I think the fact still remains that the boosters keep up your anti-body count, like Portland had mentioned, which does help the rate of survivability and hospitalization. So that's the value I see with the booster. With the degradation of antibodies over time, it would seem logical you want to keep them up, hopefully not as often as we currently do, to keep yourself within the better statistical odds. We typically have flu shots every year or so. I can't imagine that getting a booster for COVID would be any less healthy than that, considering the positive history regarding vaccine effects. My hope is that the technology continues to improve on this front, too.

I do agree that we were never going to vaccinate our way out of everything. My frustration remains with people who refuse the vaccine, at least when it is not based on solid grounds (magnetism, conspiracy theories, etc.). I understand the practicality of the situation that of course there will be people who refuse and we have to deal with that, but on the other hand, it does lend to some element of logical frustration, which I think is a lot of the ire we see permeate the board and society, as a whole. Not to mention the even more pointed frustration I have with cases, such as my sister's.

As far as the variant goes, I think we do have a good inkling about where they come from. I think so far, the variants have appeared so far in areas with very low vaccination rates, lending credence to the fact that they evolved in unvaccinated populations. Do I know that with 100% certainty? No, but I'd be willing to bet on it, given the odds. I am curious - as I'm sure you are - to see how it goes with Omicron. The fact that Omicron has infected people who are vaccinated I don't think yet gives us a glimpse of Omicron's potency for mutation in those individuals. Again, this is starting to get way above my head, but from a bird's eye view, if Omicron itself variates into another strain in a population with high vaccination rates, then I will become increasingly concerned. In that bad scenario, my hope is that it continues its "downward trend" of potency and trends more toward being a common cold, which would at least give way to antibodies that would hopefully still safeguard against more potent strains, like Delta. Basically, the weak versions would crowd out the strong ones.

I'm sure there are many on here who know this stuff way more than I do, so please chime in on that last point. And I'm talking about legit people, like Lyuok...not someone who wants to post videos from a Sandy Hook denier.

Good discussion.