USMS+

of course you are aware of the huge numbers of vaccinated people getting covid...more of a therapeutic right now than an actual vaccine.

  Windows icon key + semicolon will give you some choices of frowny faces.

It’s disappointing that vaccinated people can still catch and spread Covid. That’s why we need to continue to wear masks. Vaccination does markedly decrease mortality and morbidity iand also decreases transmissibility. It’s not a panacea but it is a necessary tool.

I may try USMS+.  I usually do all or at least a few of the postals.  21 years straight on the hour postal (one or two years, I did it twice).

As an aside, this absolute safety from Covid that many are seeking is NEVER gonna happen.  I will likely die in a body of water (hopefully sooner than later) but it is not going to be from Covid.

Canada has been a nightmare, locking people in hotels at premium rates without adequately feeding them for the duration of their quarantine if travel out of the country.  Pools have been shut down way more than here.  At least their leader isn't in full blown dementia (special, but not demented).

I think forums as is are here to stay for awhile...sorta like how every upgrade on the hospital electronic charting system seems to actually be a downgrade.  I believe it has to do with the 2nd law of Thermodynamics or something.

Before our beloved former forums went dark, I saved my favorite Smilies as images in a folder on my computer.  When I want to use one, I have to go through the cumbersome steps as inserting them as images.  As a beta tester, I asked, and then pleaded for the Smilies to be added to the new forums; however, it never happened.  I was never given a reason why they didn't do it.  

If you want to use their boring selection, click on "insert" above the text box and select "emoticon."  You'll end up with something like this:    Which do you prefer?  Personally, I think Jim's animated Smilies rocked!

Because the injection everyone is getting does not conform to the historic definition of vaccine. Webster's has conveniently changed that.

Some of the drifts of what something means when it gets too far from the origin bothers me. For instance epicenter now means "focal point" when it's origin is referring to the point on the earth above an earthquake(epi=above) as the center was below ground. If a covid outbreak has an epicenter then it seems to me most of the victims are under ground. Similarly decimate has as become "destroy" or similar when historically it means kill every tenth person(as a punishment). If a covid outbreak decimates an area it must be killing every tenth person as a punishment. Vaccinate comes from innoulating with cowpox(vaca=cow) to grant some immunity to smallpox. 

Because science has progressed, we have found a better way to do it.  Sorry the attempts to gaslight the public with the false narrative that it "changes your DNA" failed to take hold.  Guess the new tactic is to say it isn't what it is.

In addition to generally being a better system, the fact is that because of the research done 20 years ago in RNA based vaccines (by the way, Moderna's name came from Modified RNA), an effective vaccine was able to hit the market years before it would with a conventional "dead virus" vaccine.

And I personally don't care what a non-medical resource chooses to call a medical tool.  However, at least they are actually open to new science and data.  Unlike some.

Nothing is perfect.  That's why we use statistics to drive decisions.  Breakthrough infection is a basic aspect of virtually all vaccines.  If measles, smallpox, mumps, diptheria, pertussis, teatnus, rubella, polio, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, HPV, Menogicocol, etc. vaccination rates were on par withi COVID, we'd now have herd immunity, and breakthrough infections would be commonplace, too.

I'm sure you area aware of that, though!

Of course you are also aware that the average age of hospitalized vaccinated people is about 80, and the average age of all hospitalized people is under 50 (meaning average age of unvaccinated is probably under 40).  Of course you are aware that the risk of death is about 12 times higher for unvaccinated.  Of course you understand that being hospitalized is also severarl factors higher as a risk for unvaccinated people as vaccinated.  Finally, there is no doubt what with your knowledge that you are aware that the more conventional vaccine, Johnson and Johnson, has proven to be far less effective, and that the majority of breakthrough infections were with J&J.

Anyway, I know you are aware of all of this stuff.  But just in case anyone reading it somehow mistakes your wording for somehow implying that the vaccine is anything other than the best tool we have, I wanted to point out all of that data which, again, you are doubtlessly aware of.

Well said, '67.  As an emergency room physician, if he is not aware of all you pointed out, he should be!