• vovchik_ilich [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    I’m sorry, but saying that “the degree of immunity doesn’t matter in absolute terms” when talking about infection-acquired immunity doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. A 2021 study in children and adolescents says explicitly “the effectiveness of naturally acquired immunity against a recurrent infection reached 89% at 3-6 months after the first infection, and declined slightly to 82% by 9-12 months after infection, with a slight nonsignificant waning trend seen up to 18 months after infection”. A 2022 study comparing the immunity of non-previously-infected vaccinees with that of non-previously-vaccinated but previously infected people, showed that there’s at least 5 times more odds to be infected if you were vaccinated only than if you were previously infected only. With equal sample sizes, 484 of the vaccinated individuals got infected in the study, whereas 68 got infected in the previously infected group.

    I say all of this as a 3x vaccinated person who acknowledges the great effectiveness of vaccines, but the studies show that exposure to the virus is in any case even more effective at generating natural immunity. This isn’t an argument for not doing anything and becoming spreaders, it’s not an argument for stopping facemasks, or for stopping vaccines, I support wearing facemasks when symptoms appear, quarantining when exposed to the virus, ample sick leave, and vaccine availability for everyone at no cost. I just want to be realistic about the science when we talk about these things, and saying that “the degree of immunity is so small as to not matter in absolute terms” simply doesn’t match the reality.

    • ryepunk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      If your definition of immunity is “doesn’t kill you”, sure it doesn’t kill you. Usually.

      But if you take the typical idea of immunity as “immune to this disease once you’ve had it” then catching covid does not make you immune at all. With some people catching it within 3 months or less of a previous infection. And given the rising evidence we’ve seen of how long covid occurs at startlingly higher rates from subsequent reinfections, it’s laughable that you would even consider the notion of immunity to covid at all. It has proven to move faster than we can adapt to it naturally or with science.

      • vovchik_ilich [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        But if you take the typical idea of immunity as “immune to this disease once you’ve had it” then catching covid does not make you immune at all. With some people catching it within 3 months or less of a previous infection

        It’s literally the same as with the common cold or with the flu. I’m not claiming that reinfections can’t have bad consequences, I’m claiming reinfections are less common if you’ve been infected recently, which is kinda the definition of immunity (reduced likelihood of being infected after overcoming a previous infection). “Completely immune to the disease once you had it” works for some diseases like measles, but it doesn’t for others like flu or common cold, or COVID, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an immunity boost after infection.

        • Hello_Kitty_enjoyer [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
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          2 months ago

          It’s literally the same as with the common cold or with the flu

          no it isn’t please stop concern trolling with technical truths

          I support wearing facemasks when symptoms appear

          it spreads asymptomatically, this does nothing and is libshit

          • vovchik_ilich [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            2 months ago

            and is libshit

            Marx, 1850: “lol, saying that wearing facemasks is useful is lib shit. Git dunk’d”

            no it isn’t

            technical truths

            (͡•_ ͡• )