If you’re low risk why would you be offered a vaccine ?

[distanceIspower]

I’m just wondering - if 1 in 3 are asymptomatic and then most people have mild - moderate symptoms and only a v small percentage get really ill why is the plan now to vaccinate all adults ?

I thought it would be like the flu jab criteria - age, other conditions, being a carer etc

Is there a reason they are aiming to vaccinate all adults ?

And will they vaccinate children soon like they do with the flu spray each year ? Are children that susceptible to flu or was that to protect others ?

Because the country has gone hysterical

I’m struggling to understand really as the information I’m reading is so conflicting and I keep going back to it and not fully understanding the reasoning

To protect the vulnerable & to prevent potentially worse mutations. A replicating virus is a mutating virus.
Children are super spreaders of flu.

@Beaniecats

Because the country has gone hysterical

FFS. Because it stops the virus spreading.

Same reason they give the flu vaccine to small children. Or is that also hysteria?

@Cookerhood

To protect the vulnerable & to prevent potentially worse mutations. A replicating virus is a mutating virus. Children are super spreaders of flu.

So the vaccine for low risk people is not for their benefit but for herd immunity ? And are children not super spreaders of covid too ? Or has that not been determined yet as I was wondering will they do mass vaccination for schools like with the flu

We have a vaccine against a virus that was the biggest killing infectious disease last year and you are wondering why we want everyone to be vaccinated?

No vaccine is 100% and we want to reduce its spread by vaccinating as many as possible. Because if we just vaccinate the over 60s then (because their immune system isn't as responsive to vaccines) we'll still have lots of people dying. The vaccines are cheap and effective, why wouldn't we vaccinate everyone? Do you really want to have repeated lockdowns for the rest of your life?

Sorry if these are stupid questions I have asd and I’m struggling to work it out but I think I’m comparing it to flu and the flu vaccination programme too much ?

Children will be vaccinated once the trials on children have carried out - they're starting about now and should be concluded ready for next year.

Everyone will be offered a vaccine. The key word being ‘offered’.

The reason for this is that vaccines have several beneficial effects for populations :

First & most importantly, for individuals, vaccines stop people dying.

Secondly, they keep people out of hospital and thereby prevent healthcare resources being overwhelmed.

Thirdly, they reduce transmission which reduces opportunities for viruses to mutate & potentially become more transmissible and/or dangerous.

Fourthly, when a large majority of the population are vaccinated the population achieves herd immunity and the disease can’t spread because it has nowhere to go. This protects everyone.

So the vaccine for low risk people is not for their benefit but for herd immunity?

Since the biggest risk factor is age we all become high risk for Covid-19 eventually.

You don’t really know if you are low risk though. Some people have died with zero underlying conditions. And one underlying condition is just being overweight and that’s loads of us. My 14 yr old (slim, healthy) was very, very ill indeed.

@JaninaDuszejko

We have a vaccine against a virus that was the biggest killing infectious disease last year and you are wondering why we want everyone to be vaccinated?

No vaccine is 100% and we want to reduce its spread by vaccinating as many as possible. Because if we just vaccinate the over 60s then (because their immune system isn't as responsive to vaccines) we'll still have lots of people dying. The vaccines are cheap and effective, why wouldn't we vaccinate everyone? Do you really want to have repeated lockdowns for the rest of your life?

But in years before that wasn’t flu the biggest killer yet still the eligibility was specific for the elderly and certain conditions etc and children with the spray but the huge low risk groups in between left out and flu spreads so easily too

Also perfectly healthy low risk people end up in hospital or with long Covid.
What if the virus mutated to something that was deadly to all, including children (not actually that likely but possible).
No children are not super spreaders, they don't have the receptors for the virus to attach to as much as adults. That's why primary schools aren't such a hotbed of Covid (hopefully!).

I think it's because they have done such a good job of scaring people shitless that perfectly healthy people are now convinced that they need the vaccine and will kick off if they don't get it. I expect that after they have vaccinated all adults they will just give seasonal boosters to the most vulnerable.

@JaninaDuszejko

So the vaccine for low risk people is not for their benefit but for herd immunity?

Since the biggest risk factor is age we all become high risk for Covid-19 eventually.

It’s just puzzling me why at first they said people eligible for flu vaccine needed to be careful but now they aren’t doing the vaccination for covid using those same groups / criteria

The thing is, 8 years ago if this had happened I would have been way down the list as a 36yo with no underlying conditions
Except it turned out I got a random diagnosis one day, from a blood test and I'm vulnerable enough I'm having to shield because my immune system is affected
I had absolutely no idea I had this condition, and I imagine a lot of people are walking about unaware of underlying health issues

@Cookerhood

Also perfectly healthy low risk people end up in hospital or with long Covid. What if the virus mutated to something that was deadly to all, including children (not actually that likely but possible). No children are not super spreaders, they don't have the receptors for the virus to attach to as much as adults. That's why primary schools aren't such a hotbed of Covid (hopefully!).

What receptors are they ? I hadn’t seen that information

So the vaccine for low risk people is not for their benefit but for herd immunity ?

Both.

Also, low risk ≠ no risk. The risks of ‘long covid’ are non-trivial, even in the young & healthy.

I think I’m comparing it to flu and the flu vaccination programme too much ?

We started with the oldest age groups because with the over 80s you only had to vaccinate 25 people to save a life, as you get through the younger age groups you have to vaccinate more people to save a life. So starting with the oldest had the biggest impact. But we want everyone vaccinated just like we vaccinate everyone against measles or rubella. Flu is unusual that we don't vaccinate everyone but it mutates very quickly and the vaccine is only 50-60% effective in any one year.

But I have read the vaccine doesn’t stop you getting covid just reduces severity and reduces hospitalisation so is the potential for long covid still there ?

@distanceIspower
www.healio.com/news/pediatrics/20200904/qa-why-are-children-less-likely-to-develop-covid19

I'm low risk, 41 healthy, no underlying conditions, healthy weight. I was in bed for 2 weeks and fatigued for a further 3. That was still a mild case.
Even though young people are low risk of death and hospitalization, they can still be unwell for quite a while and it seems that people who don't rest while recovering are at risk from long covid.
It's rare but there are some young people who have become very unwell and even died.

There's also a risk if infection remains high that people in older groups who can't have the vaccine or for whom the vaccine doesn't work will become ill and some of those will die. The vaccines are expected to be 95% effective so 1 in 20 remain at risk of infection.

If infection rates remain high there's also a risk of further mutations which may reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines.

But in years before that wasn’t flu the biggest killer

No, the biggest infectious killer world wide is TB and HIV. We have a vaccine for one and antibiotics. For HIV there are effective treatments. But we still get ~1M deaths a year worldwide. The biggest killers in the western world are diseases of age: cancer, strokes, heart attacks.

What receptors are they?

ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) receptors. They are proteins on the surface of your cells that the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 binds to to enter the cell.
Awesome animation here.

@distanceIspower

But I have read the vaccine doesn’t stop you getting covid just reduces severity and reduces hospitalisation so is the potential for long covid still there ?

Now you just seem keen to come up with argument after argument not to have the vaccine.

COVID is much more dangerous even to younger adults than seasonal influenza is. Good estimates put the infection fatality rate for COVID at about 1 in 1500 infections in the 35-44 year group.

Makes absolutely sense to get vaccinated against something this deadly.