A threefer on how not to protect the frail
If you want to protect the frail, multi-comorbidities people at risk from Covid, the following are NOT solutions:
(1) slowing the spread among the healthy not-at-risk, which just raises the frail’s chances of getting infected
(2) a vaccine that has temporary immunosuppressive effects, because for folks this frail, any hit to their system can be very dangerous
(3) a non-sterilizing vaccine, which doesn’t even slow the spread, and prevents them from safely entering society at all
High fives all around.
A fourth way to not protect the frail elderly from covid is to isolate them in solitary confinement, refuse all communal activities, and meals with others, and refuse all in person visits from loved ones. It's important to do this for the better part of a year if you want to get the best effect.
In the words of one elderly inmate of an "assisted living" facility: "why am I being punished?"
How about frittering away precious political capital and limited healthcare resources forcing masks, vax, and boosters onto near-zero risk college kids and schoolkids, and in spite of increasingly skeptical and resistant parents? While older adult vaccination rates (you know, the ones actually at risk) fall further and further behind? Let’s applaud that one too