@siderea on Covid vaccination and immunity

[redbird]

siderea just posted a discussion of vaccination and the transmission of COVID-19: it looks as though, not only are vaccinated people unlikely to catch Covid, but if they do, it's likely to be just a head cold, and not get into the lungs and vascular system.

Also, from that same article, even after one dose of the two-dose vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, people are less likely to transmit the disease.

I tend to trust siderea on this, but she notes that the sources are less than clear here.

If her discussion is correct, unvaccinated people still need to mask to protect themselves and other unvaccinated people, but vaccinated people mostly don't, because we're not likely to be infected, and what we'd be risking from that relatively unlikely infection a bad cold, which wouldn't be pleasant but is a risk most people already take for granted. Exceptions to that guideline include anyone who will be spending time around people who can't be vaccinated yet, either because of supply issues or because they're too young.

[I started writing this as a reply to comments on my previous post, then decided it should be its own entry.]

Comments

[thistleingrey]

For consideration: those of us who caught covid very early on--let's say before the first week of March, 2020--had only a mild to bad cold in terms of active infection. Still a fair number of long haulers out of that group.

There is zero info so far AFAIK on whether vaccinated folks can experience long covid subsequent to vaccination. (Bob Wachter, UCSF's Med dept chair, tweeted about a week ago that he doesn't know, and I haven't seen anything otherwise, so far.) It's clear that for more than half of the US/UK long haulers who've been fully vaccinated, the vaccine doesn't make long covid go poof.

Focusing on lungs re: potential respiratory distress ignores blood-clot issues.

p.s. I think people should still totally get vaccinated when a vaccine is available to them. Just--take care.

[green_knight]

I continue to wear a mask in public (both of us are now 2 weeks + past the second dose) because I want to normalise mask wearing, and someone who sees me does not know whether I'm an asshole or a fully vaccinated person. I will take my mask off when alone in the park, and I have downgraded to cloth masks when I go out in very sparsely-populated areas, but I totally want to shame people on the fence into mask wearing.

I'd also like to continue not getting quite so many colds in the future, because my lungs Did Not Like Covid.

[redbird]

I'm going maskless for walks (for the sake of walking) around my quiet neighborhood, and when taking the trash out, and we took our masks off while walking in a park this afternoon. I'm not sure how long I will keep masking in stores. A year from now, probably not. I (My second dose was March 27th.)

[voidampersand]

There is no way the vaccines can be perfect at preventing transmission, but the COVID-19 vaccines we have in the first-world are miraculously good. All of them are more protective than was hoped for.

Last weekend I went on a small hike and I felt unsocial for not wearing a mask, even though technically it was safe. I'm just going to keep wearing a mask while everyone else does. And it will keep some of the pollen out of my nose.

[redbird]

Like you with pollen, I may wear a mask on cold days in coming winters, because the air is noticeably warmer when I'm breathing through a mask, and sometimes that's an advantage. (Maybe I should try a balaclava next winter, if I can find one that fits.)

[otter]

I'm personally as concerned now with all the other germs that haven't been spreading, such as influenza, due to masking/handwashing. I got my flu shot last year, and do most years. It just seems that there is hyper focus on mask wearing ONLY due to Covid-19, when many places outside the US having been wearing masks for infection control for a long time.