Well, let me augment the statement then:

Can't trust Big Pharma or the government or scientists drawing paychecks from either of them.

"I personally judge the risk ...."
AND
"You get to make your choice about who you believe and trust."

I will trust the work of scientists and researchers around the world based on studies and data analysis before I trust someone's personal judgment based on ....what? I was going to say misinformation and fear but you've provided absolutely nothing, not even links to debunked sources, to show what you base your assertions on.

Legal immunity
 

Why did the government feel it was necessary to absolve vaccine companies from legal ramifications?

I agree? And why has 50% of the first responders decided not to be vaccinated. I have had the Covid already, and I have the antibodies in my blood to fight the Covid. I give blood, and they would like for me to give even more.

You are certainly entitled to express your opinions but if you come to a public forum with incorrect numbers you will be called out. Regarding the number of "excess deaths" from the start of the pandemic to now, the number is approximately 500K and reflects the increase in the number of deaths either directly or indirectly from COVID-19. Go to the CDC website and check their data. The number of deaths per year is a remarkably consistent number. "Excess deaths" is the increase in the number of deaths over what would be expected. It isn't impacted by how death is recorded on death certificates.

Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19

Probably because otherwise the companies would not have released the vaccines before many more years of studies. While we waited those years for the studies, tens of thousands more would have died.

Fact check
 

Fact check by the associated press or any other press seems these days to mean editing and deleting any information they don't want you to have. The word "they" refers to many entities filtering information and free speech. When did all the social media become the decider of what news is made available to the public? I for one am perfectable of deciding for myself what I believe or disbelieve, I don't need the press and social media owners doing that for me.

Because a small number of people will have a bad outcome from taking the vaccine. This is predictable. There would almost certainly be no negligence involved. Everything in life is a risk and there are tradeoffs. You step outside your front door and go for a walk, because exercise will improve your health, and you could be killed by a car. There are also risks associated with the coronavirus and the vaccine. If you are young and healthy, the probability of a bad outcome from being infected is very small. If you are over 65 with several health issues, the probability of a bad outcome from the coronavirus is much higher. The vaccines reduce your probability of serious disease and death to essentially zero. In exchange for this remarkable effectiveness, you accept that there is also a very small probability of the vaccine itself causing an issue. You, as well as everyone else, can make an informed decision. However, if you are a healthy person you need to ask yourself the following question: is the probability of a bad outcome from becoming infected higher than the probability of a bad outcome from taking the vaccine?

I'm a conservative, but you are drinking WAY too much of the kool-aid

Oh, oh. So glad we have so many experts at the Villages.

Deaths
 

The trouble is I don't believe the numbers because almost everybody that died in 2020 was blamed on covid. The news has been full of families that had to take legal action on cause of death to collect insurance. Hospitals are rewarded monetarily for covid deaths but not any other cause. In my opinion and it's only my opinion I would bet only 50 to 60 percent were strictly from covid (I think that is being generous) the rest had serious other health issues or were so old that any minor illness would have killed them, or both. Just my opinion and as an American who hasn't had my free speech taken away yet I choose to express it.

You are completely off base when you refer to the mRNA vaccines as "not a vaccine". Get a clue.....

Definition of vaccine. Please take note of defintion B.
Vaccine | Definition of Vaccine by Merriam-Webster

Free speech is fine though I expect you believe the first amendment goes farther than it actually does.

Ignorance, especially willful ignorance, is a shame. You can choose to believe the conspiracy theories about Covid as a cause of death and you can probably find an example or three where a mistake was made. However, whether they were properly categorized or not, there were over 500,000 more people that died in 2020 than in any of the previous three years.

They may or may not have been "true" Covid deaths but there were still 500,000 additional deaths. Absent any other explanation for the increase, and given that there was only one uncommon health crisis in 2020, the vast majority of those 500,000 must have been due to Covid.

A thought on "true" Covid deaths:
The question to be asked is, "Would the deaths have occurred last year if the individual had not contracted Covid?" People die of pneumonia, heart disease, and other pulmonary diseases every year. In each of the three years prior to 2020, about 2.8M people died in the US from various causes including pneumonia, heart disease, and other pulmonary diseases. In 2020, 3.4M people died of various causes. Would there have been an additional 600,000 deaths if there was no Covid? The three-year trend says there would not have been.

Whether the deaths were Covid-only or they were Covid-induced they were still due to Covid. A vaccine that would prevent a person from contracting Covid would prevent both Covid-only deaths and Covid-induced deaths and would have saved most of the 556,000 additional deaths that have occurred.

The sad part is, that if one certain person were to publicly say "I received the Covid vaccine and you should too," there would be millions of current anti-vaxxers - who would instantly do a 180.

There are lots of sheep, blindly following along.

Don't understand why people refuse to do their own research, and would rather wait until some poor misguided soul says exactly what they want to hear, truth or not....