COVID-19 2nd wave - Texas only - Stats and such

[Pato del Muerto 52583]

8 minutes ago, Heme Doc said:

There’s no data showing that masking vaccinated people is going to affect jack shit

I assume it would affect a decent percentage of the small percentage that would get a breakthrough infection. No?  So while a blanket mandate isn’t necessary, individuals who choose to mask up despite full vaccination are mitigating their already low risk. 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Pato del Muerto

[Heme Doc 417]

6 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I assume it would affect a decent percentage of the small percentage that would get a breakthrough infection. No?  So while a blanket mandate isn’t necessary, individuals who choose to mask up despite full vaccination are mitigating their already low risk. 

I’m fine with people who are vaccinated and choose to mask up.  I do at work every day.  I can’t rule out some small benefit of mask wearing in vaccinated folks that certain people would feel worth it given their individual risk tolerance and situation.  I just don’t think there’s enough/any data showing that mandating masks, in vaccinated people, is going to accomplish anything meaningful in terms of reduction of hospitalizations, death, etc (the numbers we should care about most).  We know vaccinated people can get sick still, but do so OVERWHELMINGLY less than the unvaccinated.  We know that transmission is drastically reduced by vaccination as well…but not to zero.  Nothing is 100% effective.  So I certainly do acquiesce that masks may help some small amount in vaccinated folks.

If someone wants to do a prospective study on masks, I’m all for it.  I’m a very data driven person.  But we have been in the pandemic for a year and a half.  The onus is on those wanting to keep restrictions in place to show that they do anything.  

[mchookem 16376]

i...i will feel...i mean... the mask mandate...i got very, very depressed last year. i know i'm not special feeling that way. i just dread it. please, please, no.

 

[Judge Roybeanbag 11820]

16 minutes ago, Heme Doc said:

I’m fine with people who are vaccinated and choose to mask up.  I do at work every day.  I can’t rule out some small benefit of mask wearing in vaccinated folks that certain people would feel worth it given their individual risk tolerance and situation.  I just don’t think there’s enough/any data showing that mandating masks, in vaccinated people, is going to accomplish anything meaningful in terms of reduction of hospitalizations, death, etc (the numbers we should care about most).  We know vaccinated people can get sick still, but do so OVERWHELMINGLY less than the unvaccinated.  We know that transmission is drastically reduced by vaccination as well…but not to zero.  Nothing is 100% effective.  So I certainly do acquiesce that masks may help some small amount in vaccinated folks.

If someone wants to do a prospective study on masks, I’m all for it.  I’m a very data driven person.  But we have been in the pandemic for a year and a half.  The onus is on those wanting to keep restrictions in place to show that they do anything.  

I’m not advocating one way or another, but I would imagine mandating that only unvaccinated wear masks isn’t going to do shit, because the unvaccinated aren’t going to do it voluntarily and who is going to check status?  It’s either all or none.  Unvaccinated people aren’t wearing masks unless they are forced to, and the only realistic way to accomplish that is to make it a requirement for everyone.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Judge Roybeanbag

[Surly Bevo 25143]

I'd rather just make the vaccine a requirement for cool stuff like flying, dining out, etc.  Needs to have the fully authorized checkmark of course but seems to me when it's in 161M people that's kind of closing the barn door after all the horses left anyway.

Logistical and Karen nightmare....I know, but fuck those people.  

[Pato del Muerto 52583]

19 minutes ago, Heme Doc said:

I’m fine with people who are vaccinated and choose to mask up.  I do at work every day.  I can’t rule out some small benefit of mask wearing in vaccinated folks that certain people would feel worth it given their individual risk tolerance and situation.  I just don’t think there’s enough/any data showing that mandating masks, in vaccinated people, is going to accomplish anything meaningful in terms of reduction of hospitalizations, death, etc (the numbers we should care about most).  We know vaccinated people can get sick still, but do so OVERWHELMINGLY less than the unvaccinated.  We know that transmission is drastically reduced by vaccination as well…but not to zero.  Nothing is 100% effective.  So I certainly do acquiesce that masks may help some small amount in vaccinated folks.

If someone wants to do a prospective study on masks, I’m all for it.  I’m a very data driven person.  But we have been in the pandemic for a year and a half.  The onus is on those wanting to keep restrictions in place to show that they do anything.  

