If Omicron is confirmed to be a mild variant, would we / should we consider trying to expose everyone to this strain of the virus, not unlike chickenpox of my youth?
YesFireman said:
If Omicron is confirmed to be a mild variant, would we / should we consider trying to expose everyone to this strain of the virus, not unlike chickenpox of my youth?
Don't you worry - been living my life back to normal as much as absolutely possible since May 2020. Like many, tired of this ****, and if a weak strain can help everyone reach natural immunity, end Forum 84, and help others get back to life as normal, count me in and LFG.West Point Aggie said:
Or continue to live as you were before hearing the rarely mentioned Greek letter!
Fido04 said:
They use a vaccine for chicken pox now. That would be preferred to the actual virus exposure.
If they worked, sureFido04 said:
They use a vaccine for chicken pox now. That would be preferred to the actual virus exposure.
Fireman said:Don't you worry - been living my life back to normal as much as absolutely possible since May 2020. Like many, tired of this ****, and if a weak strain can help everyone reach natural immunity, end Forum 84, and help others get back to life as normal, count me in and LFG.West Point Aggie said:
Or continue to live as you were before hearing the rarely mentioned Greek letter!
Not really as it took decades to prove it decreased shingles rate. It is mostly due to several pediatric deaths from rapidly progressive group A strep secondary infection through the pox lesions. And the vaccine is really safe and pretty effective (~80%).Arrakis ecologist said:Fido04 said:
They use a vaccine for chicken pox now. That would be preferred to the actual virus exposure.
Pretty sure this is because of shingles
There were also economic reasons. Parents missing work for days until kids could go back to school.KidDoc said:Not really as it took decades to prove it decreased shingles rate. It is mostly due to several pediatric deaths from rapidly progressive group A strep secondary infection through the pox lesions. And the vaccine is really safe and pretty effective (~80%).Arrakis ecologist said:Fido04 said:
They use a vaccine for chicken pox now. That would be preferred to the actual virus exposure.
Pretty sure this is because of shingles
It will because, despite the false advertising last year, the vaccines don't stop spread or result in herd immunity. Everyone is going to get covid eventually. Just hope it's a mild variant.YouBet said:
Omicron is also much less severe than the chicken pox from what we know right now so we can probably end the chicken pox comparison.
If Omicron turns out to be as mild as it is currently showing then we should absolutely let it burn through the population so we can all move on. Hopefully, it does anyway.
I'm not a doc and don't know for sure, but some docs I do follow have said that one disadvantage of purposefully contracting Omicron is that we still do not know what the long term impacts of Covid may be.Fireman said:
Any docs want to weigh in on the OP?
Looks like the health minister in Germany believes Omicron is a "dirty vaccination" which makes no since to me. Why would a vaccine be better than contracting Omicron and then having natural immunity from our immune system?
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-needs-jabs-not-omicrons-dirty-vaccination-health-minister/a-60366926
Vaccine immunity definitely doesn't exist. A large percentage of the vaccinated people I know have caught the virus in the last month while I've seen very few people get it for a second time.Jabin said:I'm not a doc and don't know for sure, but some docs I do follow have said that one disadvantage of purposefully contracting Omicron is that we still do not know what the long term impacts of Covid may be.Fireman said:
Any docs want to weigh in on the OP?
Looks like the health minister in Germany believes Omicron is a "dirty vaccination" which makes no since to me. Why would a vaccine be better than contracting Omicron and then having natural immunity from our immune system?
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-needs-jabs-not-omicrons-dirty-vaccination-health-minister/a-60366926
The same may also be true of the vaccines, although many much more knowledgeable than me say that long term impacts are unlikely given how briefly the vaccine remains in one's body. But who knows for sure?
Finally, "natural immunity" may not exist. For example, Omicron seems to be ignoring natural immunity acquired from infection by the Alpha and Delta variants.
Dad said:Vaccine immunity definitely doesn't exist. A large percentage of the vaccinated people I know have caught the virus in the last month while I've seen very few people get it for a second time.Jabin said:I'm not a doc and don't know for sure, but some docs I do follow have said that one disadvantage of purposefully contracting Omicron is that we still do not know what the long term impacts of Covid may be.Fireman said:
Any docs want to weigh in on the OP?
Looks like the health minister in Germany believes Omicron is a "dirty vaccination" which makes no since to me. Why would a vaccine be better than contracting Omicron and then having natural immunity from our immune system?
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-needs-jabs-not-omicrons-dirty-vaccination-health-minister/a-60366926
The same may also be true of the vaccines, although many much more knowledgeable than me say that long term impacts are unlikely given how briefly the vaccine remains in one's body. But who knows for sure?
Finally, "natural immunity" may not exist. For example, Omicron seems to be ignoring natural immunity acquired from infection by the Alpha and Delta variants.
I'm not sure that's correct. Wouldn't it be more correct to say that the vaccines are not as effective against Omicron, but their efficacy isn't zero? And, even if one does get infected after vaccination, the vax's seem to reduce the severity of the infection, thus hopefully also reducing any possible long term complications from Omicron.Quote:
Vaccine immunity definitely doesn't exist. A large percentage of the vaccinated people I know have caught the virus in the last month while I've seen very few people get it for a second time.
Who's deciding for them?FlyRod said:
Seems maybe we should respect the freedom/personal liberty of people to decide whether they want to catch a disease we are still learning about (and it's long term effects) rather than decide for them.
Is that so the vaccinated (chicken pox) can get shingles later in life?Fido04 said:
They use a vaccine for chicken pox now. That would be preferred to the actual virus exposure.
Jabin said:I'm not sure that's correct. Wouldn't it be more correct to say that the vaccines are not as effective against Omicron, but their efficacy isn't zero? And, even if one does get infected after vaccination, the vax's seem to reduce the severity of the infection, thus hopefully also reducing any possible long term complications from Omicron.Quote:
Vaccine immunity definitely doesn't exist. A large percentage of the vaccinated people I know have caught the virus in the last month while I've seen very few people get it for a second time.
From the data I've been seeing there is growing evidence of increasing people being reinfected by Omicron. Shoot, there are multiple testimonies to that on TexAgs.
And my post wasn't about vaccine effectiveness. It was in response to the query about the wisdom of intentionally getting infected by Omicron and Omicron being a "dirty" vaccination.
I hope you're right but that's about the 3rd or 4th time people have been pronouncing that "Its over" during the course of this virus.DadHammer said:
Omicron is showing a strong immunity to Delta and then probably others.
I think it's going to end Covid. Covid is just another cold going forward. Its Over.
Jabin said:Who's deciding for them?FlyRod said:
Seems maybe we should respect the freedom/personal liberty of people to decide whether they want to catch a disease we are still learning about (and it's long term effects) rather than decide for them.
We're just having a discussion here about whether it's smart or dumb to run out and try to catch Omicron.
Quote:
would we / should we consider trying to expose everyone to this strain of the virus,
Fireman said:Don't you worry - been living my life back to normal as much as absolutely possible since May 2020. Like many, tired of this ****, and if a weak strain can help everyone reach natural immunity, end Forum 84, and help others get back to life as normal, count me in and LFG.West Point Aggie said:
Or continue to live as you were before hearing the rarely mentioned Greek letter!