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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
I'm really sorry. I have my own bad reaction, but it's only a day or two, and it's a price I'm willing to pay for heightened protection.

However, if it isn't heightened protection ... or, even worse, it's less protection ... that's troubling.

Yup, that's my dilemma.

I expected to feel the effects of the vaccine in terms of a sore arm, fatigue, maybe even fever or chills. Those are all signs of your immune system ramping up, and as you point out, are short-lived and no big deal.

The elephant in the room for me is, if my heart reacted to a vaccine in this way, what might happen if I actually got COVID? Quite possibly I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. I'm lucky because I don't mind masking and I don't have a high exposure lifestyle. Retired, don't travel, etc. It's a much tougher call for a lot of other folks.

There's so much we don't yet understand about how our secondary immune systems (T and B cells and such) react to the virus. Or how the vaccines and boosters interact with it.

We know the increase in neutralizing antibodies after vaccination or boosting (or even natural infection) is fairly short-lived, (maybe 3 or 4 months). The current bivalent vaccine is not very effective at keeping people in the over 65 age cohort from getting infected (recent study puts it at 22%). That result didn't surprise me, as even in my small sample size of friends, a surprisingly large percentage who have been boosted have gotten infected anyway.

Seems to boil down to you can't rely solely on the vaccine/booster to keep you from getting COVID.

There may be a benefit to the secondary immune system from the booster that helps prevent more serious illness if you get infected, but I don't think we quite know that yet. I'm keeping an eye out for studies on the bivalent booster and its effect on hospitalizations for serious illness.

Also, are we imprinted forever based on our first exposure, whether it was through natural infection or vaccination? If we keep boosting an old response and the virus has moved on in terms of new variants, for those of us who may react to a booster, are we any better off?

Lots of questions, and the answers will take some time. You do the best you can with the information you have at hand.

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... you can't rely solely on the vaccine/booster to keep you from getting COVID.

...a benefit to the secondary immune system from the booster that helps prevent more serious illness if you get infected,

This. It's very infectious, unless you're a hermit you will get it. Vaccinations mean you ought to get milder symptoms, which is increasingly important as patient age increases over 70, when associated respiratory difficulties become the serious symptom.

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Vaccinations mean you ought to get milder symptoms, which is increasingly important as patient age increases over 70, when associated respiratory difficulties become the serious symptom.

This is day 10 for me. My lungs still clog, making breathing difficult. Wearing a mask at home and every place I go that has people.
From what I could find online and a Telehealth appointment yesterday, I can expect breathing trouble for a while. Will continue to wear a mask because there is still a risk of contagion.
A neighbor had this condition for 8 days. She is a young thing of 70. It may take me longer.

Risk level went from "mild" to "medium" for Chicago and the county on the website. I think the triple threat of flu, RSV and Covid has them concerned...

We had a couple of singers out last weekend for one set of concerts, the other choir performs the 10th and 11th and they are pleading for us to do our best to stay healthy. There is something going around that involves a lingering cough, making singing difficult or impossible.

I think this op ed nails it:

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Time to come clean about COVID-19

https://commonwealthmagazine.o...lean-about-covid-19/

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Originally posted by rontuner:
Risk level went from "mild" to "medium" for Chicago and the county on the website. I think the triple threat of flu, RSV and Covid has them concerned...

We had a couple of singers out last weekend for one set of concerts, the other choir performs the 10th and 11th and they are pleading for us to do our best to stay healthy. There is something going around that involves a lingering cough, making singing difficult or impossible.

I saw that. I wonder how much worse it might get after this past holiday weekend.

No question that there's some nasty non-COVID bug going around. Two more neighbors have gotten it, people in their 40s and 50s. Not life threatening by any means (likely because of their age) but totally miserable for one to two weeks.

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The new Covid wave
It's across most of the planet now. Delving into why, what to expect, and what we can do about it.

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It’s quite simple. You want to avoid severe Covid and hospitalization, you need a booster within the past 4-6 months. The boosters won’t do too much to block infections but are holding up well for preventing hospitalizations.

Lots of other info here:

https://erictopol.substack.com...5137&isFreemail=true

Steve and I just got our bivalent Covid boosters this morning, it told the tech how much I hate shots, and she told us she used to be a vet tech and told me don’t worry, I used to do gorillas, I Know how to give pain free shots! she’s right, it was the least painful (as in, almost didn’t even know I got it ) vaccination I’ve had in awhile! (Recently got both flu and shingles. )