Eg. TBE vaccines need a yearly booster

Nothing new

I'm just going to take a look at my yellow vaccine pass. I got what's normally recommended in Germany plus additional vaxx against TBE and Hepatitis. I assume you're a German man in your 20s or 30s, so you can compare yourself to me in that regard.

 

Against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and haemophilius influenzae type b I got combined vaccines 4 times in my first two years of life. I have received 3 boosters so far and a booster is recommended every ten years. If you don't get the booster and go to a hospital with a larger wound, they will give you a tetanus booster anyway.

 

Against polio I got vaxxed 3 times within the first two years of my life and received 2 boosters since then.

 

Against TBE I was vaxxed 3 times, received 1 booster already and boosters are recommended every five years.

 

The vaccine against the coronavirus was very similar to the way some of these have been given: Two shots in short order and then a third one half a year later. We simply don't yet know how many boosters are needed (we can talk in about what is meant by "needed", too) and the coronavirus mutates quickly, similar to the flu. People who get the flu shot get it every year.

 

So your premise

is just completely wrong.

Of course it isn't. It is important to consider the motivations of people who utter certain opinions. Obviously the Biontech boss and other pharma execs have an interest in selling as much of their product as possible. It is reasonable to have some scepticism there.

 

But now consider other players who recommend the vaccine. The vast majority of doctors recommend it. But some make a profit from it, too. How big is that profit, though? My general practitioner charges something like 10€ for jabs that the insurance doesn't pay, so I assume that is his profit from corona jabs, too. But I've gone there many times during the pandemic due to other health problems and they're working their asses off. They can't answer the phone anymore and other procedures have to be delayed, etc. I'm sure he would earn his moneys anyway if he didn't recommend it.

 

Health insurance companies have no interest in paying anything. They only recommend you things to do that will safe them money, basically. They determined it is cheaper to pay for the vaccines and boosters than for hospital treatments. They have a money incentive to keep you healthy and they recommend the boosters.

 

Some governments might have different kinds of profit motives, but basically all of them recommend the boosters. If they were really pointless or bad, you'd expect some random country to say so publicly. But basically none of them do.

 

So you need to look at the bigger picture, not just Ugur Sahin.

That is indeed not immediately obvious, but here is my understanding:

 

A version adapted to a new variant would indeed be better. It takes some time to develop, but it can be done very quickly. Only a few days or weeks and I think they're already done. Then they need to go through testing and official authorization again, which is a couple of months and then they need to get production going. It will be about half a year until this is available to basically everyone. As far as I understand they considered doing this for the Delta variant, but determined the original version was still good enough and didn't bother. For Omicron it will probably be done, but it will not be here quickly enough for the current wave. Maybe an Omicron booster will be available next year.

 

Now, why do they recommend boosters?

 

Your immune system reacts to vaccines and illnesses by producing antibodies. They float around in your blood and can immediately attack the viruses. Virus comes in your nose, antibody kills it. When no viruses come in, the antibodies go away again. Now viruses can come in and multiply before the body produces antibodies again. If you were sick previously or are vaxxed, this production of antibodies will be quicker than the first time you encounter the virus. But it still needs some time to produce the antibodies again and in that time you might get mildly sick or even spread the disease around for a few days.

 

If you're vaxxed two times a while ago, your body already knows how to produce antibodies, even if you don't have any anymore. When you encounter the virus, your body can react and you will most likely not die or go to the hospital. But you are still likely to get sick.

If you're recently boostered, you have antibodies and you will kill the virus much quicker. You won't get as sick and you won't spread as much.

 

Is that understandable at all?

factually incorrect

1972 smallpox outbreak yugoslavia happened despite almost everyone being vaccinated, it was fixed by complete lockdown of pozzed villages in kosovo and mandatory booster of everyone in yugoslavia in ans months

tetanus vaccine is supposed to be boosted at least every 10 years, if you're injured and haven't been vax'd in last 10 years you'll be administered a booster