Interacting with unvaccinated people when you must

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by Newbiesaukee

This is in response to #9.


You may be correct or not. I don’t know. And perhaps we were never going to vaccinate our way out of this.

And yet had we allowed for the 10-15% of people who would never vaccinate, with an 85% vaccination rate we would be in a much better situation than we are at the moment. The flu vaccines almost never have attained the remarkable results obtained with the mRNA vaccines in Covid with the roughly 95% protection so far.

And even if you are correct we should be able to do better than the current vaccination rate.

On the other hand, the chicken pox vaccines have very high efficacy and it is not necessary to revaccinate.

Not all virus’ are the same and it is a mistake (and beyond my pay grade) to get involved. As far as messaging, IMO making a big deal by saying the delta variant is “as contagious as chicken pox” is stupid.

Most people alive have never seen a case of chicken pox and only the oldies (like me) remember that almost everybody got it. But it’s meaningless for most folks. Again, ineffectual messaging.

I find that people think in egocentric terms. "NH has this vaccine rate", but no acknowledgement of the tourists from other areas that have lower vaccination rates. Not just US States, but even foreign countries.

If it could never jump from country to country - we might have a real chance. If it couldn't jump from state to state - probably even a better one.
But I even see people from other counties in NH will lower confirmed cases making bad presumptions that it can never get worse in those counties as people move from county to county.

If the virus can survive in a vaccinated person, as suggested, it can mutate. So vaccinating everyone doesn't stop the mutation equation like we first thought.

Some viruses are stable, one vaccination or infection that is fought off... and that is it. This one is not stable as of yet. But I think will go more the way of the flu than the common cold. The flu has several variants, and the common cold is impossible (at least to date) to vaccinate against because it mutates so much. The cold has lost most of its virulence... but the flu still has a strong history of complications leading to death.

We aren't seeing the estimated 675,000 that died from the 1918 flu on an annual basis, but forty to fifty thousand is still a pretty hefty amount of Americans every year.