Not sure what you are seeing, but I am told that a doctor in the family has stated 60% efficacy for fully vaxed and 30% for undervaxed against delta is what his clinic/network is seeing so far.

however that information has been filtered through 2 women so I’m left wondering how close it resembles what he actually said to my SIL. 

[Heme Doc 417]

18 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Not sure what you are seeing, but I am told that a doctor in the family has stated 60% efficacy for fully vaxed and 30% for undervaxed against delta is what his clinic/network is seeing so far.

however that information has been filtered through 2 women so I’m left wondering how close it resembles what he actually said to my SIL. 

The data I’ve seen from Israel which is pretty much all Delta shows Pfizer still over 95% effective against severe disease in ages<65 and probably more like 80% effective in over 65.  Older folks may need a booster.  That Pfizer booster trial is enrolling right now.  I’m waiting for my call to come in for it (I was on the original Pfizer trial).  I’ll go on my own next month to get antibody titers to see where I’m at one year after my vaccination.  

[Newdoc 3452]

27 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

however that information has been filtered through 2 women so I’m left wondering how close it resembles what he actually said to my SIL. 

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/heres-how-well-covid-19-vaccines-work-against-the-delta-variant

Good info on what we know so far about vaccine efficacy and Delta.

Real world, I am seeing it spread among younger kids and I have had several breakthrough cases (for all vaccines) this weekend in my clinic alone but all breakthroughs would be considered mild cases. The unvaccinated seem to have more significant symptoms per age group than before. For example, most 20-30 year olds with the old variant had symptoms akin to the common cold. That same group presenting naive to the virus and unvaccinated now have more flu like than cold symptoms.  Our hospital has fit middle age people with Covid misrepresented in the ICU vs 6 months prior.

I was pissed when the media and Fauci made a big deal about the previous British, South Africa and Brazil variants because they were not significantly more virulent than our original variant. Now we have a case of the "Boy who cried wolf" and our partisan divide has left people blinded to the shit show that is happening around them. Maybe they'll have an epiphany when their hunting buddy is found lying on the couch gasping for air with his 55% O2 saturation but by God, they can't force me to take that experimental Biden juice.

[BrazilHorn 6631]

I am on vacation with family but here are total numbers vs demographic data for Travis County

159 total cases

196 hospitalized (highest since 3/12)

38 admits.

 

[crash_davis 23115]

Will you anti-vaxxers please hurry up and die? 

[Hate 20143]

32 minutes ago, Newdoc said:

 Maybe they'll have an epiphany when their hunting buddy is found lying on the couch gasping for air with his 55% O2 saturation but by God, they can't force me to take that experimental Biden juice.

It's not just people scared of the Biden juice (and jesus shouldn't we all be scared of that) that aren't getting vaccinated. 

[Captainant 27756]

2 hours ago, mchookem said:

i...i will feel...i mean... the mask mandate...i got very, very depressed last year. i know i'm not special feeling that way. i just dread it. please, please, no.

 

If wearing a facemask was the worst thing you had to deal with last year.... I want your life. 

[mchookem 16376]

dude...it was the straw.

[Guest Lobo]

Yeah, if I had to vote on worst things about 2020 that got me depressed, mask mandates are not in the Top 10.  They certainly are in the 'receiving votes' group.

Anti-vaxx bullshit may have finally jumped the shark, though I have full faith the empowered stupidity of some will find another reason or facebook mom group to lean on for avoiding the shots.  Brilliant Texas citizen tells us about the fact that 99% of all covid fatalities are now in unvaccinated people.  I asked him if he believed that statistic.  He said he did.  So I thought, "great, we're reaching some common ground with common sense finally." 

Nope, curveball coming.  He basically asks us to consider that if 99% are unvaccinated, that means 1% of the dying are vaccinated.  And 1% was also the mortality rate before the vaccines came along.  So your odds of dying are still the same, 1%.  So you're just as well off without it, then with it.  Nobody  bothered explaining it to him, but it would frighten you to know what this man is in charge of in real life.  And he's got this kinda shit floating around in his head.  Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll be dead soon.  

Edited July 20, 2021 by Lobo

[Gatorubet 30298]

They don't care.  It's amazing how many people I know who call themselves Christians are not willing to do such a small thing to help protect others.

That’s the tell….the more they insist they are, the less likely they are.

Exceptions exist, obviously.

