Best Posts in Thread: Latest on Booster Shots

New therapuetic-

Merck announced Friday that an experimental pill it developed to treat covid-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly half in a clinical trial.
An independent board of experts monitoring the trial recommended the study be stopped early because of the positive results, a significant and telling step in a pharmaceutical study.
Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said in a news release they would apply for emergency use authorization for the drug, molnupiravir, in the United States as soon as possible. It would be the first antiviral pill for covid-19.
A simple, easy-to-prescribe pill that prevents mild and moderate cases of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, from turning into dire episodes has been one of the missing pieces of the medical armamentarium to fight the virus. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/10/01/pill-to-treat-covid/

 

Oklahoma Health Dept. has good tracking that shows vaccine immunity is better than natural immunity. Gonna have to look at the Israeli data again.
https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/covid-reinfections-have-jumped-300-may#stream/0

 

while I agree with you on vaccines I must object to your use of "we"... as I enjoy some cynicism from time to time

 

Quite possible - there are concerns about the Mu variant and the ability of current vaccines to deal with it.

The positive side is that Mu seems less transmissible than Delta and so is being pushed out by Delta. The negative side is that no-one knows what lies around the corner for new variants (even the optimists don't really know ).

This could mean that very poor countries who can barely afford (or have the logistics available) to vaccinate enough people quickly enough will not be able to keep repeating the process. Let's hope this is not the outcome.

P.S. To hold both sides of the vaccine debate (and putting aside the issue of any long-term, current totally unknown, side effects): It seems all current variants are less deadly in vaccinated persons but that may or may not continue to be the case. That means that those with no long-term concerns or those willing (or feel the need in their particular circumstances) to take the risk, vaccination is advisable for the current situation and the future can be dealt with later!