I want to start off with I'm not an anti vaxxer and have the Moderna vaccine. This is not a troll post. I know vaccine threads can be a bit dicey.



I saw Dr. Fauci say a 4th dose might be needed.

Question that I have is at what point, if any, is it too much? What do yall think?

We already have the flu shot that is yearly. Not sure there is a reason Covid wouldn't be similar.

I'm against a 4th dose of the same vaccine. At this point anything additional should be targeting new variants that are high-risk enough to warrant it. Not sure that even an Omicron specific booster would be worth it to many given the high transmission and lower severity relative to Alpha/Delta.

ORAggieFan said:

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We already have the flu shot that is yearly. Not sure there is a reason Covid wouldn't be similar.

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1 shot a year, not 4, and not needed after infection.

A growing number of people have vaccine regret, and if they haven't gotten a booster they surely won't be getting multiple shots per year.

Pfizer CEO was suggesting annual COVID vaccine recently. Pfizer CEO has always been quick to embrace more doses, FWIW.

I seem to recall seeing someone worries that repeated boosters might start causing autoimmune issues, but they seemed to imply an issue with frequency. IIRC correctly, they were suggesting need more than 6 months between doses.

Israel tested a 4th dose and saw better outcomes than with 3 doses for old people (less hospitalization). However, I believe they are also seeing diminishing returns, 2->3 is a bigger improvement than 3->4. I also recall a paper saying that the spike in antibodies from the 4th dose didn't necessarily result in improvement vs getting omicron.

I think we are getting into a law of diminishing returns. You can only be so immune. But, people are going to keep pushing more doses because pharma companies want to sell more doses and people are still pushing the 1 death is too many type mentality.

I know I'm not willing to get a covid shot every three or four months. The messaging through all this has just been so ridiculous. Not that long ago Fauci was completely certain having two doses would be enough to last years.

Agthatbuilds said:

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I want to start off with I'm not an anti vaxxer and have the Moderna vaccine. This is not a troll post. I know vaccine threads can be a bit dicey.



I saw Dr. Fauci say a 4th dose might be needed.

Question that I have is at what point, if any, is it too much? What do yall think?

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Faucci is always going to be the most conservative person when it comes to COVID. Currently no data backs up the idea of getting a random 4th booster. Most experts and data I've seen make the case for an annual shot like the flu shot in the fall. However, that may be more than necessary. The point is, it's easier to deal with the consequences of being too aggressive with vaccines than the other way around. From what I've seen, I'd still plan on taking a booster next fall, but to be honest, better-than-not chance that won't even be necessary. All forms of immunity are struggling to keep up with preventing infection likely due to evolution beyond our antibody response level, but the data doesn't suggest that there's a major "waning of immunity" as it relates to severe disease unless you have co-morbidities.

It's just important to frame the angle Faucci is coming from. He doesn't want us to have hospital surges like we've had each wave until now. In a political position (as all positions of power are) he's going to want to be more aggressive about ensuring that outcome than may be technically necessary. I don't think he's the devil or a saint, just overly conservative. So filter what he says through that lens and don't get pulled into the mud by people that need to a face to love or hate.

[Apparently, you're not getting the message. The political trolling and bashing is not wanted on this forum. - Staff]

I'm vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer and had the easiest case of Covid ever a couple of weeks ago. Seriously I had a few hours of achiness, ran 101 for about an hour, 99-98 for the next day or two, and a bit of a runny/stuffy nose (but not bad enough to bother taking any medicine) for a few days. I had no fatigue, no cough, no loss of taste or smell. Zip. Nada.

Oh, and I'm old and fat with health problems.

I'm thrilled with my vaccine response and will continue to get boosters if it seems like a good idea - annually if necessary. My parents who are in their 80s and live in the house with us never got sick at all, so we're happy with the vaccine.

I don't care what Fauci or anyone else says. I'd gladly take a vaccine for the common cold if it worked as well as this did. I've never been so lightly sick in my life. It was actually weird.

Of course, it's possible that I'm now bullet-proof from Covid with the natural antibodies to go with the vaccine ones, but who knows. Natural immunity hasn't been very helpful to a lot of people I know, sadly.

GeographyAg said:

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I'm vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer and had the easiest case of Covid ever a couple of weeks ago. Seriously I had a few hours of achiness, ran 101 for about an hour, 99-98 for the next day or two, and a bit of a runny/stuffy nose (but not bad enough to bother taking any medicine) for a few days. I had no fatigue, no cough, no loss of taste or smell. Zip. Nada.

Oh, and I'm old and fat with health problems.

I'm thrilled with my vaccine response and will continue to get boosters if it seems like a good idea - annually if necessary. My parents who are in their 80s and live in the house with us never got sick at all, so we're happy with the vaccine.