[Gatorubet 30298]

i...i will feel...i mean... the mask mandate...i got very, very depressed last year. i know i'm not special feeling that way. i just dread it. please, please, no.
 

Sorry you were depressed about masks. But it flat mystifies me that you were. It was mildly annoying, at most. To me.

[scottsins 1969]

The concept of societal constructs and public health completely baffles some of our posters.
I have lost complete patience for the idiot faction in our society that continues to double down on stupidity and lack of common sense for the ideology and religion of factional pseudoscience.  I am done. I am tired. 

My pharmacist wife had a patient come in yesterday. Last week, he claimed that his girlfriend’s injection site was magnetic or something. She flat out told him that this could not happen. He didn’t get mad or anything, BUT…

Yesterday he brings the gf in and starts trying to demonstrate how a penny will stick to her arm. After the 10th try, it kinda paused on her skin for a split second, due to moisture or whatever. Wife was shocked at how committed they were to flat out denying what their own eyes were seeing.

Guy started getting agitated and “threatened” to prove this by coming in and getting his own shot. Wife gladly called him on it and said, “that’s a great plan because I would love for you to be vaccinated.”

The bullshit Facebook theory was that there was metal in the chip/shot that would allow for a magnet to stick. This guy has now reversed that to…I gusss, mean that there are magnets in the vaccine, AND that pennies will stick to magnets.

/Fuckingmagentshowdotheywork?

[Pato del Muerto 52583]

People that believe pennies are magnetic are the target audience for all of this misinfo. The really depressing thing for the rest of us is realizing how many of them there are. 

[NoName 16396]

1 hour ago, scottsins said:

My pharmacist wife had a patient come in yesterday. Last week, he claimed that his girlfriend’s injection site was magnetic or something. She flat out told him that this could not happen. He didn’t get mad or anything, BUT…

Yesterday he brings the gf in and starts trying to demonstrate how a penny will stick to her arm. After the 10th try, it kinda paused on her skin for a split second, due to moisture or whatever. Wife was shocked at how committed they were to flat out denying what their own eyes were seeing.

Guy started getting agitated and “threatened” to prove this by coming in and getting his own shot. Wife gladly called him on it and said, “that’s a great plan because I would love for you to be vaccinated.”

The bullshit Facebook theory was that there was metal in the chip/shot that would allow for a magnet to stick. This guy has now reversed that to…I gusss, mean that there are magnets in the vaccine, AND that pennies will stick to magnets.

/Fuckingmagentshowdotheywork?

of COURSE this guy doesn't know pennies aren't magnetic.

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

8 hours ago, Lobo said:

Yeah, if I had to vote on worst things about 2020 that got me depressed, mask mandates are not in the Top 10.  They certainly are in the 'receiving votes' group.

Anti-vaxx bullshit may have finally jumped the shark, though I have full faith the empowered stupidity of some will find another reason or facebook mom group to lean on for avoiding the shots.  Brilliant Texas citizen tells us about the fact that 99% of all covid fatalities are now in unvaccinated people.  I asked him if he believed that statistic.  He said he did.  So I thought, "great, we're reaching some common ground with common sense finally." 

Nope, curveball coming.  He basically asks us to consider that if 99% are unvaccinated, that means 1% of the dying are vaccinated.  And 1% was also the mortality rate before the vaccines came along.  So your odds of dying are still the same, 1%.  So you're just as well off without it, then with it.  Nobody  bothered explaining it to him, but it would frighten you to know what this man is in charge of in real life.  And he's got this kinda shit floating around in his head.  Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll be dead soon.  

I am withholding my rant on how this is yet another consequence of the total failure of our systems of education.  

[Heme Doc 417]

10 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I’m not advocating one way or another, but I would imagine mandating that only unvaccinated wear masks isn’t going to do shit, because the unvaccinated aren’t going to do it voluntarily and who is going to check status?  It’s either all or none.  Unvaccinated people aren’t wearing masks unless they are forced to, and the only realistic way to accomplish that is to make it a requirement for everyone.

Right.  This would be the logic of why mandates are re-instituted.  

I can only think of 3 logical reasons for mask mandates at this point.

1.  Masking vaccinated individuals will significantly reduce that persons likelihood of getting COVID.    

2.  Masking vaccinated folks will significantly reduce them spreading COVID to others.  

3.  Making everyone mask will force unvaccinated people to mask up (which they aren’t doing) at the “cost” of vaccinated people also masking up.

