do you have a limit to how many covid doses or booster shots you will take?

[CarmenDane]

I am double vaxed but now considering the booster. 95% I will get it. These new variants may continue to come. Then a 4th shot will be recommended. What is your personal limit to how many covid doses you would accept before saying enough is enough? Right now Carmen has got covid (Omicron likely) and she has been double vaxed . She is not feeling well but after 2 days already improving. She will recover 100% Would her symptons have been worse without the vax? I think so. 

Dane

[Alpacalia]

Good question.

I'm going to continue with them because I have to (working in a healthcare setting) but I think since we still don't know much about them (variants and mutations) for now it's probably prudent to at least want to be protected as much as possible.

Hope she feels better!

Edited January 14, 2022 by a LoveShack.org Moderator
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[glows]

I have no issue or limit in regards to being vaccinated/boosted.

[Foxhall]

Three will be my limit I think, 

not sure if a continuous six monthly shot will turn out to be such a good idea,

It could go two ways now I suppose, this current milder strain will spread so wildly that herd immunity will be achieved and it will be downgraded to a normal type flu,

I think that is what they are thinking,

then the danger still perhaps is that with many countries not vaccinated to any significant level yet, that there will be further mutations  on the way and an ongoing virus for many years.

[Happy Lemming]

Similar to @glows, I don't have a limit.  I'll follow whatever the CDC recommends.  If they say get a 4th shot, I'll go get a 4th shot.

There was something in the news about Israel giving a 4th shot to people 60 and over, so I imagine other countries will follow suit.

"Israel begins fourth Covid-19 dose vaccine rollout for people 60 and over as Omicron cases surge"

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/21/middleeast/israel-fourth-covid-vaccine-booster-intl/index.html

[FMW]

I have had a regular flu shot every year for as long as I can remember.  I certainly don't see any problem with having a COVID Booster every year, or even twice a year.  I take supplements and vitamins daily.  I have no problem doing what doctors and scientists tell me will increase my immunity to diseases.  But then I also have no problem wearing a mask when I go to the grocery store or other crowded public places either, for the same reason.  

[CarmenDane]

I think your right Foxhall. Glad to see people generally in favor of the vaccines

[Pumpernickel]

Never got the flu shot, ever, but I’ve gotten all the recommended Covid shots so far, for work reasons. Haven’t gotten Covid yet even though I’m out and about a lot - so it’s working imo. Will get more boosters as recommended …..

[mark clemson]

I think I'm going to limit myself to what I believe I personally need to remain safe and not present a major threat to others. That means I won't be taking more boosters (I've had the one recent one allowed in the US) unless there is a new strain that is particularly dangerous (not simply particularly transmissible). If others choose not to get vaccinated and put themselves at risk, to my mind responsibility for that is on them. Those who can't get vaccinated are a different situation, but those folks (IMO) must themselves take continued extra precautions to the extent necessary to preserve their safety. 

That's my current thinking. Possibly I will take a booster every 2-3 years "on general principles" and/or if there are multiple new specific strains included in the booster that I was never vaccinated against, as that makes some sense to me from a personal and public safety perspective. I might also take one if required for international travel at some point.

At 65+ I may start getting boosters yearly or even bi-annually as there is greater risk at those ages once the vaccine effectiveness wears down after about 6 months. However, by that time there may be longer lasting vaccines available, as my understanding is several drug companies are working on them. Certainly if I was, say, 70+ right now I'd be getting a booster every 6 months as I'd feel I was at high risk.

Edited January 14, 2022 by mark clemson

[Lotsgoingon]

I get the flu shot every year. This year I got the flu shot along with my booster at the same session.

I have no limit. I'm terrified of long covid. Frankly, if there were no such thing as long covid, just temporary covid and death, I'd possibly be more relaxed. But I have a history of depression ... It's been in long remission now, but the stories of long covid are just devastating ... all the more frightening because long covid isn't correlated with having more severe symptoms. Lots of folks struggling to walk out there---struggling with fatigue and brain fog--had the mildest of mild cases ... And there's conflicting data out there showing that even if you don't have the multiple debilitating symptoms of long covid (too much fatigue to keep a job) ... lots of people with milder case still have a symptom or so ... months after recovering ....

What I'm hoping for--and there are multiple centers working on this--is a pan-Covid vaccine ... one that goes deep enough to cover basically all strains of the virus ... And of course, the Pfizer treatment pills sound like wonderful news ... I expect we'll have much better treatment in a year ...treatment that can overwhelmingly block hospitalization and severe symptoms and death ...

