I think that’s fair enough. For me, I don’t get the flu shot, never have and never will. Got the vaccine because I want to travel and not have worry about it. If I ever get to go to Africa on a safari obviously I will take whatever shots I need to go.
But what irks me is the disinformation and blowing out of proportion of the vaccine side effects. It’s almost like some people who don’t want the vaccine have to fear monger about it as a mechanism to cope with their decision. And that isn’t really beneficial to those who should probably get the vaccine because they’re ridiculously unhealthy.
Well, I'm old enough and a Type 1 diabetic, so I have to take shit seriously. So it's flu shots every year for me, and, of course, the vaccine.
I can understand the psychological break it takes when someone feels like having to depend on a medication is worse than death, because there are people who think that way. "I could never live like that." So the idea of having to depend on a vaccine for a legitimate risk on your life can seem like having to confront and admit your mortality when you're not prepared to do it.
But you break that wall when you realize you would simply be dead in another time era without some medications (as I am wrt insulin). From there it's a pretty slippery slope, I must confess. But I remember, at least for me, how initially it was an identity fook to think about depending on a medication for your life.
I'm vaccinated with AZ and I'm supporting people that are hesitant to test the vaccines. There are censored reports discussing long term side effects and people have every reason to doubt the government institutions and especially big pharma. I would personally advise young people (under 30 years old) and women that want to have kids not to take the shot unless they have underlying health condition. The best will be if everybody could take their time and do their own research and evaluate what risk is bothering them more - the risk of Covid or the risk of an unknown vaccine that has been used by more than a billion people but 1) long term effects can be evaluated after years and 2) censorship in media of people expressing concern of the safety of the vaccines is worrisome.
In a strange way, I partly support the people who are vaccine hesitant because too many nations have taken the lazy approach of all vaccine or nothing as their Covid strategy. It's lazy, ignorant, shortsighted, and prone to dam-break disaster. In that sense, I see the role some of the vaccine resistant play in forcing national health strategies to consider alternatives. And I see that as being biologically necessary and hence serving a function of social survival as a species going back millennia.
Meanwhile, I think there's been a complete communication failure on what vaccines do or don't do. We're seeing in now with so many people who believe that getting fully vaccinated have made them impervious:
https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/covid-delta-variant-risk-vaccinated-breakthrough-cases.html
And also meanwhile, Israel is reporting that the vaccines are doing exactly as stated: addessing symptoms, but maybe less so on preventing infection and hence spread:
https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...llows-infection-but-preventing-severe-illness
So now we're stuck with a bunch of people who are incredulous as why would you bring back indoor mask mandates when they were promised the vaccines would make COVID disappear ... reinforced by vaccine passport advocacy that tried to force vaccination as a cheap and lazy proxy for infection risk.
Nah, I don't have facebook. I watch scientists like Bret Weinstein expressing their legit concerns on the vaccines.
But cherry-picking individual experts isn't the answer either. For every Bret Weinstein, I could point you to an Eric Topol interview on a Sam Harris podcast.
Censored reports discussing long terms side effects that the same people say we can’t have knowledge of for many years?
Sounds legit.
Speaking of Eric Topol, he does point out that humanity has never discovered long-term effects of an approved (including emergency use) vaccine that weren't identified within the first three months of distribution and circulation.
So while there's always a chance, there's always a chance you will be hit by an asteroid before you are vaccinated too.
Lockdowns didn't f up our Economy though, Ministry of Economic affairs did that all along with the ECB. They decided to start with a negative saving rate during the Coronacrisis at 100k. Which meant the rich didn't want the money at the bank and invested. Results? An increase of 13% (and still ongoing) in the real estate market and stock market reaching new heights while the unemployment line was getting bigger and bigger.
It was of no surprise that the economic lesser groups would be more affected by lockdowns. But the gap has been immense.
While there are plenty of flaws with the binary oversimplification of the "economy vs health" debate, this guy has done some of the better analysis of the systemic impacts of each:
https://joshuagans.substack.com/p/political-tensions-and-the-endgame