I don't care what Fauci or anyone else says. I'd gladly take a vaccine for the common cold if it worked as well as this did. I've never been so lightly sick in my life. It was actually weird.

Of course, it's possible that I'm now bullet-proof from Covid with the natural antibodies to go with the vaccine ones, but who knows. Natural immunity hasn't been very helpful to a lot of people I know, sadly.

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Glad you recovered quickly and had no issues. Here is my issue with this line of thinking: there is no way to know if you had an easy case of Covid because of the vaccine and booster, or if you simply had an easy time with it. I know people who had the vaccine and booster and felt pretty awful with Covid. Personally, I am 38, unvaccinated, relatively healthy but could lose a good 10-20 pounds. I got Covid in August, and the cold I had 3 weeks prior to that kicked my butt way more than Covid. I thought I MIGHT have allergies as my head felt flighty/light, and my nose had that burning sensation when you breathe in that you sometimes get with allergies. I never had a fever, I never had a cough or congestion, I never was achy, but I did lose taste and smell. My vaccinated mother had been sitting next to me the night before I tested positive and got it from me. She said it felt like a bad cold but not quite as bad as the flu. But she definitely had it worse than I did with a fever and achiness and congestion, and she was vaccinated. My dad is the definition of high risk and currently has it: 66, quite overweight, history of asthma, had a pulmonary embolism as a result of kidney cancer, and he is unvaccinated and currently has it, most likely Omicron. He has had a headache and a sore throat, but oxygen levels have stayed up, a little chest congestion, but overall said he has felt pretty good. Of all people in my life, he should have been vaccinated (and I told him as much), but he seems to be doing pretty well. So while the vaccine CAN mitigate some of the symptoms and helps people from the potential severity, I get concerned when we attribute mild illness to "well thank goodness I had the vaccine because otherwise it would have been terrible" because there is just no way to definitively know that. Just like there is no way to know if someone DIDN'T have the vaccine and died that they would have lived if they had it. Not trying to be argumentative at all, and really glad you got over it easily with no complications! Just my opinion that I wanted to share.

HouseDivided06 said:

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GeographyAg said:

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I'm vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer and had the easiest case of Covid ever a couple of weeks ago. Seriously I had a few hours of achiness, ran 101 for about an hour, 99-98 for the next day or two, and a bit of a runny/stuffy nose (but not bad enough to bother taking any medicine) for a few days. I had no fatigue, no cough, no loss of taste or smell. Zip. Nada.

Oh, and I'm old and fat with health problems.

I'm thrilled with my vaccine response and will continue to get boosters if it seems like a good idea - annually if necessary. My parents who are in their 80s and live in the house with us never got sick at all, so we're happy with the vaccine.

I don't care what Fauci or anyone else says. I'd gladly take a vaccine for the common cold if it worked as well as this did. I've never been so lightly sick in my life. It was actually weird.

Of course, it's possible that I'm now bullet-proof from Covid with the natural antibodies to go with the vaccine ones, but who knows. Natural immunity hasn't been very helpful to a lot of people I know, sadly.

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Glad you recovered quickly and had no issues. Here is my issue with this line of thinking: there is no way to know if you had an easy case of Covid because of the vaccine and booster, or if you simply had an easy time with it. I know people who had the vaccine and booster and felt pretty awful with Covid. Personally, I am 38, unvaccinated, relatively healthy but could lose a good 10-20 pounds. I got Covid in August, and the cold I had 3 weeks prior to that kicked my butt way more than Covid. I thought I MIGHT have allergies as my head felt flighty/light, and my nose had that burning sensation when you breathe in that you sometimes get with allergies. I never had a fever, I never had a cough or congestion, I never was achy, but I did lose taste and smell. My vaccinated mother had been sitting next to me the night before I tested positive and got it from me. She said it felt like a bad cold but not quite as bad as the flu. But she definitely had it worse than I did with a fever and achiness and congestion, and she was vaccinated. My dad is the definition of high risk and currently has it: 66, quite overweight, history of asthma, had a pulmonary embolism as a result of kidney cancer, and he is unvaccinated and currently has it, most likely Omicron. He has had a headache and a sore throat, but oxygen levels have stayed up, a little chest congestion, but overall said he has felt pretty good. Of all people in my life, he should have been vaccinated (and I told him as much), but he seems to be doing pretty well. So while the vaccine CAN mitigate some of the symptoms and helps people from the potential severity, I get concerned when we attribute mild illness to "well thank goodness I had the vaccine because otherwise it would have been terrible" because there is just no way to definitively know that. Just like there is no way to know if someone DIDN'T have the vaccine and died that they would have lived if they had it. Not trying to be argumentative at all, and really glad you got over it easily with no complications! Just my opinion that I wanted to share.

