Covid-19’campfire discussion

[springer]

My concern is that we're already being vaccinated against an old variant and not what is currently in circulation. Everyone knows that the flu vaccine has to be updated every year as the prevailing variants are discovered. I suspect this push to get the world vaccinated has already missed the boat - there needs to be a more dynamic way of tackling the current version.

James

I think you can take comfort in the data with regard to your concerns.

The original vaccine never promised 100% protection so your friends are just an example of the few who might have a worse than normal experience if they catch Covid. The vaccine doesnt stop you catching it, it just reduces the chances of you needing hospital by around 85-90%. This is clearly happening because the statistics we see every night on the BBC are conforming this.

Case numbers are dropping and even when we had 45,000+ new cases per day the number of those who ended up in hospital is a fraction of what it was pre-vaccine in waves one and two.

I listened to a talk that was given by Prof Sarah Gilbert the lady who headed up the AstraZeneca program about how effective the current vaccine is against all known variants. She also explained how easy it is to fine tune the vaccine every year as new variants emerge. I find listening to people like this is quite reassuring.

Vaccine in arms is the only way, there isnt another option.

[Paul Arden]

It’s bizarre to me that some people are more fearful of vaccinations than the disease. As a US friend of mine said “If you believe Covid came from a Chinese laboratory and you don’t get vaccinated would you prefer to trust something that came from a Chinese lab to a German lab?”