Arvind9 wrote: Wonder how many shots people took for Covid19 in the west but here in India people who got vaccinated with two doses have not taken a booster,the government had to dump 70 million doses because there was no one to take it people had the sense that too much of anything could be harmful,I still follow all the rules although numbers are very low but one can still get it because people think masks are no more necessary
Too many to count Let's see now, I think people in America are at their 5th booster going on 6 ? I dunno but in one year that's too bloody much
Personally, I took 3, and that's enough for me for a long time. Sure EVERYONE around me who has taken their 4 doses here have gotten COVID19, with moderate symptoms. For most people it will be just that, for a % it will be far more, it's a lottery, but it is clear that with the Omicron we are in a better situation than with Delta and other severe variants, this one is far more infectious but less fatal. Vaccines are too weak to protect against spread and infection, they are still very strong to protect against complications and severity. For compromised immunity and older folks it's still a safe bet to get the vaccines, it seems the vaccine risks are higher for the less than 40, so for older folks it's a good idea, for the rest, well some people who were fit and healthy were killed by COVID and hospitalised, that number is far lower now with Omicron, BUT when you consider infections are way up - it also brings hospitalisations way up too.
Masks are far more effective though, if everyone wore the bloody mask it would help significantly reduce SPREAD, the masks main goal is to protect others from the travel distance of your droplets, though wearing masks offers weak protection against those infected around you, unless they too wear a mask, so yes masks are far more effective to slow spread, vaccines are only effective for the most part to prime your body to deal with the virus once you are in an infectious state to reduce severity. So I am all for masks, if people wore the damn masks all the time we would be in a much better position. I do not think it is good to get too many vaccines in short period of time.
There is now a new Omicron variant based on the BA5, called BQ.1.1 that is spreading in Europe, there are cases here in North America, it's unknown yet if it will displace BA5, vaccines will not stop the pandemic, it's too late for that, it would have / could have stopped the pandemic had 75%-80% of the WORLD population received full vaccination during the Wuhan strain, before any variants. Now variants keep evading immunity, and even mRNA vaccines cannot keep with variants ! Vaccinated or not, the current variants are so much more transmissible, so if you are exposed to someone infected you WILL get it, it's that bad, everyone will get it eventually, including fully vaccinated, but the ones ending up in hospitals and/or dying or under a ventilator are for most part, non vaccinated.
Masks are STILL necessary and should be a new normal, I mean it's one thing for people to worry about vaccines, but FFS, wear your masks You can follow all the rules, but it won't save you from getting it, all it takes is a few seconds of exposure, unlike original strain, the latest variants require only a fraction of exposure to the droplets. Less droplets are needed to cause an infection, so even if you wear your masks, all it takes is a few people around you who are infected, and you catch it, unless they are wearing masks and at a reasonable distance.
Masks ARE effective. I usually get 3 or more colds every year. I have gotten 0 during the pandemic, when masks were mandated in all public places. Now masks are no longer required, in fact here they lifted ALL rules and all they do is ask people to be careful (Yeah like that'll work ) no more rules here, and they don't even display the daily infections count anymore, it's as if pandemic never existed, yet our hospitals are at 300% capacity, doctors and nurses are doing shitloads of mistakes - people are DYING in triage because there is no bed to put them in, etc, ever since mask mandate was lifted, I've managed to get 2 colds, despite being careful, and after multiple testings, negative, so not COVID. I managed so far to escape COVID - but eventually my luck will run out, I think eventually everyone will get it.
I know some people in the states who have not received a single dose of vaccine, nor wear masks, and claim to never have gotten infected - either they are lying MFs or they have a crazy strong immune system
Your levels of D-Dimer might help determine if you are at a high risk for complications from COVID.