First thought:
Earlier this month, as a vaccine got closer to being a reality, Helen Keipp Talbot, an infectious researcher at Vanderbilt said, “There is such a high mortality rate in long-term-care facilities. There will be a number of patients who receive immunizations for Covid and will pass away. And it will be regardless of the vaccine.” Her concern was, “we’re going to have a very striking backlash of ‘my grandmother got the vaccine and she passed away,’ and they’re not likely to be related, but that will become remembered and break some of the confidence in the vaccine.“
Really.
But, we’ve been told that if someone tests positive for COVID-19 and dies, then it was COVID-19 that killed them, not one of the numerous other serious medical conditions they already had.
According to Ms. Talbot, some people will die after getting the vaccine. But you shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the vaccine killed them. They were probably near the end of their life anyway. Elderly and infirm people, who just happen to die shortly after receiving a vaccine for COVID-19, probably didn’t die from the vaccine.
I happen to agree with Ms. Talbot. Some of the people who will receive the vaccine will already be close to death. So, you shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the vaccine is the cause of death when it likely was something else.
But, you also shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that a person died from COVID-19 just because they tested positive.
That makes no sense.
Second thought:
Most healthy people aren’t going to suffer any serious complications from COVID-19. Most people recover on their own and many won’t even know they were sick. So, the risk to most people of getting really sick or even dying from the disease is quite low.
We were told to wear masks to protect ourselves from infection. But many people, myself included, accepted the low risk of having a severe case of COVID-19 and refused to wear the masks. Then the narrative changed to say that we should wear masks to protect others. But many people, myself included, believe that everyone should be responsible for their own safety and should take whatever precautions they deem appropriate to ensure their own safety. Actions could be taken to protect those most at risk from the disease without impacting the healthy majority.
But that wasn’t good enough. So, the government started penalizing businesses if they didn’t force customers to wear masks. Then they started fining individuals who still defied the order. In short, they took away some of our freedoms to ensure their mandate was followed.
Now we have a vaccine that most people don’t need. Because, as I mentioned before, the risk of serious complications from COVID-19 is very low for most people. And, since the vaccines have been fast-tracked, there isn’t a firm understanding of the risks associated with the vaccines, nor is there even an understanding of their efficacy or the longevity of any perceived benefits.
Further, priority is being given to those most at risk including the elderly and infirm and the front-line medical personnel. If the vaccines are effective, then the people most likely to be infected will be protected as well as the people most likely to die.
So, many people, myself included, are going to decide that there is no real benefit to them to take the vaccine. And, since the at-risk people will already be vaccinated, there is no need to take the vaccine to “protect others”.
But that’s not good enough. There is already talk about not allowing people to fly unless they’ve been inoculated. There’s discussion about a “COVID Card” that people could show to demonstrate they’ve taken the vaccine. The Democrats have talked about tying stimulus benefits to a mandate requiring everyone to get vaccinated.
The government wants to force me to take a vaccine that I don’t need to protect people who will have already been vaccinated and are, presumably, already protected.
That makes no sense.
