Current vaccine targets EG.5. I don’t know how close JN.1 is though.
It seems like COVID protection is a gray sliding scale. EG.5 is better than BA.5 vaccine is better than original vaccine is better than nothing. But with enough mutations even EG.5 vaccine isn’t enough to prevent mild illness / staying home from work for a few days or causing you to spread COVID-19 JN.1 to your friends.
But the vaccines seem really good at preventing severe illness that sends people to the hospital or graveyards.
We need to stay educated on the vaccine and it’s efficacy to changing variants.
Isn’t this what epidemiologists predicted? That it would mutate into a less deadly form but become endemic? It would still require regular boosters, just like the annual flu vaccine.
Note that Smallpox and Polio didn’t mutate like COVID19.
There was much debate on whether or not the so called “Spike Protein” of the COVID19 virus would mutate rapidly enough to keep up with vaccines. If COVID19 mutated slower (like smallpox), then it would have been erradicated. Some supercomputer even went in and calculated all the ways COVID19 could change and decided that the spike-protein was the least-likely to change. So this is our best shot at stopping the virus.
Alas, here we are on… erm… JN.1? After EG.5, after BA.5, after Omicron, after Delta, after Alpha, after the original COVID19. The speed of this thing’s mutation is too quick (even on the so called “Spike Protein” that was supposed to be a difficult to mutate sequence). Which was not the happy future we wanted. Still though, we can make new vaccines as fast as COVID19 mutates. So this isn’t too bad in the great scheme of things. Just keep your shots up to date and we’ll be good moving forward.
As I said earlier: I really, really was hoping for eradication.
Moving forward: this means that as different variants pop up, it will be the job of public health officials to:
Sequence the new mutations.
Predict the dominant mutations.
Order a vaccine against the (future-predicted) mutations.
Tell everyone when the new vaccine is ready and when its been a big enough change that we all need to update the vaccine in our system.
And moving forward, step 2 or step3 are perilous. A bad prediction will cause people to lose trust (and real-life situations, like government shutdowns during said studies, like back in 2014, could cause worse predictions. IE: government mismanagement causes loss of trust, causing more mismanagement causing more loss of trust). I think its more important to realize how many little elves need to do their job in this big chain of predictions for any of this to work out, and to respect the hard work put in.
Even when the work will inevitably fail / mess up one year or two.
A lot of people are in practice stuck at step4 (too distrustful of our public health officials that they refuse to take the updated vaccines). But as a reminder, it can absolutely get worse, and will get worse when they finally make a mistake. Its hard work trying to predict the future, and I’m honestly surprised a mistake hasn’t happened yet. (BA.5 was a perilous vaccine, there was a lot of debate over the prediction. It turned out to be correct, but we aren’t going to be so lucky moving forward).
I’m no epidemiologist but I was hoping for eradication of the virus personally. But regular vaccines with my yearly flu shot isn’t bad at all, a 2nd shot in the other arm and I’m on my way each year.
Note that the yearly flu-vaccine is really against 3x different strains of the flu. Moving forward, we can likely have 2x flu vaccines + 1x COVID19 shot all in one, so you only get one shot and get all the protection you need each year. I don’t know what the progress is on the combined flu/covid shot, but its at least theoretically possible.
But the status quo (just get 2x different shots) really isn’t a big deal.
As someone who got the flu and covid vaccine at the same time, I definitely don’t recommend it
anecdotal, and its worth pointing out that if you had covid or the flu within 3 month previous to getting shots, the shots can cause a slight reaction making you ‘feel sick’, this is likely what most people who say “the flu shot made me sick” are experiencing.
Nothing happened to me, at all. I went to work just 1 hour afterwards (took a long lunch break just in case something happened) but it was a waste. Felt perfectly fine.
I mean, it provides more protection, not immunity. I got boosted in October but I was pregnant and thus immunocompromised. I got it in November but none of the rest of the family did… We hadn’t been leaving the house for anything but groceries and even that was enough. My daughter was born at the tail end of symptoms so here’s hoping she got a good dose of antibodies to protect her until she’s old enough to be vaccinated herself.
Man, I hate that I need to mask up again. I was diligent about it during early COVID. Still to some degree once vaccines were rolling out. I’ve gotten bad about it lately though.
In my defense I always run hot and I’m an excessive head sweater. Simply masking during a grocery run turns half my face into a sauna and gets me drippy. Masking during a concert or something is so miserable.
