Thread by @RichardWWard1

Multiple exposures, whether by infection or by vaccine, are needed to develop adequate antibodies to stave off infection.

The United States has 700,000+ reasons why you should prefer the vaccine route vs. the infection route.

Plus people aren't getting #LongCOVID with vaccines.

https://twitter.com/Navarp/status/1446267037668544513

You don't get #LongCOVID with vaccine exposure because the vaccine active ingredient does not replicate and give you COVID.

If you "vaccinate" yourself by getting infected, virus replicates, and you can develop long term symptoms of COVID (way too common) or even die.

Now something a bit more controversial:

I think the argument re: level of infection-acquired immunity vs. vaccine-acquired is just irresponsible and dumb.

Both give SOME immunity. But we need multiple exposures to give adequate immunity.

And infection is not the way to go.

As for policy, we don't care if you felt sick in 2020, but feel better now. We probably don't even care if you actually tested positive then.

Even if you had COVID, you will need another exposure to fend off Delta and other variants.

And that exposure should be a vaccine.

But I want to dig into that 1.83 ratio from the last tweet. Vaccines likely look much better because they were given more recently than a prior infection.

Without boosters, the ratio will decrease with time, and it has.

But will it ever TRULY drop below 1.0, indicating infection-acquired immunity > vaccine acquired?

I very much doubt it.

Why?

Because most people will get better immunity from vaccines AND from fending off the virus in society.

But wait, isn't getting a COVID infection bad?

Yes, very much so.

But being vaccinated, then fending off SMALL AMOUNTS of COVID exposure will improve immunity.

And a key to getting small amounts of exposure are mitigations when needed, like masks, distancing, and ventilation.

There is a branch of "scientific" thought we should just let virus sweep through the young (e.g., <65 group), so we get immunity out of the way.

That branch of thought, the Great Barrington Declaration group (or cult...) has been proven disastrously wrong in Florida.

Florida is in midst of largest, avoidable, state-level death event in U.S. history.

Well over 20k excess deaths in this recent summer spike, and final death toll may exceed 50,000.

Nearly double the number of people are dying than usual for a sustained period.

Why?

More on this later, but Florida is experiencing the excessive death event because even today, @GovRonDeSantis and a GB Declaration surgeon general are actively pursuing mass vaccination by infection.

Why else fight schools protecting their teachers and students via mitigations?