Will you be taking a booster?

Shao Kahn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298156#Comment_118298156

The vaccines are not achieving what they need to achieve, in order for life to go back to normal. That's the long and short of it, wobbs.

Science and medicine moves too slow (it has to in order to be methodical and accurate). People are starting to lose faith that we can vaccinate our way out of this in the near future.

You have the rabid vaccine fanatics of course. These people, it seems, are prepared to live with restrictions on our lives indefinitely. And even "leaky" booster shots every few weeks, and simply accept this as the new normal in society.

If we follow these people, we'll be like a snail moving through molasses over the next few years while we wait for a covid cure that might never materialize.

glut22

https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/08/hardcore-covid-anti-vaxxers-may-need-deradicalising-like-terrorists-15734866/

This is a disturbing perspective

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298481#Comment_118298481

The vaccines are not achieving what they need to achieve, in order for life to go back to normal. That's the long and short of it, wobbs.

Oh I hear you on that point SK, but they do substantially reduce serious illness and death and that's one hell of an achievement. The back to normal angle is, IMHO of course, much more about and down to politics, optics and the practicalities of a lack of healthcare capacity. And fear in the general public(though that's waning) being fed by that and feeding back into it too. Humans are social animals how thrive on heirarchy and routine. This Woo Flu really hit the latter hard and we needed to get back to the old routine, yet at the same time a chunk of the population made covid and its effects a new routine of its own. It'll take a while to square that circle I imagine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298513#Comment_118298513

Just a tad, yeah. If it was just the totally bonkers radical types it would be bad enough if understandable, but the problem with drawing lines is that after you demonise the loonies those lines have a habit of creeping towards including anyone who questions your personal and group narrative, which becomes ever more divisive and is always concerning when it does.

My personal philosophy has been that when I find myself in total agreement with the consensus to the point of finding myself defending it, that is precisely the time where I have to stop and ask myself questions of the same consensus. And not always, but often enough to be useful, I have found it lacking. If I dig my heels in on any subject it means I can't usefully move in any direction. Never a good thing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298074#Comment_118298074

Exactly, you didn't say that. It is an intentional ommission to propagate FUD.

growleaves

'My personal philosophy has been that when I find myself in total agreement with the consensus to the point of finding myself defending it, that is precisely the time where I have to stop and ask myself questions of the same consensus.'

I'm continually impressed by your thoughtfulness @Wibbs You integrate a lot of knowledge in the first place, listen carefully to all perspectives and then double-back and question your own assumptions unasked and come up with new interesting opinions.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298842#Comment_118298842

Or complete and utter bullshít G. Then again bullshít is a good fertiliser, so something useful may yet grow from it. 😁

kittensmittens

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118294961#Comment_118294961

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297617#Comment_118297617

There is one way more effective tool... It is called natural immunity which give you much better protection. Many of that low caste of deplorables who we call "unvaccinated" already had their vaccine and boosters in form of actual covid.

Time to move on tackling more pressing issues.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299240#Comment_118299240

The evidence to date suggests that vaccine-induced immunity provides better protection than infection-induced immunity.

Infection followed by vaccination provides better protection still.

Plus, of course, the morbidity associated with acquiring immunity by becoming infected is many, many times higher than the morbidity associated with acquiring immunity by vaccination.

Tl;dr: vaccines provide better protection and do much, much less damage than contracting Covid does.

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299245#Comment_118299245

Respectfully, you do have outdated info. None of the current vaccines beats natural immunity.

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298513#Comment_118298513

One unfortunately which works both ways. I'd agree that radicalisation and very hard line stances have been an unpleasant feature of this pandemic.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299259#Comment_118299259

Your source for this?

[Genuine question - I am interested to follow this up.]

ceegee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299240#Comment_118299240

Just to re-cap, the question is "how do we reduce the number of people exposed to the coronavirus who go on to develop covid-19?"

Your solution: step 1: catch covid.

It's the equivalent of saying that kevlar helmets aren't 100% effective so I'll blow a hole in my head, so that enemy fire just flies straight through.

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299300#Comment_118299300

Its not equivalent at all, because covid doesn't blow a hole in your head. Its amazing after nearly 2 years of this people still think covid is the dangerous virus it was once thought to be.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299335#Comment_118299335

Covid may not blow a hole in your head, but it is much, much more dangerous to you than the vaccine. In comparing vaccine-induced immunity and Covid-induced immunity, you have to factor in not just the relative strength of the immunity conferred, but also the relative morbidity of the alternative ways of acquiring the immunity.

