Do any of the Covid vaccines work - I mean really work ? ...

[dogtag]

What I can gather from the garbled news reports - no one knows.
One of them is lethal to certain people, others might only work for
the current strain but maybe not for the new strain - and there are a
growing number of those. It's very confusing.
The Oxford version sounds promising, but on the other hand every
time a vaccine from any of the countries that have one, shows promise,
the Virus mutates. I'm beginning to think the damn thing is smart.
Could it have been programmed to change if it feels threatened ?
If it was designed as a biological weapon, it's doing it's job well.
Hopefully, like in the Andromeda Strain it will finally mutate into a
benign state and we can breath again, but in the meantime It's
having a ball at our expense.

[togor]

Short answer....yes they work.

Infectious disease transmission well described by the mathematics of probability. The vaccines reduce your chances of getting the disease by 50% or more, and of acquiring a severe case by 80% or more. Some folks get an allergic reaction to the vaccine but nothing that some prednisone can't handle.

An old salt such as yourself, if not prone to allergies, bad reactions, will reduce his odds of succumbing to a brush with a real case of Covid-19 by a factor of 5 by getting the vaccine. If they offer it to you....take it.

[dogtag]

Thanks Dr Togor, but I think I'll wait.
When there are many vaccines, eventually one of them has to be best. I'll wait for that one.
I'll probably succumb to age before that happens.

[sid]

All of the vaccines have a protein number which is also contained in the virus. Although the virus may mutate but the protein number remains the same and so the vaccine is still effective. As the virus continues to mutate it eventually renders itself harmless. This is what has happened to all of these dangerous viruses in the past.

The biggest problem we have now are all these illegals coming into our country carrying this virus and plenty other diseases which we have eliminated long ago.

[dogtag]

Those illegals you mention might now be better described as New Democrats, or some such.
Suggestions welcome as it's now illegal to call then illegal.

[Mike in NC]

Sid, not sure I follow you about the vaccines having a certain "protein number" or the virus having the same "protein number". The current COVID-19 vaccines are made to stimulate your immune system to produce antibodies to the spike proteins on the surface of the COVID-19. It is the spike proteins on the surface of the COVID-19 virus that allow it to so efficiently bind to human cells. Some of the observed variants of the COVID-19 do have minor changes in the amino acid sequence of the spike proteins, but the current vaccines still are as effective or fairly effective at producing immunity to these COVID-19 variants. We could see changes in the COVID-19 variants that would necessitate the alteration in the vaccines being used.

Some viruses do mutate / change to become less lethal, but often those changes are associated with changes that allow them to be spread more readily. Sometimes they change to become more transmittable without affecting the lethality or seriousness of the disease. Plenty of viral diseases are just as lethal as when we first encountered them. Rabies is still almost always lethal if not treated early with the current vaccine therapy. We have perhaps eliminated smallpox, only because we developed a very effective vaccine and smallpox has no animal host. I say perhaps with the case of smallpox because at least the US and Russia have stored samples of the smallpox virus and it is possible that some rouge nations like North Korea, Iran, or others may have stashed away samples to be used in future biological warfare. Some viral diseases seem to "burn themselves out" as has been seen with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) which also came out of China and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), both of which are Corona viruses.

The ability of a virus to multiply so quickly and mutate / change quickly makes them a very formidable enemy. Someday we may face a viral disease that is as transmittable as the measles virus and as lethal as Ebola. That would make COVID-19 look like a three day summer cold.

I believe the current COVID-19 virus was either purposely created in a lab in Wuhan, China or selected for in that lab during "gain of function" experiments. I don't know if it was purposely released or accidentally released. I have heard it suggested that the Chi-Coms are working on ethno specific viruses, ones that would only infect non-Chinese individuals or affect them more severely. They could alternatively create a new viral disease, immunize their population with a vaccine first, and then release this new virus. All kinds of possibilities in biological warfare, especially with the current capabilities in molecular biology and genetic engineering. It is hard to know with certainty which nations may have current biological warfare programs.

In case you are wondering, I am a Ph.D microbiologist. For a while I managed a biological research program in Wuhan, China. The Chinese individuals I worked with were warm and sharing people. They had and still have a very corrupt and evil government. They are told what to do by their government and they know if they step too far out of line, they can disappear in a heartbeat.

Sid, I do agree with you about diseases coming across our southern border. Diseases that we either never had or had mostly eliminated are coming in. Things like multiple drug resistant TB, Chagas disease, chicken pox, and many more. We used to do rudimentary health screens at Ellis Island for immigrants. Nothing like that happens at our porous Southern border.

All of the vaccines have a protein number which is also contained in the virus. Although the virus may mutate but the protein number remains the same and so the vaccine is still effective. As the virus continues to mutate it eventually renders itself harmless. This is what has happened to all of these dangerous viruses in the past.

The biggest problem we have now are all these illegals coming into our country carrying this virus and plenty other diseases which we have eliminated long ago.

[Roadkingtrax]

All of the vaccines have a protein number which is also contained in the virus. Although the virus may mutate but the protein number remains the same and so the vaccine is still effective. As the virus continues to mutate it eventually renders itself harmless. This is what has happened to all of these dangerous viruses in the past.

The biggest problem we have now are all these illegals coming into our country carrying this virus and plenty other diseases which we have eliminated long ago.

Anti-Vaxers are the biggest problem.

[Art]

Anti-Vaxers are the biggest problem.

boy you've got that right, their are a lot of them and they've almost become a cult and no amount of reasoning works with them.

On the effectiveness of vaccine. A vaccine does two things; prevents you from getting the disease and lessens the severity of the disease if you do get it. I understand that up to now no one who has been vaccinated for covid 19 has died of the Covid. I know we're early in the game but so far, so good. My wife gets her second shot on Friday .

Mike in N.C.:

a couple of Chinese reporters who looked like they were about to blow the whistle on the Wuhan lab have "disappeared." Hopefully they're still alive and just being "re-educated." Last weekend my wife and I were making a tour of west and southwest Houston to drop off some things and buy others. While driving through the massive Asia Town on the southwest side of Houston on our way to the Hong Kong Mall to buy some odds and ends we passed a banner about 20 yards long held by a bunch of Chinese calling on the CHICOMs (in English and Chinese) to come clean about their concentration camps, forced organ transplants and the corona virus, and on the U.S. to openly condemn and pressure them. I almost choked up thinking what a truly great country this is.

[Roadkingtrax]

Art, my wife received her 2nd Pfizer dose a week ago. Just a mild fever, but the next day lays you out a bit. I won't be eligible for a few more months.

[Art]

Art, my wife received her 2nd Pfizer dose a week ago. Just a mild fever, but the next day lays you out bit.......

Everyone I know who has had their second shot had an experience similar to your wife's. I had a Zostavax (sp?) shot last year and I was quite sick for two days after, I'll take that over shingles though.

[Vern Humphrey]

Everyone I know who has had their second shot had an experience similar to your wife's. I had a Zostavax (sp?) shot last year and I was quite sick for two days after, I'll take that over shingles though.

My daughter just got her second shot yesterday, and this morning she's sick.

[sid]

I just read in the Jerusalem Post that there are now 4000 variants of the Covid 19 virus. The Israelis have been very hard hit by this virus and nobody knows why. The other country that has been very hard hit is Brazil.