absolutely. thats really what keeps on hitting me. When will i feel good about going outside without a mask? the answer seems to get fuzzier and fuzzier. and the western world just keeps pushing people to “move on” it feels . BLEH

Certainly the titles are different, however the purpose of the two organizations is extremely similar, with goals of epidemiology and public health, so as a general terminology I feel the comparison can be used for some convenience. But fair nonetheless. Obviously many variants of the disease have been around for some time, but as we increasingly see people get resistant we can anticipate more and more of these strains that can slip away from immunity being developed, which is concerning. and as they chip away at what immunity was provided by B cells and via the vaccine(few percentage points here and there) it definitely seems possible as Jesse Bloom mentions in a linked thread that we could run out of this current vaccines efficacy before long. necessitating another intense round of vaccine development that as we’ve seen in the USA, despite stunning initial results, are being rolled out like a train wreck. And T cell immunity will be important but absent cleaner data about vaccine persistence and without seeing what new strains are cooking up in the dakota’s im just concerned.

get the vaccine, but damn covid is slippery.

moved to the PNW with the express purpose of getting into the great outdoors. It was all it has been hyped up to be.

uber will never, ever, let that slide. if they spent 200 million to ensure they dont have to give healthcare to their workers, theyll spend as much to ensure anyone who tries to compete with them is unable to do so.

I hope that isn’t the case. This is a good discussion either way though, thanks for starting it! The symposium I posted, if you have time, goes into a couple of the safety concerns from major vaccine trials. That being said, while I have limited(and tbh biased) faith in the NIH/CDC, I can acknowledge that other governmental systems will make foolhardy decisions for a potential one up in the game of electoral-ism, and I do not have faith in that. The talks I posted also go into that a bit as well, how politics has corroded integrity of science. Although science is corroded for lots of other reasons as well.

Yeah, obviously I have huge issues with pharma profiting off of this immensely as they certainly will, but vaccines are still a huge public safety boon.

I encourage everyone hear throwing around to do some research into the practices the trials are using to ensure the integrity of the vaccine. Anecdotal accounts of side effects notwithstanding, there seems to be a broad consensus that these will be safe,( https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/vaccines a large symposium that recently occurred discussing high level COVID 19 vaccine topics, worth a listen) with a major concern being that a large percentage of people seem utterly uninterested in receiving a vaccine, which places an enormous burden on other individuals who for health reasons can not get a vaccine. Get vaccinated libs, it fucking saves lives.

make connections and comrades and support them/benefit from their support. Find ways to support socialist, pro union, and other leftist groups. Grow food and work on mutual aid. Be a kind person. We are in this together. and we can make a better future!

“You keep saying things like down with the bourgeoisie, eat the rich, sodomise the land-owners, impale all people who have more than 25 reál in their pocket, literally murder all human beings regardless of their political beliefs – that kind of stuff.”

I think the overarching rationale behind a vaccine is that if a high enough percentage of the population get a vaccine(that presumably grants high levels of immunity, that may or may not be the case in COVID, more data needs to be seen), that the disease will no longer be able to spread since its potential host population is immune. This is all to protect individuals, who due to old age, compromised immune systems, or other malignancies are unable to get the vaccine,. Flu is an excellent example of this, young individuals are less likely to die from the flu and are also have stronger immune systems and can handle a vaccine, elderly individuals with weaker immune systems can not get the vaccine but are at greater risk, hence younger individuals should get the vaccine to prevent potential spread to older people. Its altruism on a larger scale.

also keep in mind that 450 people did get Guillain-Barré syndrome with the 1976 vaccine campaign, but that was out of 45 MILLION People vaccinated. 1 case per 100,000 vaccinated individuals, and this vaccine is widely regarded as a debacle and outlier in terms of risk. Whether or not the Ford administrations panic over the new strain of flu was rationale(it probably wasnt) the risks we are talking about are minor compared to the death rates for flu or in particular COVID.

this is not to say healthy skepticism for science is a bad thing, but perspective and altruism for the broader population are key.