Thread by @macroliter

First things first, there’s no such thing as a “Covid epidemiologist,” but there are Infectious Disease epidemiologists. Secondly, Tracy Beth Høeg is not prominent. Her views on #vaccines are “Flat earther” fringe. Thirdly,.. 1/ 🧵

https://twitter.com/ID_Denmark/status/1620849024558592001

"Why should I get vaccinated for a disease that is not a risk to me?”Examples: (1) Whooping cough can kill infants, who are too young to get the vaccine, yet many of us carry the bacteria that cause it. Vaccinating everyone in the home protects the 👶🏼 cdc.gov/pertussis/preg…

(2) Measles, mumps & rubella viruses no longer pose much individual risk to kids in the USA. Yet, the MMR vaccine often causes a fever, so why bother vaccinating our kids? Well, when vaccination rates decline, guess what happens? The opposite of this 👇 graphics.wsj.com/infectious-dis…

Before Rubella was eliminated in USA, it was a major cause of birth defects & miscarriages. Thanks to the MMR vaccine, physicians now speak of the "Post Rubella era." But people like @VPrasadMDMPH & @TracyBethHoeg seem intent on bringing back these viruses cdc.gov/rubella/pregna…

Measles not only kills about 1 in 1000 unvaccinated people who catch it (bacterial pneumonia is usually what does you in). but just like COVID, it's very nasty in pregnant women. Yet another vaccination that we take in part to protect others around us. pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/…

Well, COVID vaccines don't provide durable immunity that we see against viruses like measles, mumps & rubella that need to infect systemically (passing through your blood) to spread from person-to-person. So, "why should a child get a vaccine since COVID is usually mild in kids?"

Of course, kids should get vaccinated against COVID! Why? Although a child is likely to only have a mild case even without vaccination, vaccines reduce the risk of rare severe outcomes & also reduce the chance that the child will catch COVID & spread it to a vulnerable person..

No vaccine is 100% effective. But COVID vaccines––especially the updated Omicron bivalent shots, are outstanding for their long term effects at protecting us. Vaccines set your immune system up for success. Even if you still catch COVID after vaccination, there's huge benefits:

Firstly, when you catch COVID after a vaccine, you're much less likely to end up hospitalized or to have severe disease.. A vaccinated people do a better job keeping the virus in the upper respiratory tract and prevent the from invading more deeply into your body.. Secondly..

When you get COVID after being vaccinated, you end up making better antibodies & also recruit a more effective team of immune cells to your respiratory tract, where they set up shop to protect you for the long haul. This is #HybridImmunity. h/t @PepperMarion

The above work from @peppermarion's lab is PMCID: PMC8926873. Many other studies have also established that hybrid immunity is superior to the immunity that unvaxxed folks get at the cost of playing Russian Roulette with a virus.. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35413241/

Of course, it's not black and white, vaccinated kids & adults still catch and transmit COVID-19 sometimes, but this happens less often in vaccinated than in unvaccinated households, and the disease/symptoms are almost always milder in vaccinated than unvaxxed.

When the virus manages to make a vaccinated person moderately sick (as in high fever, etc) that person will be less likely to end up in the hospital, have lower chances of developing LongCovid & will have higher quality immunity to show for it compared to an unvaxxed person. So..

We see better protection (fewer cases) in households where everyone is vaccinated. When everyone in a community is vaccinated, those who still catch COVID develop hybrid immunity. 100% vaccine uptake is the best way to protect EVERYONE from the worst that this virus can do...

Although COVID is clearly most dangerous, on average, in the elderly, it's impossible to identify in advance everyone who is susceptible to the worst outcomes. Some kids get MIS-C. Some 20-year-olds get PASC. When everyone is vaccinated & boosted, these outcomes are minimized. 🕊️