re: Louisiana is in a sustained and noticeable downslope in Covid

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Also, hasn't it already been determined that the new variants are largely as a result of the virus responding to the vaccine? Or, is that legitimately still being researched (not talking about the people that blame everything on the unvaccinated)

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No, variants are random. The virus isnt intelligent.

Every time it replicates, errors in the genetic code can appear; slight variations from original to copy. 99% of these "errors" wont change how the virus behaves but every now and again, it will randomly mutate to something that improves the virus's abilities to infect and spread; and then survival of fittest takes place, and that strain becomes the dominate strain if everything is just right. Very low odds, covid does not seem to mutate as much like influenza at this time based on what I'm reading.

The argument is that vaccines slow down replication, which appears to be true, while arguable to what extent. So if you have a 1/1000000 chance of a bad random mutation happening, you are better off with 900,000 chances at that happening than 950,000 chances.

At this point, I accept that argument that the vaccine prevents spread to some degree, but to what degree does the vaccine stop spread is completely up in the air based on limited data at hand and lack of control groups, is it 5% effective? Is it 30% effective? Who decides what % is acceptable to base real decisions on?

Similar to evolution, evolution is not a response to environmental stimuli, but the dominance of a genetic mutation is based on how it performs in the environment.

I supervise at a smaller hospital, but people that have been in the department for 30 years are telling me that they have never been this busy. I was able to get some new Bipaps and new Airvos with Covid money back in the Spring. After the first wave hit, I went to Administration to order some more Airvos. I had them overnighted and I assembled them and took them straight upstairs to put on patients. At one point, I was running every new machine I had. Are you seeing more success with high flow or Bipap?

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Similar to evolution, evolution is not a response to environmental stimuli, but the dominance of a genetic mutation is based on how it performs in the environment.

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You said it prettier

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Very well said. The vaccine absolutely does not “increase the variants” as some like to state or even hope for. It keeps viral replication down which keeps the chance of variants arising low

In terms of “how much does the vaccine stop the spread?” That is an answer nobody can give you exactly

However, it is clear the vaccine prevents viral load in the majority as we can see how far fewer hospitalizations and deaths there are in the vaccinated group. So if it is doing this, it absolutely has an impact on the spread

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All good stuff. We also know that the number of infections this time around were enormous. So the chances you were to get hospitalized with Covid are still really small; however, it still became a numbers problem for the hospitals.

The question I have is if the immunity granted by the vaccine is as long as we thought it would be. We are hearing rumblings of requiring a booster and it’s really only been since the Feb of this year that the we started getting readily available vaccines for everyone.

Thank you for the clarification. Was well said in a way this non-medical/science person can understand.

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The idea is the elderly gets the vaccine first, then the younger population comes in behind them and gets vaccinated and then the virus doesn’t have hosts to make it back to the elderly who have waning immunity

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But this “vaccine” doesn’t stop someone from getting or spreading it, it is only a symptom reducer. Plus COVID-19 has an animal reservoir.

Given these facts, your above statement doesn’t hold any water.

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But this “vaccine” doesn’t stop someone from getting or spreading it, it is only a symptom reducer.

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lets walk through this Mike

how does a vaccine reduce symptons?

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Plus COVID-19 has an animal reservoir.

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I love that y'all have a new thing to chant

I always thought a vaccine worked similar to getting the actual virus. Yet with this one, the natural immunity side is never mentioned. It is either vaccinated or unvaccinated. Seems like there should be another category.

You track this stuff. How many reinfection hospitalizations are we seeing from those who previously had Covid or is that not a stat we are keeping?

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You realize how many patients say they had covid already? About 110% of them. I guess we could go simply by who has a positive test from our system on file, but that would not present an accurate assessment either

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I can imagine however it does seem like it would be important to know. Folks can easily be tested for this and it be attached to their medical file.

Everything I read says that reinfection is rare but enough studies have not been done. CDC still has this exact line on their site.

BR Big 3

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