Not anti-vaxxer, not against vaccines, wore his mask properly at work, simply didn’t think there was a significant need for vaccination.
The message that primarily old people are at serious risk (true) pushed by
both the public health authorities and the misinformationists is really hurting us. Many people just don’t seem to have a concept of how dangerous it is (relative to typical contagious diseases). There are very few such contagious diseases in the modern age that represent such a serious risk of hospitalization to
the young and healthy.
The reality is that this is a very dangerous disease for all ages, possibly with children excepted - but even for them it likely represents one of the most serious contagious diseases they will face in their childhood.
But I think from early in the pandemic the message seemed to skirt around the risk to the young - even Dr. Fauci said early on the main risk was to the elderly (which is strictly speaking true…but sends the wrong message). Nuance is tough I guess.
Oh well. People have to get vaccinated! Then it's more like the flu.
Amid the growing controversy over whether the U.S. is in need of boosters or additional doses to protect against COVID-19, Moderna president Stephen Hoge admits much remains unknown.
finance.yahoo.com
Necessary is one thing...and it depends on your definition. (It's also not clear the headline here is correct - it sounds like the MRNA CEO is talking about shots beyond the third one...and he thinks the third one is helpful. The link has one headline and the article itself has a different headline.)
This is all kind of silly. We know antibody levels decline and that is going to increase infections. We know the booster dramatically increases those levels and will definitely reduce infections - and it's very likely that there is minimal risk of side effects if you only select people who had no ill effects from the first two vaccines. While first vaccinations are clearly the priority and the most effective way to reduce infections & severe illness, the right way to maintain confidence in public health is to protect people from infection. Aren’t we trying to reduce infections, not just severe illness? I thought that was the whole point. Reducing infections in the vaccinated also helps protect the unvaccinated and vulnerable - so it's not just a selfish choice.
So we should do boosters (for elderly, vulnerable, and HCW (we can't have absences due to illness!) first, then everyone)! The evidence is pretty clear they reduce infections, even if efficacy against severe disease is not much changed (to be clear, it seems to mean more severe cases for a given number of exposures - because there are more infections - but
given infection, efficacy seems to have changed not at all).
My prediction is that the data won't be there to support it for everyone for a while yet, so we'll be playing catchup in November as we see breakthrough infections rise and become problematic. Hopefully that prediction is wrong. I'd like to see widely available boosters for every vaccine recipient, including Moderna recipients, by October sometime.
I guess I'm just an observer now though. Glad I took the initiative before the resistance to protecting individual health had an opportunity to harden.
It's shameful that they didn't do a third dose RCT at the same time as the other trial. Pfizer is doing one now, but it is so late...
