The COVID Vaccination Thread (1 Viewer)

[JohnRice]

I don't think this type of sentiment denotes genuine concern as much as it does a general penchant for non-conformance and distrust of "the system." While I emphasize to a point, in most cases, I suspect if someone close to an individual with this mindset suffered serious symptoms or worse from COVID they would be begging for a vaccination at the next available opportunity.

You'd think. However I know someone whose son died of COVID who refuses to be vaccinated. I know someone whose daughter was horribly and permanently injured in a car accident, not wearing a seat belt, who has made it her life purpose to rally against wearing seat belts.

What I tend to see is individuals who are going to great effort to find reasons NOT to be vaccinated. From not wanting to "be a guinea pig" to largely manufactured moral objections. Those tend to be the same people who are most vocal about being "over this whole thing" and just wanting to miraculously return to normal. My attitude is if you're not part of the solution, you're only contributing to the problem. That is of course excepting the small percentage of people who genuinely are at risk with a vaccine. We can achieve herd immunity without them being vaccinated, which makes it all that more important that the rest of us are. I was overjoyed and felt incredibly fortunate to get an appointment only four days after I became eligible. I'm actually a little surprised what a load it has been off my mind. I honestly wouldn't care if I had to continue wearing a mask for the next five years. I'm just glad to know I have done all I can to make this entire mess end.

 

[Martino]

My thoughts after getting the 1st shot and waiting for my second appointment. (I'm almost there....second appointment is on the 22nd...)

If someone has the opportunity to take the vaccine and chooses not to, they are risking getting this and having it effect themselves. After the time has passed where all who want to be vaccinated have been, then I am expecting things to get back to "normal". I do not want to look for a mask when I want to leave my house or having to have a limit to the number of people who are in a building with me.

If you choose to risk your own health, you will not be giving this to someone who is already vaccinated - that is your choice to be stupid. You can't fix stupid, but I refuse to let stupid folks change my life for their cause. Right now we are not at the point where everyone has been vaccinated, so I will go along with all of the mandates to make others feel better, even though I will not be one of the people who will be infecting others. But after that final end date, I will not keep doing this for months afterwords for a few stupid people.

So I would have to disagree with your statement:

"I honestly wouldn't care if I had to continue wearing a mask for the next five years. I'm just glad to know I have done all I can to make this entire mess end."

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If you choose to risk your own health, you will not be giving this to someone who is already vaccinated

I wish that were true. But what will happen is that the virus will continue to spread and mutate among people who aren’t vaccinated, and if that’s a large enough group, those mutations will eventually find a way to get past the vaccine. The longer covid spreads, the more opportunities it has to change into something that could be a significant setback to public health efforts.

 

[John Dirk]

I wish that were true. But what will happen is that the virus will continue to spread and mutate among people who aren’t vaccinated, and if that’s a large enough group, those mutations will eventually find a way to get past the vaccine. The longer covid spreads, the more opportunities it has to change into something that could be a significant setback to public health efforts.

What he said...

 

[John Dirk]

You'd think. However I know someone whose son died of COVID who refuses to be vaccinated. I know someone whose daughter was horribly and permanently injured in a car accident, not wearing a seat belt, who has made it her life purpose to rally against wearing seat belts.

This only proves you know some rather odd people. Not to worry. So do I but I do believe they represent the exception, which always exists but is rarely statistically relevant.

 

[Carlo_M]

I am not concerned about edge cases like those described by "this person lost a loved one to covid but still won't get the vax". As John says that's going to be a very small percent.

What I'm more worried about is the much larger percentage of people who view the vaccine with skepticism...some of which is legitimate (in those populations that have been historically mistreated by past vaccine experiments) but most of which is not (i.e. Gates trying to microchip you).

That combined percentage of people is not statistically small, and could stand between us and herd immunity, or at the very least will be breeding grounds for variants.

 

[JohnRice]

I was mostly responding about my amazement with the thinking of some people, but as I had stated earlier, what I actually fear is what Carlo mentioned. At 85% we get out of this. At 70% or maybe even less, not so much. And I think 70% is pushing the reality of what we are likely to achieve.

 

[Arthur Powell]

I got the J&J shot today!

 

[John Dirk]

I was mostly responding about my amazement with the thinking of some people, but as I had stated earlier, what I actually fear is what Carlo mentioned. At 85% we get out of this. At 70% or maybe even less, not so much. And I think 70% is pushing the reality of what we are likely to achieve.

For reasons you and others have previously stated, it may take longer than it really needs to but we will get there. That percentage of people Carlo references all have family and friends who might be able to reach them if they tried. Several skeptics exist in my own family and I've began "taking it to the streets" to reason with them. Normally I wouldn't do this as I respect individual opinions. In this case however, since I work [peripherally] in the industry and know the facts, I want to at least make sure they do as well. After that it's up to them.

 

[bujaki]

What he said...

I'll just add that that's why mask wearing is not going to go away anytime soon. Mutations and stupidity will keep us being extra careful. A vaccine protects but is not a total guarantee that you'll remain immune to the virus and its variants.

 

[JohnRice]

So I would have to disagree with your statement:

"I honestly wouldn't care if I had to continue wearing a mask for the next five years. I'm just glad to know I have done all I can to make this entire mess end."

