this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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What about their effectiveness?
I get that the first few versions might have stemmed the tide of the pandemic early on .. but how effective are the new doses now?
I'm not an antivacer but I do question the way the pandemic was handled and continues to be handled. I trust scientists, I trust the medical community, I trust our current level of knowledge and expertise ... I even trust our government to do the best they can with what they have ... I just don't trust seeing big corporate interests quietly influencing everything in the background.
I certainly don't trust anyone or anything that reprimands me or is threatened by my questions or concerns.
I would feel a whole lot better about all this if corporate and financial interests were completely disconnected from all our health care and pharmaceutical systems. Basically, anything that has to do with human bodily health should not be controlled or deeply influenced by monied interests.
Their efficacy has been heavily studied and proven.
This is straight-up weasel language. There is no (rational) question as to whether the vaccines reduced hospitalizations due to COVID-19, or contraction of COVID-19 in general.
This is not realistic in the slightest. Reasearch requires resources and the time and effort of highly qualified people.
You don't need to be so agressive.
OP didn't say that the vaccine didn't work at first. It's just that now development has a hard time to keep up with new mutations.
Also, we don't need multi billion dollar medical corporations to study and create vaccines. This could be done entirely through a government agency or ministry.
I agree with OP about how much we should trust corporations. Their bottom line is to make a profit and they'll do whatever they can to get there. They cut corners and hide facts to avoid losses.
One such fact that was denied and for which you could get ridiculed was that a certain percentage of the population that received the COVID vaccine had symptoms afterwards that never went away. Like constant headaches and swelling of the brain. Now they explain these to you before you take new doses so that you know the risks. They're small, but they can happen.
In fact, ever since my last dose in August I've had constant headaches myself and I always feel hungover. It's permanent. There's nothing anyone can do about it. At this point I wonder if I should have taken it at all considering the I've had so the previous shots before. I only took it because I was traveling for a couple weeks and wanted to increase my chances of not getting sick.
It's extremely realistic, humanity makes the most progress when research does not need to create a monetary benefit. It allows us to explore ideas unabated. While these systems need funding we could take a 1% from military spending and invest with government resources. Hence why the mrna vaccines actually progressed so quickly, they were already being researched by the army for quick and rapid treatment of diseases during combat, i.e. just to solve the problem not just to profit from the tech, they lent that research out and gave grants to the corporations who developed and manufactured the covid vaccines. Internet, developed for combat communications not for profit. Most computer innovations came out of the space race, research without a profit motive. The ideas funded by corporate interests revolve around optimizing profit, not progress, which is why we get planned obsolescence, lack of rights to repair, massive healthcare costs needing insurance offsets, etc. I guarantee you can't name an actual positive innovation that was spurred purely for profit and not bastardized in the name of profit from a century old idea people forgot about so the company could attribute genius to its wealthy founders crud copy and paste job.
I can agree and accept most debates about this and I probably agree with most of what you present. And I am vaxxed with six COVID vaccines at this point and chances are I'll continue taking them with a lot of skepticism.
The biggest issue I have is corporate control.
I agree that research and development requires money ... but that can be achieved through public funds and government programs. What do think is cheaper? Privately owned research that has to be paid for at a premium .... or publically developed research that is made open and accessible for other researchers across the globe (who can then collaborate with each other instead of compete behind closed source patents and information)
I trust the scientists and researchers that develop these medical break throughs .... I just don't trust the private CEOs that hire them or the corporations they work for.
What if that 5% resist came with a temporary 36 hour debuff that made your character unplayable?
Edit: Lmao at people downvoting what they think is an opinion? I’m just adding context that a lot of people do go through pretty severe symptoms. But sure, keep ignoring/downplaying them and complaining about low vaccination rates 😆
Show me data indicating that a significant number of people who receive the vaccine are affected to that extent.
Anecdotally, nobody I know - including myself after being vaccinated multiple times - has had any significant negative reaction unless you count your arm being sore. "Unplayable" is extreme.
