Originally posted by TheGore49er:
I suggest you get advice from actual doctors and listen to them. not people on a football forum, especially something of this big importance...but thats just me i guess.
Guilty, Gore, and that goes back to over 51 yrs with the first 5 yrs spent running ERs in Watts, weekends and nites. (Daytime job was opposite end of the spectrum in Dermatology and Dermatopathology.) Re: Covid, i spend inordinate amounts of time trying to stay current with Covid literature, which is coming out a mile a minute, making it tough on just exactly "what is" and "what isn't". It is no secret Dr Fauci and CDC have moved the goalposts , but then again, with the massive amounts of data coming out, it has to be sorted, then confirmed, and then thot about before posting.
This is done for one reason. We have to get above the magic # of 80, maybe even 85% (no one knows the exact percentage when herd effect actually kicks in), and that means getting a heckuva lot more people vaccinated than those currently planning to do so. Frankly i was stunned at the # of people that may have decided against it. I guarantee, any first responders got theirs ASAP. Same with me and i just do pro bono stuff now.
If we don't get above the herd # vaccinated, then this closing down stores, restaurants, gyms, society in general, our lives....and not incidentally, actually attending a 49er football game...then this damn thing just goes on and on and.... So we HAVE to get 80+ % vaccinated for this to keep society from being closed down, and this disease just goes on interminably.
Yes after the second injection + 4-7 days if I get exposed to someone with covid i will no longer be able to spread a disease that someone exposed me to, so I ,and those others vaccinated are in the same situation. So yes, i did it to protect my family and myself, but basically i did it to protect society as a whole...ie, the entire country. But we all have to pitch in to make it happen. There comes a point when if say 80% are vaccinated (or have had the disease and beat it...or got it and never knew they had it...but developed immunity actively, nonetheless), that covid can no longer plague us as it does now. With 80+ % of populace vaccinated or have immunity from having had the disease, covid can no longer cause massive outbreaks because a large majority of the people are immune...hence "herd" immunity.
The obvious point here is...80% of Americans have to get vaccinated or have had the disease and recovered (and some have had it with no sx but became immune anyway) for the herd phenomenon to actually work. That is why it is so key to get everyone vaccinated.
Right now different polls show somewhere between 50% (Kaiser Health Systems) and 62%(recent results of political poll) of Americans plan to get vaccinated. That means we won't reach herd immunity based on current polls The CDC, however, has estimated that there are over 83 million Americans that currently have had the disease, (400,000+ of which died) . These folks represent roughly 25% of all Americans so add that to Kaiser's 50% and we don't hit 80%. If the political poll is correct and 62% plan vaccination (see my original post), then we end up with 87% with immunity and we all win.
CDC is pretty sharp, but how exactly do they know 83 million have been exposed and now carry immunity? Answer: they don't know for sure, but i bet they are close. Again, this is why it it is so critical for everyone, every single 49er fan, family member , friend , extended family, work partners, etc, to get the vaccine. And that applies to all other 31 NFL teams, all NBA, NHL, MLB....everyone has to pitch in and get the vaccine if we are to protect basically the entire country.
Yes i understand reluctance on some folks part not to get immunized. They're afraid of some dire consequences. But that not only affects them, it screws over the rest of the country. The 80% figure is probably pretty close to being accurate, but of course, a larger % would be very welcome. Again i hope and pray that all get their immunization shots which will end this miserable "shelter in place", 6 ft distancing , avoiding enclosed areas, and if you are in a building, make sure it is well vented.
Basically it's a hassle, and has knocked the krapt out of millions of businesses, especially smaller ones, and been a huge drag on the working people who lost jobs, many permanently. But all this can go away if everyone gets vaccinated, or at least 80% does. Then it doesn't matter how many the CDC estimates had the disease. Getting there tho means convincing another 40% of Americans to get their shots. I hope everyone does their part and gets vaccinated, but also convinces others to do the same. The alternative is just more of the same like we have had all last yr...and who wants that?