@Blackfist Oh yes, get the bivalent vaccine — it’s recently been shown to give a good response to the current variants
@wendynather @Blackfist@oliphant.social
I'm going to apologize up front for butting in here, because I'm about to argue semantics. Most of the time I think that's a pointless endeavor and you're probably just going to hate me for doing so(and I promise not to get into an argument with you if you say so), but I think it's important here. So here's my points:
1 - The bivalent vaccine does *not* show a good response against XBB.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02162-x
2 - It *is* better than the original vaccine or not being vaccinated at all.
I think we need to be careful about how we discuss this as too many people think the bivalent booster gives them sterilizing immunity and the ability to carry on as they please with no other precautions and the CDC isn't telling anyone otherwise. In pre-COVID times this booster would probably be considered a failure against XBB from my understanding. It's simply the best tool we have in our personal arsenal at the moment outside of masks.
@wendynather @Blackfist@oliphant.social
Sadly a lot of people do believe that if they keep up to date with vaccinations that they are immune. Particularly in the south I hear it all the time. There are absolutely articles out there stating that the bivalent booster shows great promise against XBB, but it's just simply not what the data shows.
It's better than nothing. It's the best we have. It's just not great protection by itself.
It's a hard topic to discuss because of the nuance and therefore a lot of reporting gets it wrong. Particularly when erring on the side of optimism might get more people to go get it. I get that point, I just come from a perspective that we should be clear on the science.
Stay safe out there and good luck continuing to avoid it!
@BE @Blackfist Good to hear the clarification — I’m always interested in hearing from people who are close to the data.
@BE @Blackfist Thank you for adding your perspective here. I saw an article the other day either in the Washington Post or the NYT that said that preliminary studies were showing good response to the bivalent vaccine (don’t remember the details now), and I don’t think anyone here is contemplating total immunity, especially if we’re also talking about n95 masking.
(My background: fully vaxxed and boosted; travel often for business, including internationally; still masking in crowded indoor and outdoor spaces; never had Covid. Science fan.)