I have a hard time believing that after 2 years of messaging about why people should take a vaccine that this is an “honest question”
You must have forgotten that they have been two years of communicational failures.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9832587
Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenzaviruses, and other respiratory viruses David M. Morens, Jeffery K. Taubenberger, and Anthony S. Fauci
'Because these viruses generally do not elicit complete and durable protective immunity by themselves, they have not to date been effectively controlled by licensed or experimental vaccines. In this review, we examine challenges that have impeded development of effective mucosal respiratory vaccines ...'
Actually, the full text is:
"Viruses that replicate in the human respiratory mucosa without infecting systemically, including influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, endemic coronaviruses, RSV, and many other “common cold” viruses, cause significant mortality and morbidity and are important public health concerns. Because these viruses generally do not elicit complete and durable protective immunity by themselves, they have not to date been effectively controlled by licensed or experimental vaccines."
The authors of the paper (not just Fauci) named off a group of different viruses, not just a single one. Taken in the stated context, it should make a lot more sense to anyone who reads this stuff.
It is horrifying that the person who has lead the response to this virus for the US is a coauthor of this factually incorrect statement 3 years into the pandemic.
Not that I don't believe you, but source?
> this factually incorrect statement
Exactly which factually incorrect statement?
For full disclosure I don't vaccinate anymore (waiting until the mucosal vaccines are available). But I understand those who do, especially if they are around other people when maskless more than I am.
Here's a much older article about the original omicron (quite distinct from the BA.2 descendants we have now): https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7109e1.htm
> The ARs among household contacts of index patients who had received a COVID-19 booster dose, of fully vaccinated index patients who completed their COVID-19 primary series within the previous 5 months, and of unvaccinated index patients were 42.7% (47 of 110), 43.6% (17 of 39), and 63.9% (69 of 108), respectively.
Basically this article doesn't show that vaccines prevent transmission. It doesn't show they don't either, although that there wasn't a more dramatic effect is a negative finding in my opinion. I wish the authors had analyzes the AR in vaccinated vs unvaccinated household contacts.
> Your eyes are exposed to the air.
I'm not the person you're responding to. Just what I do.
The mask covers the mucus membranes, except around the eyes. And I've got glasses with side-shields for the eyes. And an ASTM-III mask over the N95 mask so that I can touch and manipulate the masks without touching the breathing surface of the N95.
> You're still breathing the same air as everyone. You're still moving through clouds of expelled vapor from everyone who has walked in front of you recently. There is no hermetic seal around your nose and mouth if you wear a mask.
It's a virucidal N95, so besides the filtering also kills much of the virus that it traps. While the filtering is not 100%, the killing on top of the filtering should greatly reduce risk of infection or transmission in the unlikely event I'm infected but don't know it.
> Masks are mostly theater in everything but controlled environments.
I used to get a respiratory infection about yearly. I haven't had a contagious illness that I am aware of since January 2020.
Edit to add: And I take my daily shower after coming home for the day. I have never used a delivery service to grocery shop. I got about one month of work from home before coming back to the job part-time, and was fully back to the job by September or October of 2020.
I don't even wear a mask everywhere (not since I got vaccinated). I don't once I sit at a table at a restaurant, or at certain social functions. But somehow I still haven't gotten Covid yet (that I'm aware of at least), even after a few known exposures, so I'm guessing either it's helping at least a little bit or I had an asymptomatic case a while back.
As far as I know, though, I could still have a moderate-to-bad case of it when I get it. My parents just both got it recently, for example, (that was one of my exposures, since they were helping me clean out my flooded basement just before they got symptoms) and it took both of them over a month before they got over it, and we share genes, so in theory I should have a somewhat rough time once I get it as well.
I have masked every time I leave the house since COVID started impacting Wuhan (we had Chinese operations, so saw early impact on the business side. If you saw me masking on BART in early 2020, wave) and I haven’t gotten a single illness of any type since then.
It’s glorious.
I am often close to the only person I see all day masking, and it blows my mind why people don’t get this advantage.
Which line, what time? :) I only started riding BART in late 2019, so only had a few months of it before stopping. I'm sure I would have been ill more often than yearly if my ridership had continued.
I agree. Additionally the masks will more than pay for themselves when it comes time to cash out my accumulated sick leave when I leave this job.
Surface area of lungs: 100 m².
Surface area of eyes: 0.0004 m².
Difference: 6 orders of magnitude.