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297859#Comment_118297859

It's evident from your calm and reasonable posting style that you haven't spent much time in this thread. 😂

Lumen

@Shao Kahn wrote

You have the rabid vaccine fanatics of course. These people, it seems, are prepared to live with restrictions on our lives indefinitely

It is a incorrect to conflate vaccine positivity with being pro-restrictions.

I am a "fan" of vaccines because they enable us to have a lower level of disease for any given level of restrictions, or a lower level of restrictions for any given level of disease.

It's hardly my fault that that government's policy choices fall short of delivering the maximum benefits from that.

If we had a lower level of vaccinations we would have a higher level of restrictions.

The idea that vaccines have somehow been a mistake and we should just have ploughed on with normal life regardless is a complete fantasy.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299240#Comment_118299240

Influenza from five years ago isn't going to protect me from this years strain.

gazzer

I will get a booster but am going to wait until after Xmas. After my second jab I was out of action for almost two weeks. So tired I could hardly move. Had to take leave from work also for a week

MilkyToast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297859#Comment_118297859

Maybe it's 57.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299605#Comment_118299605

Likewise....I was very sick too. But I am probably not going to get a booster. I am a fit, healthy, slim 61 year old (swim daily, hike weekly, cycle and walk). I got very sick after both AZ doses. I was off work for a week both times. Most of my siblings have got Covid and none of them reported anything more than tiredness and cold symptoms. All are fine now and 2 are older than me. I would prefer to get natural immunity from Covid at this stage. I deplore the way the public have been treated in all of this and that is a huge factor in my decision. The way we have been spoken down to, criticised, marginalised if people decided to wait and get more info before vaccination. I also do NOT agree with vaccination of kids.

The only thing that will change my mind is if I need a booster to travel out of this country. In that case I have no choice. Otherwise no booster for me.

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300606#Comment_118300606

JFYI, you are far likelier (on average) to have a more severe reaction to the virus than the vaccine (especially if the vaccine caused you to take time off), the immune system (that causes the symptoms) is stimulated in the same way but with the virus you have something real to fight against.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300606#Comment_118300606

People have been "spoken down to" because they have been acting in a way that imposes substatial costs on on society on the basis of their own half baked facebook analysis which has little or no basis in actual science.

Your decision to vaccinate or not is not entirely a private matter in the same way as the speed you drive at or the amount of smokey coal you burn is not.

This pandemic has revleaed a shocking amount of mé féiners in society.

bladespin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300840#Comment_118300840

Reads like they're already vaccinated, doesn't the booster just speed up the recovery they are likely to make???

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300862#Comment_118300862

Depends on age and any underlying conditions (which are also common with older age), 60+ is the danger zone, if you had a severe reaction to the vaccine (barring an allergy) you'll probably have an even worse reaction to the virus (where probably is down to the viral load and immune system health at time of infection). It probably won't kill you though.

bladespin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300940#Comment_118300940

There's no relation to how someone reacts to the vaccine and how severely they will be affected by Covid (either way), 60 isn't particularly old either tbh, most age related serious cases seem to be well into their eighties.

Either way I'm sure the poster is more than aware of their options and risks associated and can choose for themselves.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300840#Comment_118300840

Just on a tiny purely anecdotal view of people I know who've had strong reactions to the vaccine, who also caught covid, they also had much more obvious symptoms with the pox itself, even after vaccination, so without it wouldn't be a good plan. It seems to go the other way too. I had zero effects from vaccination and when I actually caught the pox itself months before I was vaccinated I only noticed because my smell and taste vanished. Nothing else at all(taste and smell still hasn't come back, maybe 30% of before). Yet I've also read that people were more likely to get a reaction from the vaccine if they'd caught the pox before. No doubt when the data is in we'll get a more clear picture.

bladespin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300856#Comment_118300856

Whatever happened to 'your body, your choice'? For a country that's been pushed in a pro-choice direction for the past decade regardless of that cost to society, to turn so nastily on anyone who expresses a contrary opinion (not necessarily anti-vax) is shocking.

BTW I'm pro-choice and have had the vaccine before anyone jumps.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118296470#Comment_118296470

in a global pandemic... perhaps it’s best we concern ourselves less about individual freedoms which we still have btw and more about what we can and need to do do together as a collective...

joe40

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300606#Comment_118300606

You talk about "the public" as if they are one homogenous group. I am part of the public and don't feel spoken down to. I don't agree with every govt action but I do believe they were doing the best is a changing situation trying to balance a lot of competing issue.

I will take the booster when offered because the benefits of vaccination in terms of reducing harmful disease has been well established here and abroad. I have yet to hear a compelling argument against boosters. Government decisions will not influence my decision, It will be purely based on what I see as the best medical outcome for myself.