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You're right. I might have had a mild case even without the vaccine... but studies have proven that the vaccines do work to mitigate symptoms and lower the risk of hospitalization and serious disease. Is that even arguable when you really, honestly, look at the numbers? I don't think so, not from what I've read. Anecdotes aside, the stats prove that the vaccines have worked really well.

I absolutely believe in vaccines. I believe they work generally, and that they make all kinds of diseases very mild. They aren't a forcefield or a bulletproof vest, but yes, the vaccine works if it helps you get a mild case.

I don't care if you don't want to get the vaccine and/or get boosted, but I will admit that it irritates me that anyone would laugh at someone who was happy with a vaccine and a booster and not at all worried about getting another dose.

Side effects from pneumonia (which I have had a couple of times) or all kinds of medicines taken for serious illnesses worry me a LOT MORE than booster shots.

I would agree that these vaccines do likely reduce symptoms. In terms of hospitalizations, probably, but regardless of vaccine or not, if you get covid, you have a less than 5% chance of being hospitalized (I believe that's the number but I'm not positive). Even Bill Maher had a segment about that the other day and called out the media for the fear propaganda. Referenced a study where democrats thought if you got covid, you had a 40+% chance of being hospitalized. Again, working off memory, so that might not be the exact number, but it's disconcerting to have a large portion of the country think that if you get covid, there's a high chance you go to the hospital or die, when that's just not statistically the case. Not saying that's you at all, just giving the example of why people seem to have a tendency to put these vaccines at a savior level. I have a good young healthy friend who got covid and was praising the vaccine saying he would have been super sick without it. Well, maybe. Most likely not. I believe in vaccines as well (most of them anyway), but for me and my kids, this was one we were sitting out because looking at the numbers, the likelihood of having complications from covid was very very low, and I'm hesitant on something we know so little about. My doctor told me and my ex to not get the vaccine and not to vaccinate our kids for this because we would be fine. And we have all had it, and all been fine. So yes, by all means; live and let live. Get the vaccine or not, but let's all be civil and let people make their own choices.

HouseDivided06 said:

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I would agree that these vaccines do likely reduce symptoms. In terms of hospitalizations, probably, but regardless of vaccine or not, if you get covid, you have a less than 5% chance of being hospitalized (I believe that's the number but I'm not positive). Even Bill Maher had a segment about that the other day and called out the media for the fear propaganda. Referenced a study where democrats thought if you got covid, you had a 40+% chance of being hospitalized. Again, working off memory, so that might not be the exact number, but it's disconcerting to have a large portion of the country think that if you get covid, there's a high chance you go to the hospital or die, when that's just not statistically the case. Not saying that's you at all, just giving the example of why people seem to have a tendency to put these vaccines at a savior level. I have a good young healthy friend who got covid and was praising the vaccine saying he would have been super sick without it. Well, maybe. Most likely not. I believe in vaccines as well (most of them anyway), but for me and my kids, this was one we were sitting out because looking at the numbers, the likelihood of having complications from covid was very very low, and I'm hesitant on something we know so little about. My doctor told me and my ex to not get the vaccine and not to vaccinate our kids for this because we would be fine. And we have all had it, and all been fine. So yes, by all means; live and let live. Get the vaccine or not, but let's all be civil and let people make their own choices.

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You do you, but I looked at the stats and was thrilled to be able to get the vaccine. Everyone I know who was not vaccinated had a worse case than I did, and like I said I'm old and fat and not healthy. I tend to get everything that walks by and get much sicker than others do generally, so this was a huge win for me and yes, I firmly believe it was the vaccine. I could almost feel it working. (Side note: if it was Ivermecitin that I said made me feel better there are *many* of those who sneer at the vaccine that would insist it worked. There are threads here that insist on it, and it definitely doesn't have the tested track record against covid that the vaccines do.)

The percentage chance of my having a serious case was high, so I'm happily boosted and there is zero harm in vaccination as far as I can see. Any potential side effect of the vaccine is a worse side effect of the disease itself, which we are all likely to get.


I've now lost four family members and several close friends, so no. I don't take it lightly and wish they had all been vaccinated instead of thinking that this was no big deal.

GeographyAg said:

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I'm vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer and had the easiest case of Covid ever a couple of weeks ago. Seriously I had a few hours of achiness, ran 101 for about an hour, 99-98 for the next day or two, and a bit of a runny/stuffy nose (but not bad enough to bother taking any medicine) for a few days. I had no fatigue, no cough, no loss of taste or smell. Zip. Nada.

Oh, and I'm old and fat with health problems.

I'm thrilled with my vaccine response and will continue to get boosters if it seems like a good idea - annually if necessary. My parents who are in their 80s and live in the house with us never got sick at all, so we're happy with the vaccine.

