Oy. First, vaccines represent probably the best way to avoid serious disease and death. The first vaccines, and I'm primarily talking about the mRNA vaccines, were focused on ancestral-strain SARS-CoV-2. Since then, however, we've seen significant variation in the virus' RNA sequences, and evasion of initial immunity. The bivalent booste…
Oy. First, vaccines represent probably the best way to avoid serious disease and death. The first vaccines, and I'm primarily talking about the mRNA vaccines, were focused on ancestral-strain SARS-CoV-2. Since then, however, we've seen significant variation in the virus' RNA sequences, and evasion of initial immunity. The bivalent boosters were found to be effective and some research has suggested they provide protection for up to 6 months. The next round of boosters will be monovalent (against a single variant) and targeted toward the prevalent variant of Omicron at the time they lock in vaccine composition. This should, again, provide some degree of preventive immunity for a short period, and a longer period of prevention of serious disease and death.
Naturally or disease acquired immunity is also likely to reduce the incidence of serious disease and death. Studies on the duration of said immunity are all over the timescale, but most I've seen of late suggest protection for at least 6 months.
Neither vaccine-acquired nor naturally-acquired immunity is sterilizing at this stage, meaning it will not stop the virus completely, and thus, while it may reduce transmission by decreasing viral load that can expose someone else, neither will eliminate transmission.
COVID-19 still has the potential for infecting, and reinfecting people. Each subsequent infection carries an increased risk of death or serious disease. Also, there are indications that multiple infections can predispose someone to acquiring Long COVID, something we're still sorting out but which has affected a sufficiently large group to be considered real, if somewhat diverse. Studies world-wide suggest that 5-40% of the population (depends on country statistics) suffer Long COVID after infection. This results in often debilitating symptoms, and can have an adverse effect on work/school. A review of the literature suggests vaccinated people are less likely to acquire Long COVID than those who were not vaccinated. So arguments can be made to reduce severity of the disease and to reduce the incidence Long COVID, mandating vaccination is still a reasonable idea.
Oy. First, vaccines represent probably the best way to avoid serious disease and death. The first vaccines, and I'm primarily talking about the mRNA vaccines, were focused on ancestral-strain SARS-CoV-2. Since then, however, we've seen significant variation in the virus' RNA sequences, and evasion of initial immunity. The bivalent boosters were found to be effective and some research has suggested they provide protection for up to 6 months. The next round of boosters will be monovalent (against a single variant) and targeted toward the prevalent variant of Omicron at the time they lock in vaccine composition. This should, again, provide some degree of preventive immunity for a short period, and a longer period of prevention of serious disease and death.
Naturally or disease acquired immunity is also likely to reduce the incidence of serious disease and death. Studies on the duration of said immunity are all over the timescale, but most I've seen of late suggest protection for at least 6 months.
Neither vaccine-acquired nor naturally-acquired immunity is sterilizing at this stage, meaning it will not stop the virus completely, and thus, while it may reduce transmission by decreasing viral load that can expose someone else, neither will eliminate transmission.
COVID-19 still has the potential for infecting, and reinfecting people. Each subsequent infection carries an increased risk of death or serious disease. Also, there are indications that multiple infections can predispose someone to acquiring Long COVID, something we're still sorting out but which has affected a sufficiently large group to be considered real, if somewhat diverse. Studies world-wide suggest that 5-40% of the population (depends on country statistics) suffer Long COVID after infection. This results in often debilitating symptoms, and can have an adverse effect on work/school. A review of the literature suggests vaccinated people are less likely to acquire Long COVID than those who were not vaccinated. So arguments can be made to reduce severity of the disease and to reduce the incidence Long COVID, mandating vaccination is still a reasonable idea.