Are covid jabs useless?

I’m not bothering with my 4 th jab! I’ve had three jabs and three bouts of Covid since them. All getting gradually worse! But I put it down to having to travel on public transport all the time…. masks aren’t useless really…. no other member of my family has had it, and they all drive.

Betty65 ' I just don’t understand why they use a vaccine (normally used for diseases) on a virus.'
Flu is a virus. Measles is a virus. Mumps is a virus. Rubella is a virus. Polio is a virus. Monkeypox is a virus. Smallpox is a virus.

I’m clinically extremely vulnerable and shut myself away for over two years as was terrified of catching covid. I’ve had every vaccination offered, five in all. Two Astro Zeneca, one Pfizer and two Moderna. Before the last one I caught covid, suspect from a visit to the cinema, but thankfully it was no worse than a bout of hay fever. Because of my health issues I was given a five day course if anti virals and told to isolate for ten days.
I still don’t want to catch it again though, it could be a lot worse next time, we have no way of knowing but I’ll be there for any further vaccine as soon as it’s offered.

Betty65, diseases can be caused by bacteria or viruses. Whooping Cough is caused by a bacterium, but other diseases that we routinely vaccinate against, such as measles and rubella (German Measles), are caused by viruses, as is Chicken Pox. My brother, born in the early 1960s, was vaccinated against Measles as a small child when the vaccination was still being evacuated in the UK. Every year afterwards, until he reached his teens, our parents received a questionnaire, asking if he had become infected with it. The year after they stopped asking - he got Measles! No vaccine gives 100% immunity. I had a friend whose child caught Whooping Cough although he had received the vaccination, for example, but he scarcely whooped, making it very difficult to diagnose. Even in the early days of the Covid vaccination roll-out, they warned that it would not give total immunity to everyone who had it, but would reduce its severity and they were right. Yes, there were some very rare unforeseen side effects, but these were so uncommon that they would probably never have shown up until scaled up to millions of people receiving them because they have been so vanishingly rare statistically. When any have been observed, steps have been taken to use different vaccines with those who might be affected. Plus, however bad the more common side effects (I felt quite fluey after the first one), how much worse would people have been with the full infection and no protective vaccination?

Me too, Luckygirl

If everyone thought this, the world would be in a sorry state!

"A placebo"! - head in hands! I despair!

kevincharley

I've wondered the same. Are they a placebo? The government had to do something...

What a load of nonsense!
Have you actually read any of the science, regrding science and vaccinations?

I've wondered the same. Are they a placebo? The government had to do something...

Speaking of immune systems and higher risk environments, is it possible that the OP's daughter's immune system is having to work hard against all the other 'bugs' present in a school environment, and therefore her immune system fighting against covid might be less effective?
I only ask because I got covid in 2020 prior to vaccination being available. At the same time I got a gum infection (not unusual for me unfortunately) but on this occasion it was really severe and took a long time to clear up, possibly because my immune system was having to work overtime against covid?
I think the vaccinations do work - DH ended up in ICU for nearly a month with covid at that same time. Xmas 2021 he caught it again, but this time it was just like a snotty cold. I didn't catch it at all. And the different level of illness we had with covid on that first occasion demonstrates how our respective immune systems responded.
If a booster is offered along with the annual flu jab, we will take it, just in case. Better to have it and not need it, than not to have it and need it, as the saying goes!

IwasaMaidofKen, I am CEV on several counts and severely immunocompromised.

After sheilding and being extremely cautious, I caught Covid in April from my asymptomatic granddaughter. According to my clinicians, those vaccinations and an infusion of anti-virals, probably saved my life,
I had a fifth vaccination a few weeks ago and am scheduled for a booster in the Autumn. That will make six in all.

No doubt like many other posters I know quite a few people, both family and friends, who have had Covid, with varying degrees of severity. Some have had hardly any symptoms, one or two have felt very unwell for a couple of days, one friend felt tired and muddle headed for about a month. They all had the vaccination. A neighbour who was most vocal in her opposition to being vaccinated caught it last October, and became severely ill. She is struggling to get about now, and has a degree of lung, kidney and heart damage. This is of course just a tiny sample and probably meaningless - but I am glad to be among the vaccinated.

It’s a good debate, we all have our own ideas on vaccines, whether they work, whether they help the spread and there is no definitive answer. I have friends, both vaccinated and non-vaccinated who have been extremely poorly but we’re not hospitalised. I know of two men, one had a heart attack after his booster and one who has been flu like for a long time following his 4th jab. I just don’t understand why they use a vaccine (normally used for diseases) on a virus.

