from Hacker News

Only 28 Percent of Young Black New Yorkers Are Vaccinated

by Overton-Window on 8/13/21, 8:20 PM with 31 comments

• by NonContro on 8/13/21, 10:25 PM

  What % of African Americans have already been exposed to COVID and thus have natural immunity?

  Why not just allow antibody tests to be regarded the same as vaccines? Carving out this kind of exclusion would solve the problem, and allow vaccines to be redistributed.

  The CDC estimates that 33% of the American population has been exposed to COVID, and for the African American population its probably about 50% when extrapolating from case counts [2]

  https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/king-county...

• by cypherg on 8/13/21, 11:18 PM

  Well, at least they explain everything wrong in the very first line of the article:

  "A construction site safety manager in Queens said that as a Black man, he was more worried about the prospect of being stopped by the police than he was about getting Covid-19."

  Humans are truly horrible at assessing risk. So many cognitive biases, where do you even start.

• by version_five on 8/14/21, 1:20 AM

  I find it contradictory how largely the same group that talks about diversity and inclusion and systemic racism etc is happy to champion policies that ignore the views of minority groups (whether ethnic, religious, rural, whatever), tell them they are wrong and their concerns unfounded, and call for them to be segregated and denied service based on their choices. An actual "inclusive" construct would work with people to understand and respect their concerns, and meet them where they are, not just tell them they're wrong.

  Not that it's hard to find inconsistencies in religious / dogmatic positions generally. But in this case, it's messed up that people are going ahead with literal populism - enacting policies that placate an angry mob to the detriment and exclusion of other voices, while simultaneously claiming to support the under represented. Its almost as if their goal all along was not expanded rights, but just trying to find wedges to push their agenda forward...

• by hamburgerwah on 8/14/21, 4:54 AM

  I am not black but I can see some extremely strong historical reasons why the black community would be very suspicious of any government claims that a medicine or medical treatment is there to help them. The extent to which vaccine and pandemic related messaging has been politicized and just completely botched is a true tragedy.

• by CheezeIt on 8/13/21, 9:41 PM

  I mean, give them one reason why they should be.

• by walterbell on 8/13/21, 9:16 PM

  Three million New Yorkers are about to be banned from many indoor businesses and social activities, without a scientific foundation for the proposed policy.

  Vaccines delivered to the arm deltoid muscle never promised mucosal immunity, even if politicians have misunderstood their purpose as more than symptom reduction.

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7733922/

  > The mucosal immune system is the largest component of the entire immune system, having evolved to provide protection at the main sites of infectious threat: the mucosae. As SARS-CoV-2 initially infects the upper respiratory tract, its first interactions with the immune system must occur predominantly at the respiratory mucosal surfaces, during both inductive and effector phases of the response. However, almost all studies of the immune response in COVID-19 have focused exclusively on serum antibodies and systemic cell-mediated immunity including innate responses.

  Since NYC was the epicenter of early Covid cases, a sizable subset of the population, especially essential workers, were infected and have long recovered with sterilizing immunity that is better than symptom-reduction from non-sterilizing vaccines. These workers (Covid Veterans?), who bore the risk of serving those sequestered at home, are now to be punished for their service? https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/558757-the-ill-advise...

  > During the pandemic, the professional laptop class protected themselves by working from home while exposing the working class that brought them food and other goods. It is now the height of hypocrisy to recognize immunity from vaccinations but not immunity from those exposed while serving the laptop class.

  Let's add the fact that vaccinated+infected people can transmit to others while they are free of symptoms, while the recovered have mucosal immunity that protects against both infection and transmission.

  As a point of comparison, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine provides sterilizing immunity. Hopefully, upcoming intranasal vaccines can provide a sterilizing vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. As UK SAGE stated recently, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/long-term-evoluti...

  > Whilst we feel that current vaccines are excellent for reducing the risk of hospital admission and disease, we propose that research be focused on vaccines that also induce high and durable levels of mucosal immunity in order to reduce infection of and transmission from vaccinated individuals. This could also reduce the possibility of variant selection in vaccinated individuals.

  https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/10/covid-intranasal-vaccine...

  > Vaccines that are injected into the arm have done a spectacular job at preventing severe disease and death. But they do not generate the kind of protection in the nasal passages that would be needed to block all infection. That’s called “sterilizing immunity.” The fact that the vaccines don’t block all infections and don’t prevent vaccinated people from transmitting isn’t a big surprise, said Kathryn Edwards, a vaccine expert at Vanderbilt School of Medicine.

  In summary, NYC is going to shut out those with proven immunity and allow those who can silently (symptom-free) infect others into the small enclosed spaces of NYC restaurants. Does this sound familiar? Remember what happened last year when NY leadership sent Covid-infected patients from hospitals into nursing homes? Thousands of families of the fallen have not forgotten.