The question of whether to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has indeed been highly politicised and in some circles is even used as means of identitarian virtue signalling.

There might also be ulterior motives at play, such as continued non-pharmaceutical interventions being justified by a lack in vaccine uptake or politicians whose views on the matter hinge on demonstrably false statements such as the claim that vaccines will provide long-term protection against contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

However, all that doesn't mean that mRNA vaccines don't work or that one shouldn't get vaccinated for these reasons. mRNA vaccines are a tremendous technological achievement, generally very safe, and a boon for mankind.

Getting vaccinated shouldn't be a political decision, but entirely depend on an individual's personal decision and be motivated by medical and individual risk considerations alone.

For by far the most people that simply means getting vaccinated, much more so for individuals who are at a higher risk of severe complications from a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Interestingly, as a side note and since you mentioned that particular risk factor, obesity is associated with a similarly increased risk (about ten times) of severe COVID-19 symptoms as not being vaccinated.

However, very little is being done to motivate people to lose weight to improve their potential outcome when contracting COVID-19. That, in turn, tells a lot about our healthcare systems and the political decisions driving those.

You may find this blog helpful, she's been generally ahead of the curve on where coronavirus is going.

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/

Not a doctor - I've done about 1500 hours of independent research - I would recommend against it

Anecdata: Do you feel like your health has gotten overall better or worse since starting your covid vaccine regime?

Reading your comments you come off as having some type of guilt about "red pills" or other culture war type stuff - Look how many qualifiers you added to this post ("controversial question" , "not shaming", etc.)

There's nothing to feel guilty about and you can skip all the emotional stuff. Here is reality: Meta is laying off 11,000 workers today many of whom no doubt complied with the covid vaccine mandates. You need to zoom out and ask yourself if the values of mandated vaccines are in alignment with your values, which seems to be an equal question you are asking along with the medical advice.

I hope this comment can help you come to a decision.

The questions you're asking are not really coherent. mRNA vaccines are pretty well understood. The vaccine delivers a payload to your own cells which cause them to produce viral proteins. These proteins in turn cause an immune response and help you fight off any future infection because immune cells have memory and leverage information from the vaccine proteins to fight off the real virus.

mRNA vaccines are essentially a form of genetic engineering but their safety record is better than basically all other forms of immunization so if you've already had 3 boosters and no negative side-effects then getting another one isn't going to hurt you any more than the previous shots.

You should also quit smoking and start exercising since that's better than whatever else you could do for your health and general well-being.

Quit smoking. Just did a cold turkey recently - if I can do it, you can do it.

Be well.

> Has the virus mutated to a less deadly strain? (It is my understanding this is a common trait of "pandemical" virial diseases.)

It has not (necessarily), and it is not. There is no evolutionary pressure on a virus becoming milder over time, it can go both ways. What you see in action is the vaccines working, they were conceived to reduce the risk of death, and they did so successfully, hence you see lower deaths. Unfortunately, death is neither the only, nor maybe the most serious outcome of COVID.

We do seem to be in a situation where the acute phase of the disease is somewhat less hefty for many people, but even with the last BA.5 waves we have seen quite many hospitalizations, so the risk is definitely not low for everyone. While this is for the acute phase, the long term effects of the disease, so called LongCovid, can be absolutely devastating and we have not yet seen the real long term effects (e.g. a HIV infection also only becomes serious after ~7 years). But so far we know the disease can seriously affect cardiovascular and pulmonary health, and seems to be inducing autoimmune reactions.

Sudden cardiac deaths, just like ischemic strokes, in young healthy adults are a symptom of how much damage COVID can do. A more serious source like https://www.medrxiv.org might be a better source of information than social media videos. A good search term for what you're looking for is "post-acute sequelae SARS-Cov-2". Some papers have images which leave nothing to the imagination, even for people not trained in medicine.

Unfortunately this has become an extremely contentious subject and most people have moved far beyond the simple concept of not getting sick with an extremely serious disease.

With your health situation, I'd take the fourth shot, and remain careful when it comes to the risk of getting infected. Not getting sick is the best course of action.

I flagged this because HN isn't a safe or appropriate place to seek individual medical advice. Talk to a board-certified doctor.

Yes, Covid-19 mRNA vaccines deployment is full of corruption, politics and ineptitude. Having said that, you are in the elevated risk group, so if more than a couple of months passed from your last booster, I would get the fourth one. You need to take care of your general health. Diet, healthy level of vitamin D, diet, and some exercise. In that order. I am not a board-certified doctor.