Would you mind laying out a little more information about the implications of the J&J? I have been on the IT side of construction my entire career (and for the foreseeable future). As a result, my place of work at the time of vaccine roll-out offered bonuses for proof of vaccination the moment there was widespread ability so that the business could continue to function without risk of hospitalizing their own workforce. It was a pretty sweet deal for a small organization - $250 at first dose, another upon completion of the second. Now, as a young lad, I thought “I can get $500 at one go if I just get the J&J! Why wait for two doses?” My fiancé looked up the efficacy of the options and chose a safer route via two-dose solution.

I ended up with ‘vid around the time headlines of the Delta variant came out and I’m certain without the J&J (and someone checking on me) I would have been hospitalized. For some reason, the illness’s effects felt akin to and worse than mono. My partner never got sick, even when I contracted covid two more times - both after receiving a Pfizer booster. Each subsequent contraction had less mono-like symptoms, but every flu-like illness I’ve had between the initial covid infection and deciding to regularly get the flu vaccine was accompanied by mono-esque symptoms.

Curious as to whether you can speak to (or link to) more on this:

Most people don't seem to know that the J&J covid vax used a viral envelope that much of the population has some immunogenicity against. Nor do they know that the J&J vax was limited to one dose, not because of its superior effectiveness, but because the first dose would raise their immunogenicity such that the second dose would be ineffective and a greater risk of adverse reaction. Also, they can no longer benefit from vaccines or gene therapies that use such an envelope. I think that was a mistake. I also think it's a mistake that new covid vaccines are encouraged for age groups without clinical data showing a benefit for that group, particularly for mRNA-based vaccines.

Glad you’re still engaging, especially after your comment on the “Hubski isn’t what it used to be” post. With the state of the online world as is, I’ve come to finally understand the standpoint of closing the door to logged-out users/scrapers. On the other hand, Pabs’ post a week or so earlier was a great reminder of the place the site holds in hearts of the earlier crowd.