The vaccinations are clearly effective when assessed across the population as a whole because the death rate and hospitalisation rates fell sharply. Of course, like all vaccinations they have varying effectiveness when considered at the individual level and in a marginal number of individuals they may have serious side effects but that is normal for vaccinations of any kind. I am fully vaccinated but I caught Omicron a few months ago: it was worse than a bad cold. I hope being infected has led to additional protection and I won't hesitate to have further boosters. There will always be the chance of being infected whatever ones vaccination status but the downside consequences are often mitigated by vaccination. We may face a new variant which escapes the vaccines and that means the scientists have to devise a new vaccine. In my view Johnson is keen to play down the virus - 'learn to live with it' - for political reasons but we may yet see the return of the experts so derided by Gove.

Same not sake above

Honeysuckleberries

No I’m not an anti vaxxer and I’ve had all my jabs BUT my poor daughter in law is really ill at the moment with covid.
She’s a teacher of teenagers and despite as many precautions as she takes she just can’t avoid it. She has had all her jabs too but this her third and worst bout of it. It really doesn’t say much for immunity from the jabs or natural immunity from having it. If there is so little efficacy from the jabs then I’m not going to be having any more of them.

Covid 19 jabs do not stop you getting the infectio. It just means you won't get it as badly. If your DiL hadn't been vacinated she would have been hospitalised or/and worse lost her life. This is the sake for any vaccination

We do not need opinions IwasaMaidofKent, we need facts.

Although the population is currently full of the latest Omicron variant the admissions to hospital and serious illness are nothing like they were at the height of the pandemic. so .... to answer the OP's question..... covid jabs are not useless.

The evidence for vaccination as being protective has been tried and tested over decades and is why previously killer illnesses are no longer a threat. We are very lucky to have these.

Covid was always going to be difficult to protect us all from as it is a variant of the cold virus and we all know how resilient and persistent that is.

I will be first in the queue for the autumn booster, both for my own sake and that of those around me.

Sadly this shows a lack of understanding of the statistics but then the government have not made it easier for people. If a vaccine is 97% effective( which I don't think any are) then 3 out of 100 people over a large sample may not get immunity. Also people are quite right in saying everyone's immune system is different. And she works in a superspreader environment( before retirement I was a secondary school teacher and got everything going) so has greater exposure than most so you could view it if she is exposed to 100 students with Covid she could catch it from 1 of them.
I really hope she does not get long Covid.
Vaccines on the whole are highly effective and less people die and less get severely ill so please continue with your vaccines for Covid and flu and if eligible for pneumonia too.

Am I missing something but if the original poster’s relative is in the midst of a third bout of Covid then her natural immunity may also be weak. Everyone has to make their own choice but I’ll be at the front of the queue for the autumn booster and the flu jab which I have every year but more so with a severe flu season forcast

I don't think they are useless as the amount of daily deaths dropped dramatically when we all got our jabs. Some peoples immune systems are all different so may get it worse than others.

I've had all the jabs and had covid 3 times. The last bout in the past fortnight was truly nasty and definitely the worse. Probably covid 4.. I will get a booster when it is offered as we don't know how the variants will have changed by the autumn

My daughter and granddaughter have had all their covid jabs and try to be as safe as possible as my son-in-law is recovering from cancer. However they are both showing positive tests and having to self isolate. Doesn't make sense.

Different variants need different jabs? So existing jabs won't work with these new variants? Confused. I always thought if you had a vaccination it would protect you against the thing you've been vaccinated against, like flu, measles, smallpox, rubella, mumps, polio, chickenpox ...

I feel very sorry for your DiL being reinfected, and understand what you’re saying Honeysuckleberries.
For anyone interested I’ve just listened to a live Indie Sage today, which is on YouTube, and explains current immunity, reinfections, Omicron variants, and vaccine developments brilliantly. Well worth a look, very informative.

Honeysuckleberries
I’m really sorry about your daughter in law. It seems that her natural immunity isn’t much protection, which might explain why the vaccines appear less effective. Like Lemsip, I wonder if she might be dead without any vaccine. That’s certainly what happened pre vaccine at the beginning of the pandemic. Hope she recovers soon.
You have to make your own decisions about vaccine. The ones you have had may well have saved you. You’ll never know.

Omicron variants 4 and 5 appear to evade immunity from previous vaccines and infection, but do not appear to cause more serious illness and death. It is rash to say that previous jabs are useless, but viruses are clever and by their very nature they mutate in order to escape immunity, which is why people are becoming reinfected.
We are in a much better place than we were in 2020 because of vaccination and new vaccines being developed which will provide better immunity against emerging coronavirus variants soon.