conservatism_IS_compassion wrote: “I too have had Phizer shot #2, in my case 3 weeks ago - and without anything more than an unremarkable soreness at the injection site. So I consider that my paleoflatus status no longer makes me particularly at risk for COVID. And 95% effectiveness - compared to not getting vaccinated, which didn’t kill me before I got the shots in February - means near-certain freedom from COVID.”
Well stated. Those of us who have chosen to get the vaccine have, as you say, near certain freedom from COVID. Those that get their medical advice from Youtube videos can only hope they are protected.
You wrote: “near certain freedom from COVID.”
People shouldn’t necessarily count on that.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.03.21251066v1
Results: While the majority of participants in both groups produced specific IgG antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, titers were significantly lower in elderly participants. Although the increment of antibody levels after the second immunization was higher in elderly participants, the absolute mean titer of this group remained lower than the <60 group. After the second vaccination, 31.3 % of the elderly had no detectable neutralizing antibodies in contrast to the younger group, in which only 2.2% had no detectable neutralizing antibodies.
Conclusion: Our data suggests that lower frequencies of neutralizing antibodies after BNT162b2 vaccination in the elderly population may require earlier revaccination to ensure strong immunity and protection against infection.
Sadly, that's only partly true. Yes, the vaccines provide very good protection against the original virus, UK variant and Brazillian mutation. Only 50-60'ish percent protection against the S. African and God knows what other variants, though..