Had it back in October but reckon I should get boosted up again and get back to being diligent. Our state is on the uptick in cases lately. :C
Oh yeah, my card has been filling up with each new booster dropping. In it for the long haul so fully expect this to be standard procedure for foreseeable future.
Sorry to hear about your extra challenges, truly. I absolutely count myself lucky being someone who had a bad time with COVID recovery vs a fight for my life. I’m also a cancer survivor with elderly parents, plenty of friends in similar immunocompromised boats. Would be an absolute tragedy should any of us succumb to this virus.
If I came off as whiney, not the intention. More frustrated with the fact that life as we know it continues to change, with no end to this slow burn pandemic in sight. Have friends in healthcare with no shortage of horror stories. It’s exhausting.
Just airing frustrations, but obviously there’s always someone going through worse.
I’m suggesting that if you’re going to wear a mask, you might as well wear a face shield as well. A lot of people accidentally spit while talking. A mask doesn’t prevent getting infected from spit/micro droplets that land in your eyes. There was a 30% reduction in infection rates from people who wear eyeglasses and those don’t even protect from the sides. Half measures aren’t enough.
Same here. I got the flu and covid vaccine the week before Thanksgiving and got sick with COVID. The week before Christmas. I was out of commission for 2 weeks and I still have a little bit of a cough. The vaccine is not enough.
If only there was a safe, effective, available, current and free vaccine. If only…
Current vaccine targets EG.5. I don’t know how close JN.1 is though.
It seems like COVID protection is a gray sliding scale. EG.5 is better than BA.5 vaccine is better than original vaccine is better than nothing. But with enough mutations even EG.5 vaccine isn’t enough to prevent mild illness / staying home from work for a few days or causing you to spread COVID-19 JN.1 to your friends.
But the vaccines seem really good at preventing severe illness that sends people to the hospital or graveyards.
We need to stay educated on the vaccine and it’s efficacy to changing variants.
Isn’t this what epidemiologists predicted? That it would mutate into a less deadly form but become endemic? It would still require regular boosters, just like the annual flu vaccine.
Becoming endemic doesn’t necessarily mean “no big deal”. Smallpox was endemic. Polio was endemic. Malaria is endemic.
Note the key word ‘was’. Reason is vaccines. The malaria vaccine is only recently available
Note that Smallpox and Polio didn’t mutate like COVID19.
There was much debate on whether or not the so called “Spike Protein” of the COVID19 virus would mutate rapidly enough to keep up with vaccines. If COVID19 mutated slower (like smallpox), then it would have been erradicated. Some supercomputer even went in and calculated all the ways COVID19 could change and decided that the spike-protein was the least-likely to change. So this is our best shot at stopping the virus.
Alas, here we are on… erm… JN.1? After EG.5, after BA.5, after Omicron, after Delta, after Alpha, after the original COVID19. The speed of this thing’s mutation is too quick (even on the so called “Spike Protein” that was supposed to be a difficult to mutate sequence). Which was not the happy future we wanted. Still though, we can make new vaccines as fast as COVID19 mutates. So this isn’t too bad in the great scheme of things. Just keep your shots up to date and we’ll be good moving forward.
As I said earlier: I really, really was hoping for eradication.
Moving forward: this means that as different variants pop up, it will be the job of public health officials to:
And moving forward, step 2 or step3 are perilous. A bad prediction will cause people to lose trust (and real-life situations, like government shutdowns during said studies, like back in 2014, could cause worse predictions. IE: government mismanagement causes loss of trust, causing more mismanagement causing more loss of trust). I think its more important to realize how many little elves need to do their job in this big chain of predictions for any of this to work out, and to respect the hard work put in.
Even when the work will inevitably fail / mess up one year or two.
A lot of people are in practice stuck at step4 (too distrustful of our public health officials that they refuse to take the updated vaccines). But as a reminder, it can absolutely get worse, and will get worse when they finally make a mistake. Its hard work trying to predict the future, and I’m honestly surprised a mistake hasn’t happened yet. (BA.5 was a perilous vaccine, there was a lot of debate over the prediction. It turned out to be correct, but we aren’t going to be so lucky moving forward).
It was one debated endgame, yes.
I’m no epidemiologist but I was hoping for eradication of the virus personally. But regular vaccines with my yearly flu shot isn’t bad at all, a 2nd shot in the other arm and I’m on my way each year.
Note that the yearly flu-vaccine is really against 3x different strains of the flu. Moving forward, we can likely have 2x flu vaccines + 1x COVID19 shot all in one, so you only get one shot and get all the protection you need each year. I don’t know what the progress is on the combined flu/covid shot, but its at least theoretically possible.
