To Vaccinate or not to vaccinate
 

It seems like way too many threads are full of opinions one way or the other. Nothing anyone says is going to convince some to go against what their desire is. Attempting to convince someone to follow your lead just causes resentment and confusion.

Vaxxers tell anti-vaxxers that the vaccine is the best preventative measure against contracting Covid-19.

Anti-vaxxers say you're allowing a ticking timebomb to be placed in your system that someday may kill you.

Folks, make up your own mind. Do your own research. You're all smart folks.

And, one way or the other, I'm not incredibly worried about an event that may or may happen, whether it is next month or 30 years from now.....

Covid
 

EXACTLY! I've been saying the same thing for months now. My take on the never ending comments about mask / anti - mask , vac / anti - vac is that folks just like to complain about others not doing what they are doing. As for me, I just circle back to to the lyrics by Paul McCartney: LET IT BE!

Keep in mind we are hearing from a very small minority.
Not much is ever said about the millions and millions worldwide who have received their shots and have been living life without incident.

Seems the majority does not get as much attention these days (as it once did).

Not much is ever said about the millions and millions worldwide who have not received their shots and have been living life without incident also.

Agreed.

OH yes.

I would like to meet the three of them who try to sway the opinion of this country. I envision them to be two women and one man, all under thirty in some office in Manhattan, at this time looking through children's books and checking in with Oprah.

well, can only give you one anecdote. of 3 women in neighborhood, two of us got the vaccine. third wanted to wait until one shot available. she's currently sick with covid. she didn't do anything different from what she had been doing so it could be she caught the more transmissible variant. she's been pretty sick but will probably be ok, but maybe could have been avoided had she got vaccine when we did.

Not to vaccinate is a selfish act

You can call it what you want, but it's also my personal choice and right not to get vaccinated.

As in the words of Dirty Harry, "You can ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky?"

Actually.... yes

This is like the movie "Groundhog Day".. :1rotfl:

As of today I know 17 people who have had Covid. 16 have fully recovered without any issues the 17th was just diagnosed. None have required hospitalization. Four would never even known that they had it. The only reason they found out was they were tested before traveling. According to the CDC 94% of Covid coded deaths had multiple comorbidities, with the average having 2.6. Among the common comorbidities were obesity, cancer & lung disease. If you are healthy the chances of you dying from Covid are extremely low.

And the chances of you surviving with new health problems you didn't have before is high.

Meanwhile:

My sister's had asthma for a couple of decades, and has to use steroid medications to manage it. As a result of the steroids, she is overweight. She took the recommended precautions: wore a mask when she left the house, stayed home as much as possible, washed her hands, social distanced when she left her house. She ended up sick, diagnosed with COVID-19. She took precautions, but it seems her housemate chose not to take those precautions. He was sick as well. My sister now has more damage to her lungs, and it took her over a month to recover as much as she has from the virus. It's unknown whether her lung damage will heal.

But hey she lived, right? And her housemate got to exercise his freedom to choose whether or not to be masked when he left his house and went to friends and family, right? Even though - if HE had worn his mask, kept a social distance, didn't go socializing with friends and family in close quarters without masks, and didn't listen to the Qonspiracy horsecrap, she wouldn't have gotten sick at all.

Someone else I know wasn't so "lucky." They're dead.

A few other people in my family all got sick and have recovered completely, but they were out of work for a couple of weeks, had to use their paid sick time. One was in the hospital and wasn't allowed any visitors at all and since they were on an upper floor, they didn't even have the opportunity to have loved ones sit outside the window so they could talk.

The "inconvenience" of having to wear a mask is a trivial insult to anyone who has had to endure the fall-out of being sick, subsequent physical damage to their organs, using up sick time and being out of work (and you know when you return to work you now have 2 weeks of stuff to deal with piled up on your desk, because you weren't there to do it).

The only reason I'm not vaccinated yet is because it's not my turn in my community. I don't want to be "inconvenienced" with the possibility of getting sick and having to isolate from other people. I don't want to be "inconvenienced" with the possibility that I - and everyone else in the family - has to miss my cousin's wedding because too many of us are NOT vaccinated and she won't risk us all getting sick and will therefore postpone the reception or simply not have one at all and keep the wedding restricted to her, her fiance, their parents, and the rabbi.

So for those reasons - because I don't want to even THINK about being inconvenienced anymore, I will get the vaccine when it's my turn.

OP, you had me in agreement on everything until you said "You're all smart folks".