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by bequanna 1111 days ago
The current variants seem to be much less severe.

Depending on age and health, it really makes it difficult to say if getting vaxxed was the “smart” move when weighing the risk of contraction vs the unknowns of any potential side effects.
2 comments
lockhouse 1111 days ago
Unless you had several co-morbidities, even the original variants of COVID weren't all that severe for most people.

Per the CDC:

> 146.6 Million Estimated Total Infections > 7.5 Million Estimated Hospitalizations > 921,000 Estimated Total Deaths

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...

If memory serves, most of the panic in the early stages was really about the risk of overloading hospitals (which mostly didn't happen) and a lack of ventilators (which it turned out that ventilators made things worse for most COVID patients). COVID-19 itself wasn't extremely lethal at any point.

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DiogenesKynikos 1111 days ago
> COVID-19 itself wasn't extremely lethal at any point.

On a population level, it's the most lethal virus in the last 100 years. A virus that infects everyone and that kills 0.5-1% of those it infects is almost a worst-case scenario for public health.

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babyshake 1111 days ago
Not trying to troll, but why wouldn't a virus that infects everyone and kills 5-10% or more be the worst-case scenario?
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HWR_14 1111 days ago
The idea is a 5-10% fatal virus would have far more severe social distancing and thus couldn't infect everyone. Otherwise, a "100% fatal, infects everyone" disease would be the worst case scenario.
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ryandrake 1110 days ago
I wish I believed you, but sadly I think we learned nothing from COVID and if version 2.0 happens and is 5-10% fatal, we would make the same mistakes all over again: ignore it, downplay it, politicize it, and then finally half-ass the fight with the same weak uncoordinated actions.
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seanmcdirmid 1110 days ago
The problem with COVID was that 70% of the deaths were in the 65+ range. So it didn't feel as severe to society as it would going by the death rate alone. We lost 3 years of life expectancy (it’s not clear if it will be recovered quickly or not), most people don’t think ahead that far so the problem feels abstract.
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hammock 1111 days ago
Emerging science supported by multiple studies suggests 4x boosters may have actually hurt more than they helped: https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/repeated-covid-19-vacci...
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