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First of all, Day #2 after my booster and I feel great. My arm is significantly less sore and I have no other symptoms. Again, early studies on the boosters show that the chances of having temporary side effects are 50/50, just like with the first few shots. And unfortunately, my mirror image is back to my old self. Fabio is gone. 😢
An internet rumor is surfacing now that those who were vaccinated and then who still got infected are spreading more Covid virus and are causing more variants to develop than those who contracted Covid and never were vaccinated. Both of these rumors are false.
As far as the first issue is concerned, studies have actually shown the opposite. If you were vaccinated and then got infected, you can spread the virus, but for a much shorter period of time and you shed less virus. Although the Delta variant replicates to a much greater degree than the original form, as much as 1000x, it still replicates less in vaccinated people. Simply put, your primed immune system recognizes and attacks the virus faster.
In addition, more recent studies have actually shown that the virus that you do shed, is less capable of infecting others. The reason for this is not yet clear.
With respect to the issue of vaccinated people causing more variants to form, this is also completely false. The variants are created by random genetic mutations occurring when the viral genetic material mutates which only occurs when it divides. Most mutations are not important but, the more the virus replicates, the more it mutates and the greater the chances are of a mutation developing which gives it some kind of survival or advantage, usually, increased ability to infect more people. In a typical person, the virus creates up to a trillion copies of itself. Once again, vaccination lowers the risk of infection, lowers the duration of contagiousness in those who do get infected, as well as results in much shorter and less severe disease with extremely rare mortalities.
Yes, the majority of people who get infected do fine and don’t need to be hospitalized, but recent studies from clinics developed to deal with long haul patients, are showing that as many as 70% of people, including those with asymptomatic infections, suffer some kind of long haul symptoms. In addition, even though most do well, it’s all about the numbers. Even if you assume 99% of people get through it fine, that still leaves 1% who do not. If 100 people become infected, only 1 person is seriously affected but when millions get it, that 1% all of a sudden becomes a very sobering number, and in a small community, those small numbers add up and overwhelm the medical systems in place. Even in large cities, like Dallas, medical systems have been overwhelmed. At one point in the summer, there were no pediatric ICU beds available since they were all filled with covid patients. As an administrator there pointed out, if your child had a heart problem or was in a bad car accident, they had to wait until someone else’s child died, before they could get into the icu. Fewer kids get infected than adults, but again it’s about the numbers. Massive numbers of infections lead to many hospitalizations. Add to that extreme staff shortages, and it creates a perfect medical disaster scenario.
Viral mutations and variant development are completely different phenomena from bacterial resistance development. Overuse of antibiotics is directly related to the development of resistant bacteria since the antibiotic kills off the less resistant bugs, diseased or healthy, allowing the unhealthy and/or resistant bacteria to flourish. This is how a C. Diff (Clostridium Difficile) infection, a potentially devastating and life threatening intestinal infection, forms. It’s also how the “flesh eating bacteria” Staph Aureus (MRSA), a resistant form of a ubiquitous bacterium on everyone’s skin, develops. Estimates are that 30% of people now have MRSA on their skin all the time, existing in balance with the other microorganisms, but when the balance is changed, usually by taking an antibiotic or having some other stressor, severe infection occurs. I’ve drained too many head and neck abscesses from this bug to count (tidbit of advice, NEVER pluck your nose hairs. Nasal abscesses really suck for all involved). As an aside, the greatest amount of antibiotic overuse and human exposure comes from eating animal products. 80% of the antibiotics produced worldwide are fed to factory farmed animals, primarily to make them grow faster and produce more milk, but also to mostly prevent, and sometimes to treat, infections which result from their horrible, crowded and filthy living conditions. In addition, it is estimated that 70% of the human prescriptions written for antibiotics in the US are for useless and erroneous reasons. I see it every day. Some other doctor would say “Let’s put you on something just in case!!!” Makes me crazy.
As has been said many times, this is now overwhelmingly a pandemic of the un-vaccinated. Sadly, those affected the most today are kids. In NJ, recent statistics show that the majority of new infections are in school age kids. Not only those under 12, but teens who are eligible for vaccination as well. Although we are doing a better job with adult vaccinations, less than 1/3rd of teens are vaccinated.
Yes you can get Covid after getting vaccinated, but it is rare and if it happens, your infection is shorter and less severe and you spread it less.
Yes you get a significant amount of protection if you already had Covid, but you get the most protection if you follow that up with at least one dose of vaccine.
Yes they are safe and effective, demonstrated by the extremely low complication and side effect rate as well as the protection they provide, after over 6 billion doses. And now, studies are showing that the booster, or third shot, is extremely safe with very preliminary studies showing significant increases in protection.
Please do what is best for you, and more importantly, what is best for everyone else: get VACCINATED. And please continue to do all those things which we know are helpful:
MASK UP. The better the mask, the better the protection for you and those around you.
DISTANCE and VENTILATE
HYGIENE PRACTICES
WORK ON YOUR HEALTH. Move more, Eat well, Love more & Stress less.
Looks like a glorious weekend in the northeast. Enjoy the great outdoors.
Stay safe and be well.
AC