But yep, I don't blink at the annual flu shot. I don't blink when I do something dumb like accidentally cut myself and end up in the hospital and get offered a tetanus shot. I had boosters for measles and mumps and rubella about a decade ago ... And I'll probably soon get a Shingles vaccine ... 

My calculation: if a  vaccine turns out to be disastrous, I can easily forgive myself, just as I'd forgive myself if I got a bad effect from Tylenol (which actually happens). If I skip a very accessible, well-researched vaccine and then get a serious case of covid, I would be much harder on myself. 

 

 

[Dis]

I was willing to give the first two vax a chance and would've had to anyway unless I wanted to lose my job (I'm a nurse). But after getting vaccinated and how sick I got from the second dose and thennnn seeing patient, after patient, after patient who were fully vaxxed and still getting COVID, I'm no longer a believer of the first two vaccines or the boosters.

 

I'm not at all an anti vaxxer by any means but how can the booster and the first two vaccines be mandated when they don't even prevent the contraction of the virus? I know they claim to lessen the symptoms but how can that claim really be made when the severity of symptoms varies from person to person, vaxed or unvaxed. 

 

I'm now told by my current employer that the booster is now mandatory. So unless I want to lose my job, I have to get it. And some how THAT is giving someone a choice? I also have had countless patients role in to my unit very sick from non-COVID related issues after getting the booster. So, I'm not thrilled about getting it and if I actually had a choice (which I don't) I wouldn't get another one, ever again. 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Dis

[amerikajin]

10 hours ago, Dis said:

I'm not at all an anti vaxxer by any means but how can the booster and the first two vaccines be mandated when they don't even prevent the contraction of the virus?

Because they lessen the severity of the virus. Omicron is infecting a lot of people, including the vaccinated and boosted, but their symptoms are milder. 

Quote

I know they claim to lessen the symptoms but how can that claim really be made when the severity of symptoms varies from person to person, vaxed or unvaxed. 

Immunity varies from person to person, which means that disease severity will also vary from person to person. Universally, the vaccinations have done a great job of reducing the severity of symptoms for almost all kinds of patients with varying levels of immunity. Obviously, there are going to be exceptions, but vaccinating plus boosting is a good idea for most people.

There are other things people can do to take care of themselves, too, like wearing a mask, eating a good diet, getting good sleep, exercising well, taking vitamins, and so forth. Vaccines are our main body armor, but other things can help add layers of protection.

[serial muse]

Aren't we all well aware at this point that vaccines modulate the severity of the symptoms, by kicking your body's defenses into high gear early on before the virus has a chance to runaway replicate in your body? I mean, this is a thing that's been so often repeated! But I guess it needs to keep being repeated?

Also...the reason people get flu shots each year is because there are different strains of flu virus circulating around the world all the time, and the new shots are designed to help your body better learn to defend itself against whatever particular strain(s) is/are known to be circulating in a given year. It could very well be that covid vaccination ends up following this model, because vax numbers remain too low in society and COVID-19 continues to circulate widely enough that it also continues to mutate and evolve new weapons that require new defenses. Which is one big reason why people are being urged to get vaxxed in the first place. 

Anyway, if that happens, I will for sure get each booster/vax. Because I don't see any reason not to, frankly, and there are millions of good reasons to do it. About five and a half million globally so far, I think. 

The reason the vaccines are less effective against omicron is because it has a few extra weapons compared with other strains that make it far more contagious. That happened because COVID has basically continued to circulate largely unchecked around the world --> new mutations are going to appear. More vaccination globally would help reduce that spread, but I know I'm just howling into the wind on that one at this point. Anyway, omicron spreading to vaxxed people doesn't mean the vaccines are not working. People catch flu even with the flu shot; they just don't end up in the hospital so much. This is something we've known for a while! This is not news!

And death data on counties that were overwhelmingly vaccinated vs those that aren't is very, very, very clear, including with omicron. And vaccines/boosters also help protect against long COVID. 

Edited January 14, 2022 by serial muse

[Els]

It will probably end up like the flu shot eventually, requiring annual shots. I'll take it for as long as the primary variant is more lethal than the flu.