I don't care what Fauci or anyone else says. I'd gladly take a vaccine for the common cold if it worked as well as this did. I've never been so lightly sick in my life. It was actually weird.

Of course, it's possible that I'm now bullet-proof from Covid with the natural antibodies to go with the vaccine ones, but who knows. Natural immunity hasn't been very helpful to a lot of people I know, sadly.

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Everything you just said was true for my wife and I also…………..except she isn't fat like me and we are both not vaxxed.

ORAggieFan said:

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We already have the flu shot that is yearly. Not sure there is a reason Covid wouldn't be similar.

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Yeah, but is the flu shot the exact same shot every time like the Covid shot?

I feel like they are really preparing us to face the March 2020 version of Covid with all of these boosters but the January 2022 version of Covid goes right past all those antibodies.

If they are going to do an annual booster it needs to change as the virus changes. I hope they do more research into the safety of annual doses of a vaccine with such a poor safety record and also look into the long term effects of endless boosters on the person that gets them and on the virus itself.

I think I read somewhere where effectiveness starts to decrease with repeated boosters. I am going to hold off on the 4th given I had Omicron. A new variant may change that calculus for me.

tmaggies said:

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GeographyAg said:

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I'm vaxxed and boosted with Pfizer and had the easiest case of Covid ever a couple of weeks ago. Seriously I had a few hours of achiness, ran 101 for about an hour, 99-98 for the next day or two, and a bit of a runny/stuffy nose (but not bad enough to bother taking any medicine) for a few days. I had no fatigue, no cough, no loss of taste or smell. Zip. Nada.

Oh, and I'm old and fat with health problems.

I'm thrilled with my vaccine response and will continue to get boosters if it seems like a good idea - annually if necessary. My parents who are in their 80s and live in the house with us never got sick at all, so we're happy with the vaccine.

I don't care what Fauci or anyone else says. I'd gladly take a vaccine for the common cold if it worked as well as this did. I've never been so lightly sick in my life. It was actually weird.

Of course, it's possible that I'm now bullet-proof from Covid with the natural antibodies to go with the vaccine ones, but who knows. Natural immunity hasn't been very helpful to a lot of people I know, sadly.

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Everything you just said was true for my wife and I also…………..except she isn't fat like me and we are both not vaxxed.

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Congratulations.

I've had pneumonia and have lung damage and throat damage.

The statistics prove the vaccine is effective and safe.

It was a very smart choice for me to get vaccinated. It would have been stupid of me not to, IMHO, and I'm really tired of people like you with your smart-elec attitude that I should have risked my health because you (and I) don't like Fauci. That's just dumb.

Get Off My Lawn said:

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Agthatbuilds said:

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Question that I have is at what point, if any, is it too much? What do yall think?

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As OR quickly demonstrated, the pivot to vax currency is in effect.

For some of us, by the time the vax became widely available, the political had become inseparable from the medical and defiance warranted the miniscule personal risk. And now with natural immunity, I see even less medical value in an ever-more-outdated vax.

The nature of the question itself betrays a concerning perspective: that some other entity is setting a number and the individual has to say when it stops. We're no longer talks about a doc's best recommendation and patient choice.

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Without getting too political for f84-

I've got my two vaccines but probably won't get a third as there doesn't seem to be any reason to for omicron.

Vaccine mandates must be ended. The option of getting a vaccine must be restored. It's clear that omicron doesn't care whether or not you've got the shots. Nor does it have the same lethality.

People shouldn't be forced to get this vaccine in exchange for a normal life. At some point, this is (probably already there) a purely political conversation.

TheMasterplan said:

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ORAggieFan said:

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We already have the flu shot that is yearly. Not sure there is a reason Covid wouldn't be similar.

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This is and has always been a false equivalency.

The flu shot for the northern hemisphere is based on the flu strains in the southern hemisphere and vice versa. It isn't a booster shot.

And you get one flu shot for each season and it's more aimed at prevention than "easing symptoms."

Not saying I won't get the booster. Eligibility has been reduced to four months but I haven't seen any data on side effects. The first one really screwed with me for two weeks. Can't really go through that again and omicron seems like a much milder strain.

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That's fine and I'm not arguing really that it's wrong. I'm just stating that I'm not really opposed to a yearly shot if there is a benefit. It's probably too early to tell. Hell, I'd put that for all corona viruses if we can expand the vaccines to those. Why? Because getting sick sucks. Now, that all may be pointless with natural immunity and frankly, if that's the case, then I won't bother.

I'm not going to be rushing to get another booster by any means, but if it makes sense for me to get one yearly, I'm OK with it. If it doesn't, I'm completely fine with that. Frankly, I'll worry about that stuff in 1-2 years.