Rethinking Vaccine Requirements, cleaning & session masking

In the early part of this year, the prevalent form of Covid in the US was the UK/Alpha variant. Although more contagious than the original strain, vaccines were 90% effective against the spread of this variant. It was also very obvious that spread was almost all from respiratory droplets and almost nill from surface transmission.

This led the CDC and most governments to drop extreme cleaning recommendations, remove the masking / social distancing requirements (at least for vaccinated people) & led to a majority of Dommes to get vaccinated themselves & require that clients be vaccinated as well.

I fully supported not just the right for Dommes to set this requirement but also the idea behind it as well as personally no longer wearing a mask (I had stopped extreme cleaning by the end of last summer when it was obvious that it made no difference). However, with the India/Delta variant now representing 90% of US cases, I must ask if it is time to rethink policies based on our current reality.

Vaccines against Covid are only 40% effective against the spread of the virus... although still 90% more effective than not having it in regards to hospitalizations. During the summer of 2020, the leading infectious disease experts, specifically Dr Fauci) assured the public that a vaccine would not be brought forward if the efficacy of that vaccine was less than 50% (this was well before even the 1st trials started for what has been a wildly successful set of vaccines).

I still feel these vaccines would have been brought forward with current efficacy rates because of their impact on how sick people get without it vs with it. However, the idea behind vaccine requirements has been based on the idea of protecting yourself from getting & then spreading the virus. However, the effect of the ineffectiveness of the current vaccines against the spread of the Delta variant is that vaccination is now really about protecting yourself rather than others (as it was earlier in the year).

So, with the change in circumstances we again should be reframing how we go about our lives.. and in the context of this board, what should be the session requirements in regards to this new reality?

Should Dommes still require that clients be vaccinated since that doesn't have much of an effect on the spread of the disease?

Should Dommes return to extreme cleaning measures (there is no additional data that this is required that I know of BUT logic tells you that a more virulent strain has a much higher likelihood of being transmitted thru this method than the less virulent strains)?

Should Dommes & clients return to the masking requirements for close contact that were prevalent amongst those Dommes that did session last year?

Should Dommes be traveling all over the country.. and more specifically to areas (Florida, for example) where the epidemic is out of control again?

At what point does a booster shot become the requirement to be considered to be "fully vaccinated" by a Domme vs the original single/double doses?

For myself, I am fully vaccinated & am back to living under all my 2020 rules because I just don't want to get it. That is my personal choice.. but, it is one that has been made based on the current situation and is fungible based on the ever changing landscape of this disease. My opinion (obviously) is that is the way to go about things.

It is not hypocritical to have stopped wearing masks in May but to be wearing them again.. or to have put a requirement on being vaccinated to book a session during the early part of the year but changing away from that now that your risk of being transmitted to by an unvaccinated individual is virtually the same as a vaccinated one. So, if we should be making decisions based on current reality then how should that affect the world of Pro Domination?

Again, you don't listen to what the experts actually say. Vaccination REDUCES the likelihood of hospitalization if you get Covid over the unvaccinated. It does not eliminate it.

According to statistics (and data extrapolated from these statistics) in this article from Public Health Insider, hospitalization rates for the vaccinated in King County, Washington per day currently are ~1 in 1,000,000 residents while for unvaccinated residents it is ~1 in 12,500 (or 80 in 1,000,000). Death rates are even more stark with daily deaths among vaccinated people being ~1 in 4,000,000 residents (0.000025%) while ~1 in 125,000 for the unvaccinated (0.0008%). To put it in more relevant terms since the % seems so small... If no one was vaccinated in the US, then the daily death toll based on these numbers would currently be 2,680 vs only 84 if everyone was vaccinated.

Obviously the raw data is limited to one specific area of the country (unfortunately the media has done a piss poor job of actually reporting information to decision off of rather than vitriolically screaming "get vaccinated" or "its a hoax", so it's very hard to find relevant data) but it is current. Meaning, relevant to the Delta Variant based on current transmission rates (which is fungible and grows exponentially when unchecked) and with the current therapeutics being available (early use of Regeneron’s monoclonal antibodies to prevent hospitalization, Remdesivir, Dexamethasone and supplemental oxygen once in the hospital).

My point is that anyone who actually looks at the data can clearly see that 1) Vaccinated people, like Oscar De La Hoya, do still end up in the hospital and can die & 2) The vaccines clearly work in reducing your risk of being hospitalized, like Oscar De La Hoya, or dying from Covid.

I wrote a blog post about this.

I don't require vaccination, for the reason you stated: it doesn't prevent transmission (nor does it prevent mutation) and how much it "prevents" or reduces infection is still being determined (it's definitely not even close to the hopeful number they initially gave us).

And since there's no long-term data on its safety, i.e. complications or contraindications, and there won't be for 5 to 10 years, it's a risk that each person has to consider for themselves. I'm in no place to try to pressure or enforce adherence to something that could cause someone a lifelong complication or even death.

For now, I require a mask. I feel that's a reasonably safe risk reduction method. In the very least, I'm not subjected to someone's bad breath.