As a healthy 25 year old with "natural" immunity (aka had Covid), being forced to vaccinate myself to appease a government mandate feels like such an intrusion on my rights. The scare tactics have certainly worked and all non-vaccinated people will be demonized and forced to comply regardless of past infection status. The CDC has made it so that Natural Immunity does not exist in the minds of most people.
Looking at the spread in Iceland. Israel, and the UK, I suspect NYC will have a "casedemic" in the winter but will not experience record hospitalizations regardless of vaccination rate because the first wave took out so many of the at risk. I think the data is increasingly showing that vaccination status is doing little to prevent transmission, however the CDC won't say that as it would undermine their entire campaign.
I understand your situation. What concerns me is that folks previously infected probably don’t continuously get their antibodies checked to ensure they’re still protected. We don’t know how long the antibodies stay with an individual who has been infected. I suspect if you were in infected this time last year vs January of this year, you’re not as protected vs a person more recently infected. That seems logical, no?
The age bracket w/ the highest death rate is still the 65+ yet the 20-45 age bracket is now seeing more deaths added whereas it wasn’t prevalent pre-Delta variant. Can you still be infected &/or transmit COVID w/ a vax? Yes. Are you likely to be hospitalized or die if vaxed regardless of age if you still happen to contract COVID? No. And that’s what’s shutting everything down and leading to talk of mandates (which I am not in favor of despite being vaccinated). The deaths are overwhelmingly occurring in the unvaccinated…is that even arguable? Deaths are worse than Cases. Deaths are going to lead to shutdowns, job loss, mask mandates, NO COLLEGE FOOTBALL, etc.
It’s true we don’t know the long-term adverse risks of the vax. But we also don’t know the long-term adverse risk of COVID-19. Moving forward, odds are patients will be treated w/ MABs which are historically effective in other TAs but we don’t know the long term effects of those in folks and I’m willing to bet they’re no better or worse than the effects of the vax. Google the current COVID trials for therapeutics and it will be a long list…mostly MABs. Are the same people who insisted on not getting the vax which is free and doesn’t require a doctor/hospital visit also going to insist on not being treated w/ therapeutics in the care of a specialist or even administered via infusion in an out-patient center? I seriously doubt that.
My biggest bone to pick w/ both parties & MSM in regards to messaging on protecting vs COVID is the lack of personal health PSAs. This was an ideal opportunity for a wake up call to the US and it’s embarrassingly high obesity rate. Type 2 diabetes is the epidemic most Americans should be worried about…but they’re not.