Numbers 1 and 2 seem extremely unlikely and contrary to all known data.  Number 3 won’t work either because the vaxxed won’t play along (why the fuck should I wear a mask now?) and the unvaxxed won’t either 

 

[Snake Diggity 4627]

Anytime the hospitalization rate in an area is projected to exceed capacity due to the spread of viruses, that area should institute a mask mandate.  Wearing masks indoors in public areas is a proven low/no cost effective way to reduce the spread of viruses.  If you think wearing a mask indoors in public areas is a burden, you are a fucking pussy.  If you think masks don’t help prevent the spread of viruses like the one that causes COVID, then you are a fucking dumbass.

[crash_davis 23115]

it's probably already been proposed but i haven't read this whole damn thread. it's very simple.

if you refuse to vaccinate, then if/when you get covid, you are not entitled to any medical help. none. 

you want to believe it's a hoax, scam, causes magnetism, whatever, then you are too stupid for the gene pool and deserve to be taken out if Darwin decides so. the rest of society should not intervene to save you.

we'll see how convicted these numbnuts are to the whole antivax thing.

[Snake Diggity 4627]

2 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

it's probably already been proposed but i haven't read this whole damn thread. it's very simple.

if you refuse to vaccinate, then if/when you get covid, you are not entitled to any medical help. none. 

you want to believe it's a hoax, scam, causes magnetism, whatever, then you are too stupid for the gene pool and deserve to be taken out if Darwin decides so. the rest of society should not intervene to save you.

we'll see how convicted these numbnuts are to the whole antivax thing.

We’ve pretty much committed as a society not to deny medical care to anyone, regardless of why they require it. 

The answer is requiring vaccinations to attend school, enter a federal building, or fly. And the feds should use financial means to encourage states to ensure their adults get vaccinated.

Either way, the good news is this 4th wave in the US is mostly punishing the people who deserve it.  Yes, a lot of good people (who either can’t get vaccinated for health reasons or who are vaccinated but suffer serious illness anyway) will be hospitalized and die from this wave, and that sucks balls, but 90%+ of the people who die this round are people who had the opportunity to get vaccinated and chose not to.

[Captainant 27756]

2 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

We’ve pretty much committed as a society not to deny medical care to anyone, regardless of why they require it. 

[laughs in health insurance industry]

[crash_davis 23115]

2 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

We’ve pretty much committed as a society not to deny medical care to anyone, regardless of why they require it. 

The answer is requiring vaccinations to attend school, enter a federal building, or fly. And the feds should use financial means to encourage states to ensure their adults get vaccinated.

Either way, the good news is this 4th wave in the US is mostly punishing the people who deserve it.  Yes, a lot of good people (who either can’t get vaccinated for health reasons or who are vaccinated but suffer serious illness anyway) will be hospitalized and die from this wave, and that sucks balls, but 90%+ of the people who die this round are people who had the opportunity to get vaccinated and chose not to.

fuck the hospitalization. they were fully convicted on being assholes. fuck them. let them sort the shit out by themselves.

[Snake Diggity 4627]

37 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

fuck the hospitalization. they were fully convicted on being assholes. fuck them. let them sort the shit out by themselves.

Yeah but then we’d have to deny emergency care to all of the following:

No cardiology for fatties

No ER care for motorcycle drivers in accidents

No ER care for drug overdoses

And the list goes on. 
 

I agree these people should be shamed for their stupidity and selfishness.  But we have kinda made the bed with how we treat healthcare.

 

[landman 559]

12 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I’m not advocating one way or another, but I would imagine mandating that only unvaccinated wear masks isn’t going to do shit, because the unvaccinated aren’t going to do it voluntarily and who is going to check status?  It’s either all or none.  Unvaccinated people aren’t wearing masks unless they are forced to, and the only realistic way to accomplish that is to make it a requirement for everyone.

Pretty much anywhere the wife and I go there are signs that masks are optional for vaccinated people (we both have ours), but required for unvaccinated.  I find it amazing that apparently EVERYBODY at the businesses, stores, restaurants, etc. that we've been to the last few weeks are vaccinated.  

[crash_davis 23115]

2 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

Yeah but then we’d have to deny emergency care to all of the following:

No cardiology for fatties

No ER care for motorcycle drivers in accidents

No ER care for drug overdoses

And the list goes on. 
 

