Originally Posted by
WDR
We are. No doubt about that at all in my mind. Short of vaxxing everyone on the planet for perpetuity, this crap isn't going away. Ever. Masks. Vaccines. Distancing. None of those really will slow it down, IMHO.
Your third sentence is a bit over the top though. Not everyone that is vaxxed avoids complications, though it seems the vast majority do. And not everyone who isn't vaccinated ends up in a hospital ICU either. Hell, a good portion of folks are probably spreading it without ever getting sick or only having minimal symptoms, easily written off as something else. Without widespread surveillance of the population as a whole, no one really knows how many asymptomatic carriers are out there.
I have so far chosen not to be vaccinated, as I don't work with the general public, and my personal "bubble" is pretty small. I've been working throughout this whole pandemic (essential don't ya know), and honestly resigned myself to the fact that I was likely to be exposed at some point. I'm fairly healthy, without any major known comorbidity, and not in a highly risky age group.
I may have actually had covid at the very beginning (late Feb/earl March 2020), as there was a bug that went around work that had a lot of similar symptoms. I never lost taste or smell, but I did have 2-3 days of zero energy, fatigue, chills, and maybe a mild fever. I never got tested when I was first sick, because I didn't meet the testing requirements/presenting symptoms at that time. Afterwords I had a good 6-8 weeks of a dry, non-productive cough, and a general feeling of fatigue, and some shortness of breath/rapid heart rate. 3-4 weeks after my original sickness, with my dry cough persisting, I went to urgent care (really, a heated tent in the parking lot), was given some antibiotics, and sent, with a doctors order, to get a covid test. That whole process, even with an order from a doc for the test, was a giant Charlie Foxtrot. At first they wouldn't test me. Eventually I did get swabbed, and waited 3 days for a negative result, before I was allowed to come back to work. I figure if I did have it, after almost a month I probably wouldn't have shown a positive result at that time. I never have bothered to get tested for antibodies. Whatever it was, sucked for a good long while.
I had recently been considering getting the shots, because I'd like to get back into physical therapy for my shoulder ( I had surgery back in January, PT'd like hell in March/April/June, and still ended up with a "frozen shoulder"). When I was going before, masks were required, vaxxed or not. I don't care for wearing a mask all the time, but I've worn them where asked/required, particularly in places like a hospital or doctors office. They lifted the restrictions for vaccinated patients just before I chose to take a break from therapy to allow the frozen shoulder to resolve itself. I was assuming that they'd ask me to mask up if I went back, and being able to go without, was looking better all the time. That in and of itself would be a dumb reason to get the shots, so I have still been in a holding pattern. With the CDC recommending even vaccinated people wear masks indoors again, I don't think having the shots will matter if I go back to PT in a month or so. The risk of new strains etc bothers me slightly, but I mostly just figure its never going to go totally away at this point, unless it somehow burns itself out ( which seems unlikely).
Back on the fence I go... I may eventually get the shots. I don't normally get a flu shot (I've felt like I had the flu a couple times after, and had a rough bout with H1N1 despite a shot that year), but I've always been fine with other vaccinations. Something about this one just seems overly forced, which makes me suspicious. It seems to have obvious benefits, but I do wonder about long term effects, and the reported side effects, which are, admittedly, probably not outside the norms of most other vaccines. The fact that the makers of the shots haven been given immunity to liability, bothers me a bit, though I can understand why that would be put into play, when trying to ramp up a new vaccine in short time frames.
Long rambling post coming to and end here soon: I feel like the vaccine and covid has been politicized by all sides, propagandized by all sides, and I just don't trust anything at this point. The CDC has flip-flopped on things too much for my taste. I feel like if folks want to get it, they should. I feel like the push/shame/propaganda effort in the media has backfired, and brought about much of the pushing back and "anti-vaxxer" attitude. Plenty of DNA changing 5G nanomachine baloney muddying the waters too. I'd rather err on the side of risky freedom, than a locked down "safe" state... that isn't, and harbors other dangers, of greater threat than a mere virus.
Straying a bit into the politics there, so I hope that can be forgiven. I just wish folks would be less of a nosy neighbor/Karen, and live and let live. I've enjoyed reading the opinions of everyone, and also some of the data points and articles that have been presented. Particularly those in the medical field with first hand experience. I think we here on P-F do a better job talking things out, and presenting the facts of the issues at hand, than a lot of the other corners of the internet.
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