Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[julep]

Hi Percie,

Staying out of the hospital and not dying are incentives to get the vaccine.

Yep. That's why I'm vaccinated, and will get a booster if/when it's approved.

But obviously that argument hasn't convinced the unvaccinated. Why? There's a lot of them - much more than just the existing antivax fringe. Most of them probably got their childhood vaccinations and let their children have them as well. So, what's different with this vaccine? Some possibilities:

- this vaccine came out so fast that they don't trust its safety. That's a legitimate concern. I work with some really smart doctors who are in pharmaceutical research and they told me that corona viruses have been heavily researched for years, so there's already a solid base of science underlying the vaccines, and it's not surprising that they were developed quickly. That was a significant part of my reasoning. But, that information really didn't get out to most people. Also note that aside from the elderly the death rate is already really low from the virus. It's understandable that some people might be more afraid of the vaccine than the virus.

- mixed messages about the effectiveness of the virus are coming out, which is currently my main point. Maybe if all pro-vax people gave a consistent message that if you're vaccinated, you're very unlikely to get the virus to the point of systems, extremely unlikely to die from it, and the chance of you spreading it is low enough that masks aren't necessary for vaxxed people, then we might reach some of the unvaxxed. 

And we could all stop wearing masks and social distancing once enough people are vaccinated.

Can we? That was the initial message, but now we have delta, and renewed calls for masks. Considering different strains and worldwide travel, this virus is probably never going away for good. Some of the unvaxxed just don't believe what you say due to the mixed messages that have come out, so the possibility of eventually getting rid of such measures sounds like a hollow promise to many.

Also, vaccine requirements generally don't exclude those who have already had it. A coworker had covid last Decemeber. He recently got his antobidies tested and he has higher levels than most who have been vaccinated. Shouldn't this be factored into the discussion? 

It seems to me that there's plenty of emotion, irrational thinking, and discord on the pro-vax side, and that's hindering the vaccination effort.

This won't be a popular post but I agree with Percie. I'm pro-vaccine, I made a vaccine appointment the first day I was eligible and my kiddo is vaccinated. Nearly everyone in my circle of family and friends have gotten their shots. My county currently has a mask requirement and we comply.

More Americans should be vaccinated and I hope most of the holdouts will come around and get their shots. However, the methods used since the vaccines were rolled out to try and convince other Americans to get their shots appear to be mostly social media memes with "just get the shot, dumbfuck!", pictures of coffins, and news stories about dead evangelists. 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. If YOU want the pandemic to end (I do), then it's time to start talking about all possible methods for ending it! If you just want to punish people who vote wrong in elections, then I suppose it makes sense that efforts to end a viral pandemic in the US have fallen off the cliff.


Ignoring immunity conferred from an infection and claiming that immunity can only be gotten by a vaccine (that's only good for x months) is a political stance, not a scientific one. Interestingly, a number of nations recognize recovery from a past Covid-19 infection for valid health passes. France's pass sanitaire means showing proof of vaccination, a negative test, or recovery from an infection. Yet the orthodoxy in the US is that past infection "doesn't count" and nobody questions the orthodoxy. Just get your shot, dumbfuck.

Unfortunately our prideful ways and narrow thinking means we in the US will be fighting about SARS-CoV-2 for many years (or decades) to come.

-Teresa

If all the antivaxxers were doing was refusing to get themselves vaxxed, that would be one thing. There's a bunch of them refusing all of the other pandemic protection measures, though. Refusing to wear masks, punching people who try to enforce mask requirements in various establishments, coughing on people, spreading rumors amongst themselves that there is no Covid at all. 

As for reluctance due to some people having had covid, there are quite a few people who've had covid and then gotten it again, or who've been vaxxed and gotten it again. Guess which group is more vulnerable to a case that puts them in the hospital? Guess which group is more likely to be more infectious to their community? There are actual medical and social reasons for anyone who's had Covid to be vaxxed, regardless. (Which is why puppet, despite having had such a bad case that he needed intensive medical treatment, got the vax.) 

For every "thoughtful" person reluctant to be vaxxed for rational reasons, there are many, many more who are refusing simply for tribal reasons. Any rational reluctant can easily get non-meme-based information that would convince them to get vaccinated. Or they could consult their personal doctor and get the same advice. 

The irrational reluctants have demonstrated that they need to be coerced.  At least until their own pastors die of Covid and leave deathbed videos reassuring their congregations that Covid is not the mark of the beast, please get vaccinated. 

We need to give the willfully unvaccinated three choices: stay home, unvaccinated; mask up, get tested regularly, and realize your access to indoor venues will still be limited; or get a shot and come join the rest of us. I think more of them will get vaxxed under those circumstances, and frankly I don't care if they're exercised about it. Just like I don't give a fuck about the leftist moms who've decided that their darling children won't have the MMR even though their children and the kids of others will be vulnerable to measles, but their kids should be able to go to public school and reintroduce a deadly disease that had been virtually eliminated by vaccines. Schools started excluding these children, and I agree entirely with that decision.