But the status quo (just get 2x different shots) really isn’t a big deal.
If you want a minor update for your infobank, flu vaccines have been quadrivalent for a few years now.
As someone who got the flu and covid vaccine at the same time, I definitely don’t recommend it. It was worse than my actual covid infection.
anecdotal, and its worth pointing out that if you had covid or the flu within 3 month previous to getting shots, the shots can cause a slight reaction making you ‘feel sick’, this is likely what most people who say “the flu shot made me sick” are experiencing.
No kidding it’s anecdotal; I literally shared an anecdote.
I know what an immune response from a vaccine feels like. Doing both at once can definitely cause a stronger immune response than from one alone.
As someone who had a strong immune response from the covid vaccine alone, getting both at once was significantly worse.
For me it felt like I got hit by a truck on my way to the hospital for a severe flu the entire day after I got the vaccines.
I got both at the same time last October.
Nothing happened to me, at all. I went to work just 1 hour afterwards (took a long lunch break just in case something happened) but it was a waste. Felt perfectly fine.
I doubt that will happen. Too many are fine with the flu vaccine but against the covid vaccine
That’s how most diseases trend. Killing your host isn’t super conducive to survival.
I mean, other corona viruses are part of the “common cold” collective.
Evidence is accumulating that the vaccines may reduce likelihood of “long covid” symptoms as well.
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-076990
I got boosted in October. Been very good about getting all my shots.
Still got covid from my office in late December, and it knocked me down for two full weeks.
The vaccine is not enough, we need to be masking again.
I mean, it provides more protection, not immunity. I got boosted in October but I was pregnant and thus immunocompromised. I got it in November but none of the rest of the family did… We hadn’t been leaving the house for anything but groceries and even that was enough. My daughter was born at the tail end of symptoms so here’s hoping she got a good dose of antibodies to protect her until she’s old enough to be vaccinated herself.
Man, I hate that I need to mask up again. I was diligent about it during early COVID. Still to some degree once vaccines were rolling out. I’ve gotten bad about it lately though.
In my defense I always run hot and I’m an excessive head sweater. Simply masking during a grocery run turns half my face into a sauna and gets me drippy. Masking during a concert or something is so miserable.
Had it back in October but reckon I should get boosted up again and get back to being diligent. Our state is on the uptick in cases lately. :C
Here’s a simple way to check whether you need a booster:
Given its track record and its benefits, that’s the only question left.
Oh yeah, my card has been filling up with each new booster dropping. In it for the long haul so fully expect this to be standard procedure for foreseeable future.
I have the same issues as you with masks but I am immunocompromised so I don’t really get a choice.
It’s get vaccinated and mask up or fucking die.
Maybe y’all should be happy that masking is just uncomfortable for you and not uncomfortable and a life or death choice.
Fucking whiners. It’s not that hard.
Sorry to hear about your extra challenges, truly. I absolutely count myself lucky being someone who had a bad time with COVID recovery vs a fight for my life. I’m also a cancer survivor with elderly parents, plenty of friends in similar immunocompromised boats. Would be an absolute tragedy should any of us succumb to this virus.
If I came off as whiney, not the intention. More frustrated with the fact that life as we know it continues to change, with no end to this slow burn pandemic in sight. Have friends in healthcare with no shortage of horror stories. It’s exhausting.
Just airing frustrations, but obviously there’s always someone going through worse.
Reminder, masks you keep you from infecting other people. You need a face shield to keep from getting infected.
Yes masks do help prevent a covid carrier from infecting others.
Are you suggesting that wearing a mask doesn’t help protect you from being infected by others? Why’s that?
I’m suggesting that if you’re going to wear a mask, you might as well wear a face shield as well. A lot of people accidentally spit while talking. A mask doesn’t prevent getting infected from spit/micro droplets that land in your eyes. There was a 30% reduction in infection rates from people who wear eyeglasses and those don’t even protect from the sides. Half measures aren’t enough.
Same here. I got the flu and covid vaccine the week before Thanksgiving and got sick with COVID. The week before Christmas. I was out of commission for 2 weeks and I still have a little bit of a cough. The vaccine is not enough.
Got the booster in October. Working in a hospital requires it.
My family is fully boosted and my wife and I are currently in the middle of covid. Fortunately not terribly serious though.
WITCH BURN THEM
Okay because I guess that it is needed /S