Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Herd immunity by exposure is fine with me, for those who have little chance of illness.

If deaths start to spike, I'll be concerned. Until then... herd immunity. 

Yeppers.

The problem, I think, is the vaccine has diminishing effectivess apparently, and even at ~90%, it means it can spread among the vaxxed if enough are unvaxxed.

And it's not as if other developed countries are doing way better than the US in vaxxed numbers.  Some are better, somewhat.

I'll be getting shot 3 soonish.

How do you mean diminishing effectiveness? 

So I heard this sad anecdote from a friend. I respect that it's just one story, not proof positive of what had to have been and what could've been.

A friend was supposed to host a party soon, but her best friend's dad is currently on a ventilator, so the event probably will get canceled. Next door in the hospital in a semi-rural county, the best friend's father-in-law. The couple got hitched a few years back, and might well have known each other since they were kids. There's something that just resonated in such a sad way about it for me. Who knows if they liked each other, but they probably joked at some point about who will get to take the grandkids on a given week, when that happens. Now, one has to be contemplating if he'll ever see those, and the other, well, I don't know what one is aware of with a machine breathing for them. 

Both had kids who begged them to get the jab. Both declined, for reasons as political as anything else. Maybe they still get it if they're vaccinated, maybe it's just as severe. The world is uncertain that way. I spoke to another friend who knew the couple. He was more vitriolic than I am. He was mad they declined medicine, then turned up needing it desperately (some people are on this train, though I think it's a bad and dangerous precedent, but it does get folks riled).

Before I went to bed last night, I though that would be the end of a post like this. But before I got up, my mind kind of jumped elsewhere. It's interesting how we meet out our pity and mercy. Someone will lambast those ill and dying with a stat that lacks context but certianly does make the speaker feel better about not caring. But the same individual will resolutely argue that someone's choice to decline medicine and take their chances is no big deal. Probably the residue of a rather universal political dialogue that's rotting parts of our brains, but interesting in its way.

OK. So we're talking about a social efficacy, not an individual efficacy. I.e., whatever protections the vaccine gave don't necessarily wear out as much as the illness has just evolved.

I don't know that we can conclude that from the data.

The truth is, that the virus has evolved, and will continue to evolve.  Since Delta has become the prime variant in the USA, there's no way to know how the vaccines would have held up against the variants that were prevalent when the vaccines first reached the public.

Regardless, I don't think it matters, because the effect is the same.  We know that vaccinated individuals are more likely to contract COVID19 as time goes on.  If this is because the virus has mutated, and we can assume at this point that the virus will continue to mutate, then that implies the potential for even further decrease in efficacy.  

But I'm far less interested in protection against contracting COVID19, and far more interested in keeping people out of the hospital.  On that front, at least, the vaccines are still proving to be quite effective.

So I heard this sad anecdote from a friend. I respect that it's just one story, not proof positive of what had to have been and what could've been.

A friend was supposed to host a party soon, but her best friend's dad is currently on a ventilator, so the event probably will get canceled. Next door in the hospital in a semi-rural county, the best friend's father-in-law. The couple got hitched a few years back, and might well have known each other since they were kids. There's something that just resonated in such a sad way about it for me. Who knows if they liked each other, but they probably joked at some point about who will get to take the grandkids on a given week, when that happens. Now, one has to be contemplating if he'll ever see those, and the other, well, I don't know what one is aware of with a machine breathing for them.

Both had kids who begged them to get the jab. Both declined, for reasons as political as anything else. Maybe they still get it if they're vaccinated, maybe it's just as severe. The world is uncertain that way. I spoke to another friend who knew the couple. He was more vitriolic than I am. He was mad they declined medicine, then turned up needing it desperately (some people are on this train, though I think it's a bad and dangerous precedent, but it does get folks riled).

Before I went to bed last night, I though that would be the end of a post like this. But before I got up, my mind kind of jumped elsewhere. It's interesting how we meet out our pity and mercy. Someone will lambast those ill and dying with a stat that lacks context but certianly does make the speaker feel better about not caring. But the same individual will resolutely argue that someone's choice to decline medicine and take their chances is no big deal. Probably the residue of a rather universal political dialogue that's rotting parts of our brains, but interesting in its way.

That is very sad.  It really is. 

And hopefully the vaccines will continue to evolve too.

Amen, brutha.

I think a lot of us around here expected some kind of ongoing booster program.  Just hope the scientists can keep up  with the virus.