I agree these people should be shamed for their stupidity and selfishness.  But we have kinda made the bed with how we treat healthcare.

 

The people you listed are mostly only hurting themselves. These antivax selfish pricks are allowing Covid to hang around and mutate indefinitely. They are allowing other mostly eradicated diseases to come back. The sooner they all die, the sooner we can go back to normal.

[InkaUtexas 26088]

Son called me Friday. He had Pfizer 1 and not the second yet. Yep, positive with COVID. 23, healthy and has only lost his sense of smell/taste. 

[SquishMitten 10428]

Found out yesterday that my neighbors who have been adamant about not getting vaxxed finally got it. I’ve been urging them for months, but they just wouldn’t budge. Extremely smart couple. They openly admitted that they were piggybacking on the rest of us, and since numbers had been consistently declining, they weren’t going to bother with it. Guess this new wave finally convinced them otherwise, but I’m going to give myself a small bit of credit. Either way, hopefully there are a lot of folks like them who weren’t necessarily anti-vaxxers, but rather just mistakenly believed that the pandemic was over

[Hanrahan 1306]

Wonder if this guy was vaccinated?

[crash_davis 23115]

Fuck that guy. He's part of the problem. When nature does it's thing, he expects doctors to save him.

[OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys 2078]

11 hours ago, Lobo said:

Brilliant Texas citizen tells us about the fact that 99% of all covid fatalities are now in unvaccinated people.  I asked him if he believed that statistic.  He said he did.  So I thought, "great, we're reaching some common ground with common sense finally." 

Nope, curveball coming.  He basically asks us to consider that if 99% are unvaccinated, that means 1% of the dying are vaccinated.  And 1% was also the mortality rate before the vaccines came along.  So your odds of dying are still the same, 1%.  So you're just as well off without it, then with it. 

mike trout bats .380.   my revolver is a .38.   therefore my revolver is v v good at baseball.

[Blotto 23570]

13 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Fuck that guy. He's part of the problem. When nature does it's thing, he expects doctors to save him.

Not rooting for anybody's death, but if this guys slips into the great MAGAland in the sky, I'll manage to give not  a single fuck. Stupid games...stupid prizes. Fucking done with these clowns. 

[Deej 76903]

24 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

Wonder if this guy was vaccinated?

[Foosters 17884]

3 hours ago, Heme Doc said:

 

3.  Making everyone mask will force unvaccinated people to mask up (which they aren’t doing) at the “cost” of vaccinated people also masking up.

 Number 3 won’t work either because the vaxxed won’t play along (why the fuck should I wear a mask now?) and the unvaxxed won’t either 

 

If masks are mandated then they'll have to play along, or risk becoming a entry in the "Karen of the year" thread.

[South Austin 52584]

29 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

Wonder if this guy was vaccinated?

[crash_davis 23115]

Just now, South Austin said:

Do your thing, Hero!

[Captainant 27756]

22 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

Wonder if this guy was vaccinated?

[dcbc 14508]

Head pastor at our church tested positive last week.  He was vaxxed, and I'm pretty sure he had Covid19 last year (or maybe he only was exposed and had to quarantine).  In any event, bad luck for him, but surely a result of lots of human contact in a town with only a 40% vax rate.  On the upside, his symptoms are cold-like.

Edited July 20, 2021 by dcbc

[XYZ 2154]

1 hour ago, SquishMitten said:

Found out yesterday that my neighbors who have been adamant about not getting vaxxed finally got it. I’ve been urging them for months, but they just wouldn’t budge. Extremely smart couple. They openly admitted that they were piggybacking on the rest of us, and since numbers had been consistently declining, they weren’t going to bother with it. Guess this new wave finally convinced them otherwise, but I’m going to give myself a small bit of credit. Either way, hopefully there are a lot of folks like them who weren’t necessarily anti-vaxxers, but rather just mistakenly believed that the pandemic was over

What exactly does “piggybacking on the rest of us” mean? What did they get from the rest of us?

[crash_davis 23115]

2 minutes ago, XYZ said:

What exactly does “piggybacking on the rest of us” mean? What did they get from the rest of us?

osmosis. vicarious vaccination.

[smoky 840]

What exactly does “piggybacking on the rest of us” mean? What did they get from the rest of us?

I think he means that if he hangs out in a room full of vaccinated people, his chances of getting it are slim.

