Originally posted by Bob Armstrong
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I generally agree with Tom's post on this. Fortunately, the dominant Omicron strain is much less severe than the initial strains (probably a combination of some vaccine protection and just being a milder strain) . This year, I have only admitted 1 person from the ER who was in trouble with lung involvement (unvaccinated but also diabetic), in stark contrast to the early days of the pandemic where there were quite a few 20 and 30 year old patients requiring admission. In general the influenza A going around now is causing much more severe illness!
I think you can think of COVID at the moment the same way you think about flu. We advise at risk people (elderly, medical issues) to get the flu shot every year and I think COVID will be the same. Every year, I imagine a new vaccine will be available for the current strain, the same way as flu. If you want to get it, great...If you don't, then don't...COVID could mutate and become more severe, but the same thing can happen with influenza - it's really no different.
My story is similar to Tom's. I got Omicron in August, wasn't severe...lasted 3 days, and I got my flu shot this fall, but haven't gotten the COVID booster yet, as it was suggested waiting 3 months was appropriate. I haven't got around to going in for my booster, and I have no objection to getting it but it's not a big priority either, so I haven't done it yet. If someone came to me and offered it, I'd take it but too busy/lazy to book and go to a vaccine clinic! Incidentally, I should mention that whether you get COVID naturally or get the vaccine, your immunity will not be 100% and in both cases, it will not last (just like the flu shot)...Also, I'm sure there is some immunity present from getting even 1 dose of vaccine - even if it doesn't prevent infection, it would help you fight it.
Personally, I am not worried at all about the safety of the vaccines. With well over 10 billion doses of the various vaccines given worldwide, autoimmune side effects (which do occur and are potentially serious) are obviously pretty rare. Side effects from getting COVID are pretty rare too, but my feeling is they are more common. For example, I have personally seen 2 cases of myocarditis from COVID, several pulmonary emboli, an MI (heart attack), and a CVA (Stroke). These were all in the early days fortunately. I haven't seen any definite vaccine complications. I did see a DVT (leg blood clot) occurring about a month after vaccination, but these are pretty common in general, so pretty much impossible to say it was caused by vaccination.
Lastly, I have been seeing a fair amount of people who are still very worried about getting COVID. I point out to them that saying you'll never get COVID is probably not realistic. The virus is here to stay, and saying you'll never get it is like saying you'll never get flu for the rest of your life. The current variant is actually a good one to get, and I actually infected myself on purpose this summer for that reason! Not that I would advise anyone to do that, but I do tell people to go out, enjoy life and live their life. We got through the bad part of the pandemic and now we can get back to normality...
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