I won’t be getting it, for a lot of reasons.
I’m fine with people wanting to get it, just stop pushing it so hard on everyone else who doesn’t want it, don’t even think about making it mandatory and stop shaming people who don’t want it.
Pretty simple stuff.
https://www.geertvandenbossche.org/post/immediate-cancellation-of-all-ongoing-covid-19-mass-vaccination-campaigns
Selective immune pressure and immune escape as a result of large-scale human intervention in the pandemic
Any intervention in the pandemic that directly (e.g., through mass immunization campaigns) or indirectly (i.e., through infection prevention measures) exerts significant pressure on viral infectiousness (and hence, exerts selective pressure on the spike [S] protein) will enable the virus to escape whenever it gets exposed to S-specific Abs that are suboptimal, either in concentration or affinity. This will inevitably allow the virus to rapidly unfold more infectious, immune escape variants. Mass vaccination campaigns conducted after a prolonged period of infection prevention measures will dramatically increase pressure on viral infectiousness because of broad selective immune pressure on S protein (due to S-specific Abs). Such additional immune selection pressure, especially when exerted during the second wave of a CoV pandemic, is likely to precipitate and amplify viral immune escape. It is reasonable to assume that the cumulative selective pressure on viral infectiousness may cause the second and third wave of the pandemic to dramatically increase and to merge into an even much bigger wave of disease and death that is ultimately going to affect all layers of the population (possibly, with the exception of small children).
Current mass vaccination campaigns comply with the above-mentioned conditions for dramatic enhancement of S-selective immune escape. When conducted in the midst of a pandemic, mass vaccination campaigns (using the current Covid-19 vaccines) exert an enormous amount of pressure on circulating virus strains.
However, as the S protein comprised within current vaccines does not properly match the S protein of the ‘pre-selected’, highly infectious variants and as the latter have now become dominant, use of these vaccines in mass vaccination campaigns will inevitably accelerate the emergence of even more infectious immune escape variants. This is because the number of vaccine recipients who are in the process of seroconverting while already being exposed to the virus will dramatically increase (3). This leads to viral infection in the presence of a suboptimal immune response. Viral (re-)infection in the presence of suboptimal/ immature immune responses may also occur in vaccine recipients who are waiting for their second dose of a 2-shot vaccine or whose vaccinal Abs do not fully recognize the S ‘edition’ of the Covid-19 variants. Vaccination of subjects who are seropositive as a result of natural Covid-19 disease may have substantially prolonged S-specific Ab titers. These subjects may, therefore, serve as a reservoir for sustained immune escape. The more the virus’ S protein becomes immune pressurized, the more it will select escape mutations that converge towards the receptor- binding domain (RBD) of the S protein (as those are obviously more effective in escaping vaccine-induced Abs). This will inevitably lead to complete resistance of Covid-19 variants to any of the current vaccines and, therefore, further increase viral infectiousness.
Along the same lines of reasoning, it is not unthinkable that Covid-19 will, once again, cross species barriers. One can definitely not rule out that with growing immune-mediated selection of virus variants, Covid-19 is ultimately going to be able to jump to other animal species, especially industrial livestock (e.g., intensive pig and poultry farms with high stocking density) as i) these species are already known to host several different Coronaviruses and ii) variability/ mutations in the very spike protein, and particularly in the RBD, are known to be responsible for shifts in host tropism/ susceptibility. Similar to the situation with influenza virus, these animal species could then constitute a reservoir for SARS-COVID-2 virus. Depending on the prevalence of circulating animal CoVs in those farms (and hence, the level of trained immunity), those animals could now serve as asymptomatic carriers, thereby constituting a serious threat to humans.
Mass vaccination sidelines variant-nonspecific immunity in young and healthy individuals
S-specific, high affinity Abs induced by any of the current vaccines will outcompete natural, broadly protective natural sIgM antibodies as the latter only bind with low affinity to the spike protein of Covid-19. Even though the affinity of S-specific antibodies induced by these vaccines may no longer suffice to prevent S-mediated binding of Covid-19 variants to the RBD of CoV, they may still be able to hamper binding of sIgM. This is because natural sIgM Abs have low affinity for S protein (despite their high avidity for the virus surface). The ensuing suppression of the innate immune response will particularly affect natural resistance of younger age groups which - thanks to a well-trained innate immune system - resisted Covid-19 disease during the first wave. During the natural course of a pandemic, suppression of the innate immune system (and hence, potentially enhanced susceptibility to disease) in previously asymptomatically infected people (primarily the younger age groups) is only short-lived as they only experience a momentary increase in S-specific Abs after infection. Their vaccination, however, will lead to a long-lived suppression of their innate immune system while offering only limited or no protection against disease caused by highly infectious variants. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that vaccination of young and healthy people will inevitably lead to long-lived suppression of their variant-nonspecific, innate immune defense at the mucosal portal of entry without offering a protective adaptive immune response. These age groups may, therefore, be facing a prolonged increase of susceptibility to symptomatic infection and shedding, especially when exposed to more infectious variants.
As S-specific immune responses have immunological memory, the imprinted immunological ‘program’ of S-specific Ab generation and hence, innate immune suppression, will be recalled at every upcoming encounter with Covid-19 strains, or even with CoV strains at large (a phenomenon known as ‘antigenic sin (4)’). This is at risk of inducing a persistent state of enhanced susceptibility to CoV-associated disease in vaccine recipients.
But mass vaccination campaigns will also have severe consequences for those who got vaccinated first (mostly the elderly, people with underlying disease or those who are otherwise immune compromised). In the highly likely event that mass vaccination will soon result in viral resistance to the vaccines, these people will have no arm of their immunity left to rely upon. In contrast to the infectious circulating virus, current vaccines do either not contain any critical killer cell motif or fail to activate dedicated killer cells. It goes, therefore, without saying that, vaccine-induced immune responses will inevitably result in a dramatic enhancement of morbidity and mortality rates in all of the vaccinated population when exposed to highly infectious Covid-19 variants.