The only issue I have with more boosters is that it's better for the entire world to be vaccinated, than for half of it to have frequent boosters and the other half no vaccines at all, so we really should be putting our resources towards the former. Unfortunately me not getting the boosters isn't going to incentivize richer countries to donate their shots to the poorer countries, and unfortunately the poorer countries have such large populations that I'm not sure how it's gonna work... so yeah, I'm getting the boosters.

[Els]

14 hours ago, Dis said:

I know they claim to lessen the symptoms but how can that claim really be made when the severity of symptoms varies from person to person, vaxed or unvaxed.

It's called statistical analysis. You know... mean, standard deviation, p-value, confidence intervals....?

[serial muse]

14 minutes ago, Elswyth said:

It will probably end up like the flu shot eventually, requiring annual shots. I'll take it for as long as the primary variant is more lethal than the flu.

The only issue I have with more boosters is that it's better for the entire world to be vaccinated, than for half of it to have frequent boosters and the other half no vaccines at all, so we really should be putting our resources towards the former. Unfortunately me not getting the boosters isn't going to incentivize richer countries to donate their shots to the poorer countries, and unfortunately the poorer countries have such large populations that I'm not sure how it's gonna work... so yeah, I'm getting the boosters.

Totally agree. We can rail about people who haven't gotten vaccines in our own rich nations, but the fact is, much of the world just doesn't even have that kind of vaccine access, and this is definitely a global battle with multiple fronts...sigh.

[Mrin]

As someone who had covid at the very very start of the pandemic, I have zero interest in ever experiencing the full effects of it again. So as long as the boosters keep minimizing the effects of it, I will keep taking them. Like others, I think it will be like the flu shot eventually. 

Edit: I am double tapped Pfizer with a Moderna booster. I was hit back to back to back with three people under the same roof testing positive in November and December. I never tested positive and never had any symptoms during this stretch. So count me as happy with the results. 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Mrin

[central]

I'll get as many as are needed.  I've gotten flu shots every year for decades, and I expect covid could become like that if variants keep arising or immunity wanes within a year.

[ASG]

On 1/14/2022 at 7:49 PM, Elswyth said:

It will probably end up like the flu shot eventually, requiring annual shots. I'll take it for as long as the primary variant is more lethal than the flu.

The only issue I have with more boosters is that it's better for the entire world to be vaccinated, than for half of it to have frequent boosters and the other half no vaccines at all, so we really should be putting our resources towards the former. Unfortunately me not getting the boosters isn't going to incentivize richer countries to donate their shots to the poorer countries, and unfortunately the poorer countries have such large populations that I'm not sure how it's gonna work... so yeah, I'm getting the boosters.

This is also my only concern. 

I'd rather not get boosters and those vaccines going to the countries that don't have them. 

But I'll take it. And I'll continue taking them. 

But worldwide vaccination is what I think we should be striving for, and quickly. 

[Dis]

37 minutes ago, Dis said:

 

TAKE NOTE!

 

At my hospital the ICU is currently at capacity with critical COVID patients whom might I add are vaccinated with the exception of just a few 

 

So this means my floor is admitting the overflow as the ICU doesn't have any more beds. I have patients on ventilators, I'm suctioning patients, patients with DVTs and PEs caused by the virus, patients with temps of >104. Patients with pneumonia secondary to COVID. Patients with acute respiratory failure due to to COVID. All of which are on high flow O2. 

 

But tell me again how the vaccine supposedly lessens the severity symptoms? 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Dis

[basil67]

1 hour ago, Dis said:

But tell me again how the vaccine supposedly lessens the severity symptoms? 

I for one, am sitting here typing in isolation, double vaxxed, COVID positive for four days and barely symptomatic.  I feel perfectly fine.  My son next to me is also positive with undetectable symptoms. We wouldn't have known he has it except he had to be tested as a close contact.   My daughter was pretty sick for 8 days (I think I got it from her) but no worse than a regular flu 

It's a mighty job you frontline workers are doing and all support for you in doing it.   But while there are people with some very bad reactions who end up in hospital, there are so many of us who get it, have a quick illness, recover and get on with our lives.   Here in Australia, most of our restrictions have dropped and so COVID is going nuts.  We're third in the world for high case numbers, but the amount of people who are in hospital is negligible.   

From our state government website   

342,838 Active cases

2,650 Admitted to hospital

191 In intensive care

61 Requiring ventilation

This is about 0.05% of covid cases requiring intensive care.   How can one argue that our vaccinations aren't making a highly significant difference?

Edited January 16, 2022 by basil67

[6ix]

Thread closed due to excessive off-topic posting.