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0 pointsangelzen4y ago0 comments

That according to CDC data 1/3 of vax people are going to develop an infection. There is no way to purge covid infections from the population, not even with 100% vax rate. In a population 67% vaccinated or higher, there are going to be more vax infections than unvax infections. At which point choosing to vax oneself or not is not going to keep covid from spreading and becomes a personal choice.

If you are an adult, would do you good to get vaxed. But seems strange that the OP claimed to be 'libertarian' and yet in favour of forced vax. There is a big difference between 'this is what I think would do you good, but I'm going to respect your decision regardless' and 'get vaxed or else' position so many have embraced of late.

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bagels4y ago

Vaccines can bring the R number below 1 from above 1, which means that it really doesn't spread out of control anymore, and becomes much less common in the population.

nradov4y ago

That claim is an article of faith in some circles but there is actually no reliable scientific evidence that even a high level of vaccination can drive R0 below 1. Transmission will slow down as more people gain some level of immunity one way or another but the virus is now endemic and all of us can expect to get exposed occasionally. Fortunately the vaccines are still very effective at preventing deaths.

https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-made-herd-immu...

angelzenOP4y ago

Thanks for mentioning R. For a bit of good news, current estimates are that most states/counties currently have R < 1, https://covidestim.org. Hopefully we've passed the worst of Delta. I have no doubt vaccines helped, though I'm unsure how much. Obviously we didn't needed 100% vax rate to get to this point. Comparing with the situation a month ago obviously something else other than vax (and/or masks) has had a big hand in the R reduction (hint, natural immunity).

What I am pointing at is that there is a population vaccination level beyond which further vaccination has diminishing returns. There are fundamental principles like bodily autonomy and human dignity that we shouldn't throw away just to chase a slightly lower R number, cumulative deaths with covid, or any hyperfocused metric we use to track the pandemic evolution.

PS. I hold the underlying assumption that covid is endemic and over the next decade we'll keep having outbreaks until everybody builds up sufficient natural immunity.

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