[Foosters 17884]

3 minutes ago, XYZ said:

What exactly does “piggybacking on the rest of us” mean? What did they get from the rest of us?

My guess is they were holding out for the vaccines to push us over the threshold for herd immunity.

[utee94 15860]

7 minutes ago, Foosters said:

My guess is they were holding out for the vaccines to push us over the threshold for herd immunity.

Instead, their infections have furthered that cause.  

[Pato del Muerto 52583]

13 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Instead, their infections have furthered that cause.  

I believe he was saying they finally got the vaccination, not the virus. 

[utee94 15860]

Just now, Pato del Muerto said:

I believe he was saying they finally got the vaccination, not the virus. 

Ah yes indeed, upon re-reading, I see that now.  Well good for them!  May they be a shining example to others that have been resistant or hesitant for whatever reasons.

[SquishMitten 10428]

31 minutes ago, XYZ said:

What exactly does “piggybacking on the rest of us” mean? What did they get from the rest of us?

 

27 minutes ago, smoky said:

I think he means that if he hangs out in a room full of vaccinated people, his chances of getting it are slim.

^^ Basically this

27 minutes ago, Foosters said:

My guess is they were holding out for the vaccines to push us over the threshold for herd immunity.

^^ Yes. I think they already felt we were practically there.

5 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I believe he was saying they finally got the vaccination, not the virus. 

^^ Correct

Edited July 20, 2021 by SquishMitten

[washparkhorn 9939]

2 hours ago, XYZ said:

What exactly does “piggybacking on the rest of us” mean? What did they get from the rest of us?

The free rider problem:

Promoting vaccination is an important goal in public health policy. However, influenza vaccination coverage in the United States is still far below the public policy goal. Vaccination may be discouraged by the incentive to “free-ride”. Referred to herein as “free-riders” in vaccination, these individuals avoid the cost associated with vaccination while benefiting from other individuals' vaccination [1] [2]. Vaccination for infectious diseases produces herd immunity, providing indirect benefit to unvaccinated individuals. As the result of herd immunity, the risk of infection for an individual depends on other individuals' vaccination status; risk of infection generally decreases as the vaccination coverage in a community increases regardless of an individual's vaccination status.

In economic theory, a free-riding problem occurs in the market of public goods that have two main characteristics: non-rivalry and non-exclusion of consumption. Vaccination holds both characteristics. Non-rival consumption indicates that consumption of a good by one person does not affect the quantities consumed by other individuals. Goods involving non-exclusion are costly or sometimes impossible to restrict their benefits to certain individuals. The production of public goods results in positive externalities, and accordingly, herd immunity effects are described as positive externalities. Vaccination externalities have been theoretically analyzed in both a static [3] [4] and a dynamic framework [4] [5] [6].

As empirical analyses, previous survey studies have demonstrated some evidence of free-riding in vaccination decision-making. Based on hypothetical scenarios regarding vaccination against an infectious disease, free-riding incentives have been found to significantly influence vaccination decisions [7]. In another study on parents' vaccination choice, parents answered that they would be less likely to vaccinate their children if most of their children's contacts were vaccinated [8], a response pattern that is consistent with free-riding.

In this study, we used a computerized interactive game to examine individuals' decision making about vaccination for a simulated influenza infection in a group setting. Specifically, we determined the role of free-riding incentives as well as other potential factors in vaccination decision-making. Due to uncertainty regarding the outcome, the decision to get vaccinated is dependent on more factors than ordinary economic goods, including health status, individuals' beliefs, and other psychological factors such as fears or regrets [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]. We attempted to examine how individuals make a decision in response to observed decisions made by other individuals, controlling for these effects using experimental approach.

In the game, eight to ten participants formed a group. Participants simultaneously and independently made a decision on whether they would get vaccinated given a set of parameter conditions specific to each round, sequentially playing 24 rounds of the game. Each participant was granted 2,000 points initially and lost points when they “spent” points on buying the vaccine or when they were infected. Final points were connected to monetary payouts for participants. In addition to free-riding incentives, we examined whether an individual's influenza exposure in prior rounds of the game or the influenza prevalence in the group would influence further decisions about vaccination acceptance. The experimental design mirrored the dynamic nature of influenza transmission where individuals' chance of “infection” depended on the realized proportion of vaccination in the group.

Our results showed that individuals' vaccination decisions were significantly influenced by observed vaccination rate during the previous round, suggesting free-riding behavior.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3901764/