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Comment by __blockcipher__ | Hacker News Reader

Just out of curiosity, did you get COVID first and then decided to get the vaccine later on? Or was it the other way around? I'm guessing the former - I've had friends who had COVID and their doctors still advised them to get the vaccine - and find it quite troubling if so. We've known for so long now how robust natural immunity is - and before we "knew for sure" any sane person's priors would still assume natural immunity works the way it does for any other respiratory pathogen - yet there was a concerted institutional/media push to act as if immunity literally didn't exist, or the more subtle form that immunity might exist but that vaccine immunity is "better".

Not that it's super relevant but the friends I mentioned were mid 20's and in fine health, no weird immune disorders or anything, so the fact that their doc advised the vaccine was frankly just negligence in my book.

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A friend had COVID, positive by PCR result, loss of taste and all of that, at the beginning of the year. Mild case anyhow, she went to her doctor for a check-up 2-3 months later to make sure everything is fine and was asked afterwards if she is planning to go to get the vaccine, when she said no, at least not anytime soon, rollout was still in the early phases in our country, she got an absolutely insane scolding about how she doesn't care about others and is anti vaccines, and all this from a medical professional. Officially it wasn't even recommended to get it if you are in the first 6 months after recovery. She was quite shocked and dropped the doctor after that.

> absolutely insane

Probably not that insane if you recognise how many people this doctor has potentially seen or heard dying of it.

If I got a serious case of covid, my priors would be that my immune reaction sucked, not that it was sufficient.

Your priors are messed up then.

BTW the feeling of being sick is literally the feeling of your immune system doing its thing. No immune response = no sickness symptoms (until huge swaths of your body have been destroyed by the pathogen)

Because the officials are fucking cretinoids who can't understand it.

I had Covid, had immunity, and no one gave a flying fuck. I had to follow the same procedures as everyone else. PCR tests up the ass, waste of money, travel blocks.

Half a year later I got the J&J vaccine and had a mild fever for a day (proving my previous infection worked for immunity, just imo). Yet I still wear a fucking mask and shit. At least I have a QR code that I can use to travel...and some countries don't accept J&J as a valid vaccine.

What a fucking joke.

I didn't have COVID, and I also only had a day or so of fever after my J&J shot in June. My girlfriend had a similarly mild reaction, and we've both been tested regularly for various reasons, we're pretty certain that we haven't been infected.

I just got my recommended booster shot of Moderna yesterday, now I'm waiting to see how hard that will hit me.

There are no certainties, but I know that here you would also been considered immune if you had previously been infected, but not yet vaccinated.

Bad public policy unfortunately exists, same with the thing about not accepting the J&J vaccine as valid. It works about as well as the mRNA vaccines against hospitalizations and death, but with somewhat less efficacy against base infection, and of course a slightly larger risk of complications. That doesn't make it a bad vaccine, so countries not accepting it is completely insane.

Good to know. I was basing my opinion on the fact that the actual infection (confirmed via PCR) had me very fatigued for a week, with a fever for about half of it. And online reports for J&J showed several days of response effects.

I could've opted for Pfizer, but the wait time for it to arrive and to get the full two doses was too long. J&J is one shot, and some say it works better than "older" vaccines.

I did get into the country that didn't have it on their list to be fair. They probably added it later, AZ was on there.

One answer I can think of is if you caught covid and then got regeneron. A month later, after the regeneron wears off, you’d probably want to build up your body’s immunity.

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