And I disagree back. I can only control my own actions. If we don't get out of this due to the actions of others, WE don't get out of this. If I have to get a booster every year because of them, I will get a booster every year. If I have to get a booster twice a year as well as wear a mask due to them, I will get a booster twice a year and wear a mask, because WE need to get out of this.

It won't fail because of me.

 

[Museum Pieces]

Got my second dose of Pfizer. They tell me two weeks and I'll have as much immunity as I am going to get. I fully expect to have another shot in six months or a year probably for the rest of my life. I expect to wear a mask and social distance for most of the rest of my life (because of unvaccinated people spreading variants). If it turns out I don't have to, I'll be pleasantly surprised. For now I accept that I will (because too many others won't), and am trying to work through my anger and resentment at all the unnecessary deaths. Including people I loved.

I believe in personal freedom. I like to think I would die to protect my personal freedom. But no one is trying to take it from me. In a time of national crisis, I choose to use my personal freedom for the good of my country, not just myself.

If this never goes away, it won't be because of me. Everyone be well.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I already get an annual flu jab so getting one or two boosters a year is nothing for me. Heck, even my dogs get heart worm shots twice a year. Once with their rabies jab then 6 months later to protect the rest of the year. I’m also fine with continuing to wear a mask for the foreseeable future, especially since this is the first time since I was a kid that I didn’t catch a cold or get a sinus / bronchial infection because I’ve been masking for the past 12 months.

 

[JohnRice]

Got my second dose of Pfizer. They tell me two weeks and I'll have as much immunity as I am going to get. I fully expect to have another shot in six months or a year probably for the rest of my life. I expect to wear a mask and social distance for most of the rest of my life (because of unvaccinated people spreading variants). If it turns out I don't have to, I'll be pleasantly surprised. For now I accept that I will (because too many others won't), and am trying to work through my anger and resentment at all the unnecessary deaths. Including people I loved.

I believe in personal freedom. I like to think I would die to protect my personal freedom. But no one is trying to take it from me. In a time of national crisis, I choose to use my personal freedom for the good of my country, not just myself.

If this never goes away, it won't be because of me. Everyone be well.

A family I went to school with K-12 and grew up three blocks from each other lost both their parents in a 24 hour period to COVID the week after Christmas. It's difficult not to go into a bit of a rage when I think about that and hear someone I know well belittle being "a guinea pig" with mRNA vaccine. I really need to find some way to convince this person in particular. I'm at a loss how to do that. How do you convey to someone who is positively convinced they are taking the high moral ground that in fact they are doing the opposite?

 

[Walter Kittel]

I really need to find some way to convince this person in particular.

Money can be a terrific inducement. Offer to pay them to get vaccinated. If you can convince them, then it becomes a negotiation on price which is something different. I'm not joking.

- Walter.

 

[Museum Pieces]

How do you convey to someone who is positively convinced they are taking the high moral ground that in fact they are doing the opposite?

I don't think you can, not as long as there are others who play on their fear for political reasons. Conspiracy theories are self-sealing, so there's no way facts can penetrate them. The best argument I found was a friend who said someone she knew had a stroke after taking the vaccine, so she would not take it. I pointed out more than 100 million people have been vaccinated and the number of strokes have not risen. Strokes were happening before the vaccine, they will happen after. She seem to get that argument (faulty correlation), but I'm not sure it resulted in her taking new moral action. I like to think so, but honestly I doubt it.

Not to get personal, but I have lost seven people to Covid. Another survived a respirator and has a long recovery before her. Yet another is a long hauler; the vaccine seemed to help him. There simply is no way I can think of to convince someone who hasn't been affected like so many others have. They keep getting news from their source that it's a plot, a conspiracy, and so on.

It's not education that's the answer. It's the willingness to be educated, to shake off ignorance, and that will is being subsumed by malevolent actors.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Let's stay away from political comments!

 

[Tony Bensley]

I'm set to get jabbed with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine tomorrow, at 1PM!

CHEERS!

 

[Sam Posten]

Vaxxed. One and done J&J.

 

[jayembee]

I'm just speaking in generalities, as there have always been exceptions. But growing up in the 80s, I recall a time when most people gave credence to experts in their fields. Nowadays it seems a significant amount of the population "knows better than experts" - but only if their own personal opinion is not aligned with the majority of experts. If they're in agreement, then the experts are cited as proof. If there was this amount of polarization based on personal beliefs, often founded on no solid evidence, back in the day, polio and smallpox would still be with us.

While these vaccines were fast-tracked, and haven't technically been "approved" other than for emergency use, they were created using the same scientific methodology that's responsible for our computers and smart phones, our home entertainment systems, over-the-counter medications, and so on and so forth. The anti-vaccine people no doubt buy the latest snack food advertised on TV without ever looking at the package to see what's in it. They'll happily take a pain-reliever when they have a headache, Nyquil when they have a bad cold. They'll drive to the pharmacy and fill whatever prescription their doctor writes for them. And they never express any belief that any of these things contain nanobots to allow Bill Gates to track their every move. (He doesn't need to; everyone's already being tracked via their smartphone. )

I suspect that John had it right when he said a "general penchant for non-conformance". The vaccine, like masks, has become a political statement. The "reasoning" for it is irrelevant. I can't help but think of Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove going on about the corruption of our precious bodily fluids.