Comment by adrianmonk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adrianmonk | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

For one thing, the CDC recommends it in their FAQ.

From https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html :

> If I have already had COVID-19 and recovered, do I still need to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine?

> Yes, you should be vaccinated regardless of whether you already had COVID-19. That’s because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19. Even if you have already recovered from COVID-19, it is possible—although rare—that you could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 again.

Another thing is that, although it hasn't been scientifically studied yet, there are some reports that getting vaccinated has helped some COVID long haulers with their symptoms:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/31/9827994...

> That’s because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19.

Since when has not knowing something been justification for intervention?

Given that people have been getting sick from COVID-19 for at least as long as vaccines have been available for testing, shouldn't experts have a reasonable understanding of whether previously infected people are as protected as recently vaccinated people, or how often (or rare) it is that people can be infected with the virus again?

I've seen doctors say they can detect antibodies at the very least at the 4 month mark. A yearly shot might be necessary

If most of a population is already infected and has natural immunity, those people would certainly make the efficacy of the product seem much higher.

At some point, they'll declare the campaign a success. We'll never get to see the real data because they aren't collecting it. There's no centralized reporting or control.

In the US, there has been 32M cases reported so far, and who knows how many asymptomatic cases that were never counted. Since a large portion of cases are asymptomatic, the total case count could be multiples of the confirmed case count.

The clinical trials will never be replicated, it will just be 'oops, pandemic over, we assumed it all worked.'

In Singapore they had massive outbreaks in foreign workers dormitories one year ago. Now they have apparently seen new cases among the previously infected, suggesting that immunity starts to wear off after about a year. I'd definitely get vaccinated even if you already had it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com