Hopes and fears for vaccination

[mtbc]

NPR recently told a disappointing story about how a fourth mRNA vaccine shot brings quickly diminishing returns, a pundit suggesting that it is not plausible for us to receive shots with sufficient frequency and targeting to have much certainty in evading the SARS-CoV-2 du jour. Accepting that, perhaps one may as well enjoy throwing caution to the wind while the protection from one's booster is at its height, rather than making sacrifices that one would not consent to sustain over the long term.

However, the work on ferritin nanoparticle vaccines gives me hope for better protection against a wide range of variants, I am not ready to give up. Over the years, I have heard of many promising technologies that seemed to come to naught but perhaps I can hope for a return to the Before Times if I accept our new reality for but a year or two yet, I just wish I knew the odds. I am patient but not infinitely so, I should like to dine casually in a restaurant once again. It seems ever more difficult to see what is coming around the corner.

Comments

[aldabra]

Yes, I am suddenly deeply fed up with all of the stuff, and already haven't taken the booster because of previous side-effects. I think it is possible, although we haven't been lucky yet, that omicron will both a) burn itself out and b) displace delta first, in which case there might be an actual lull by about Easter and by then I may have successfully dodged Wuhan, alpha, delta, omicron, and anything else in between that went past without me noticing. I think that would be a positive achievement. Also (whisper) it does look like it might be getting milder, in which case the longer one dodges before giving up the better.

[mtbc]

Last year was taxing indeed. It seems that the two shots would buy us freedom. Then it seemed the booster would. But, no. In the meantime, the response from governments and employers was often just as disappointing.

I wish I thought that testing would remain enough that I would even know of a local outbreak if we transitioned to general herd immunity.

[mindstalk]

Omicron is milder than Wuhan and Delta, but I know of no reason to think it's a trend rather than a lucky fluke; the idea that viruses generally evolve to be milder isn't true. It's possible that omicron's speed run mutations don't co-exist with deep organ penetration, but then it would still be possible to have another 'Delta' that wasn't quite so fast but had its own antibody-escape and thus infected all the omicron survivors the way that omicron infects all the Wuhan/Delta/vaccinated people.