Edit:Wild - thanks everyone for your input. This just says something about basing a knowledge on a limited sample size. I see that it really depends on the person now.
I personally received the Pfizer shot as did just about everyone I know.
My first and third vaccine knocked me out for 2 days at a time.. unable to even get out of bed.
Second one, after I'd booked time off work deliberately so I wouldn't surprise anyone by not being there, I had no issues at all...
The COVID boosters make me feel moderately sick and my arm very sore for 2-3 days, in a way most other vaccines don’t. The one time I had COVID I felt like I was one bad day away from winding up in the hospital for weeks, so I’ll take the vaccine every single time I can. If anything I think I feel so bad after the vaccine because COVID itself fucks me up so bad.
My work gave everyone who got it two days off to recover. It's more like a 20% chance of a 24-48 hour debuff, but you can't seriously tell me that you haven't heard of anyone having side effects.
my second and third knocked me out for 3 full days. I was no longer able to get out of bed. I had severe chills and extreme nausea. I practically puked my guts out for 3 days. i know multiple other people that had very similar reactions.
My pre-wife was down for the count for 48-36 hours after getting a vaccine shot. The second round was a little better but not by much.
I understand I'm just some random person on the Internet but I'm giving factual information in interest of continuing the discussion.
The interesting thing is that while I was fine after the shots, I was not fine being sick with covid (post shot). I was on bed rest for about 5 days and all I could do was wake up, take aspirin and Tylenol, take a shower because covered in cold sweats, drink lemon ginger tea with honey to soothe the throat, watch 30ish minutes of YouTube and knock myself out with melatonin to repeat the cycle.
She, on the other hand, was fine getting covid post shot.
Yeah, I got COVID after being vaxed too. My biggest symptom was just complete exhaustion and body aches. Mild cough for a couple days. It lasted about 5 days for me too. That said, I wonder how much worse it would have been if I wasn't vaccinated.
I can't say I wondered how much worse it would have been without a shot but that's because it was super bad for me with one ha.
My first shot, Moderna, knocked me out for about 36 hours. I could only muster up enough energy to get out of bed for a few minutes to eat a bit of cereal and drink some Gatorade. So there's an anecdote from someone you don't know.
That being said, I'd still take that for the 5% resistance boost.
Every shot after the first has knocked me on my ass for 24 hours minimum. Pro vax here. This is a real thing
Reading all these people's reactions makes me think I got the placebo. It did nothing to me. It was the pfizer edition, if that makes any difference.
I've had 5 shots of Moderna now, most recently last week. The first one made me feel miserable for a day. I was having chills, and my entire body was sore. I took several naps that day. The others made me sore and a little tired for a day.
All told, not the worst side effects, but certainly more than a sore arm. And still entirely worth the mild inconvenience.
I would call my first reaction nearly "unplayable." I was having issues working (remotely even, a desk job), and I just wanted to sleep most of the day. But people react differently. Sounds like you had no issues, so good for you.
I thought it was funny..
On hardcore mode with permanent death the chance of a short term de-buff for a long term buff is worth it.
Pick the right time so you don't miss out on any one-time events if you're unlucky.
Love this analogy.
Thank you for perfectly demonstrating how the antivax argument will evolve.
It's as effective as the flu vaccine. Get the version that addresses the latest varients, as previous ones may not be as effective against it.
Exactly. Some people get a flu shot every year. Now it's going to be a flu shot and a covid shot.
Virus evolves, scientists do their best to predict which particular variants are or will become most prevalent. Vaccinations are made and administered based on that data. Rinse and repeat.
There are times when the models are wrong or variants progress in unexpected ways. In those cases you might see a mid-year booster.
Vaccines don't guarantee you won't get sick, but they reduce the severity and time to recover if you do get sick with one of the relevant variants. They may even prevent the occurrence of most symptoms depending on the person. .