Thread

1. comrade1234 · 1789830140 · focus · HN ↗

   Before Covid I got my German B1 certificate. I was diligently going to German-speaking meetup twice a week.

   One of the meetups had a bunch of googlers in it regularly. One of them was a loud gregarious Italian from the north. He was telling me a story about cleaning fish and chopping their heads off with a machete and how he cut the end of his finger off and had it reattached. He seemed nice but a little inept and lacking caution.

   Covid was starting. In the newspapers it was reported that Zurich had its first case of Covid. They were cautious to not say who it was - no clues at all in the paper. But a friend at Google forwarded me an internal email that said no one at Google had it yet other than someone in the Zurich office who had just been in northern Italy.

   I stopped going to the meetups. I really should start again but not sure what's going to happen next.

   1. timr · 1789830465 · focus · HN ↗

      Well, now that everyone has had it several times, including you, it's probably safe to go to a language meetup.

      1. LoganDark · 1789832450 · focus · HN ↗

         That's not how viruses work. You're not magically immune to flu season just because you've gotten the flu (or flu vaccines) in past years. It's ALWAYS important to keep up to date on your booster vaccines for covid. Even getting one or multiple strains at home won't necessarily help when you travel either.

         1. timr · 1789833432 · focus · HN ↗

            It actually is how the human immune system works, and in particular, there’s a huge amount of evidence that humoral immunity is protective and long lasting for Covid. Worrying about this is roughly the same degree of reasonable as worrying about getting any of the other common coronaviruses that circulate.

            I know you’re not going to accept this, but there is quite literally no good evidence that boosters for Covid do anything for otherwise healthy people who have already been infected.

            Regardless, the point is, if you won’t go to a language meetup because you’re worried about this, you’re likely doing far more damage to yourself from social isolation and anxiety than the virus would ever do to you. It’s time to live your life.

            1. n8henrie · 1789904634 · focus · HN ↗

               > there is quite literally no good evidence that boosters for Covid do anything for otherwise healthy people who have already been infected

               Before I dive back into the literature, as you claim to be stating this in good faith... is the "good" load-bearing here? Relentlessly attacking methodology is an easy way to make this kind of general claim.

               Also, are you talking narrowly about a group of people that has had COVID but never had a prior COVID vaccination? (In which case is it still a "booster"?) Or is a proper steelman of your position that anyone that has had COVID, regardless of prior vaccinations exposure, does not benefit from additional vaccination in any meaningful sense?

               1. oniony · 1789934099 · focus · HN ↗

                  Is it load-bearing, or is it the seam?

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