previously infected with. We're somewhat lucky with Covid because its structure makes it less likely to mutate to the point where we don't get some kind of response, but it's already evolved so much that our first vaccines which were 90% effective at preventing infection while at full strength are now only 30-40% effective at preventing infection. The good news so far is that even the old vaccines are pretty effective against the most severe cases and death, but that too is subject to change. It's already looking like re-exposing your immune system has diminishing returns. That was one concern people had over recommending 4th doses of the original vaccines. The protection from infection people got from shot #4 didn't last nearly as long as it did after getting shot #3. I'm really hoping the new vaccines help with that. Right now people who get covid can get reinfected with the newest strain after just one month!