[Swoop]

Originally Posted by LiverpoolWalrus

Swoop, I had the same hesitancy as you and for the same reason. I ultimately got the jab after hours of research. As others have said, the platform for the vaccines is NOT new. It has been undergoing testing for many years. I could only find two reports that questioned the safety of the vaccines, and the credibility of the sources was far from ironclad, whereas there are hundreds of reports that attest to the safety of the vaccines.

I also fell over to the other side in order to do my part to achieve herd immunity and also to free myself from worrying about my 10-20% chance of hospitalization or death IF I get infected. After all, I go to the squares often and nobody's wearing a mask there. And I go to restaurants and bars where you see the same thing. I always wondered, what's the point in requiring a mask as you enter and leave a restaurant or bar if you and everyone else in the building is not wearing a mask most of the time?

I partly agree with the other poster who mentioned that the chances of the unvaccinated being hospitalized or dying from Covid are extremely low (but not as low as s/he cites). According to the sources that follow, including the esteemed Lancet, the unvaccinated have an approximately 80-90% chance of having mild symptoms or no symptoms. And that's IF they get infected - not everyone gets infected - far from it. Covid is contagious, for sure, but not nearly as contagious as we've been led to believe (in my opinion), otherwise every prison and military installation would be overrun with the disease.

So I weighed the pros and cons and what finally put me over the other side was when I read that concert promoters might require audiences to be vaccinated! No way I'm going to be turned away from concerts after going through withdrawals from not attending any the last 14 months!

* Sources:

DEFINE_ME

Mild COVID-19 Symptoms: Timeline, Progression, Contagiousness


80% of Coronavirus Patients Have Mild Symptoms — Here's What They Are

Mild vs. moderate vs. severe Covid-19 symptoms: Here's what to expect - CNN

http://somatosphere.net/2020/mild-covid.html/

https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...rvive-covid-19

I respect your decision as I’m sure you respect mine. Although they experimented with mRNA for many years, there are thousands of potential treatments that scientists experiment with. They never received approval for widespread use and they never performed any long term studies. If it means skipping a concert or a cruise for a year or two, I can live with that. Hopefully these vaccines will not have negative long term effects.