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On COVID Vaccines, and Weighing Unknowns
Related: ethics in medicine, gears of the machine, health, SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19 aka Coronavirus, vaccination
re: COVID
Real science is never settled, and anyone who has certainty on such things is not qualified to discuss it.
See also: Medical Ethics in the Cesspool: Outright DENIAL of Medical Care without Vaccination
I’ll grant that the “average” person with risk factors (elderly, obese, diabetes, etc) should get the vaccine. It’s a case of weighing unknown risks against unknown risks albeit for an individual, not an imaginary statistical construct of the “average” person. So it’s easy for at-risk people to weight a decision heavily in favor of getting vaccinated*, since we are all going to get COVID sooner or later (and the majority already have). It will give you some unknown (for you) level of protection which will rapidly decline, so plan on yearly or twice yearly boosters each of which carries some risk.
Still, that’s setting aside the pathetic and thoroughly corrupt efforts to examine vaccine safety so far. Most vaccines got 10-15 years of study, because invariably shit happens that was not obvious at first (my argument is not about time with the COVID vaccines as there is urgency, but about the failure to study side effects at all) .
The financial and political forces behind the vaccines guarantee malfeasance in every area of COVID vaccines. Assuming otherwise is for idiots and children. Which leads us back to “unknowns”.
So I’ll grant that you can argue on an epidemiological/statistical basis (based on disingenuous studies of safety) that the “average” person with risk factors (elderly, obese, diabetes, etc) should get the vaccine. Because you WILL get COVID. So you have to decide which is likely to be worse for you—the vaccine or COVID itself (and also which will give you better protection thereafter).
This is for you to decide, your choice. Not the decision for others to make. Not the the ethical criminals and human scum who wish to impose medical decisions upon you by force. Make your own choice, and 'own' it because you have nothing to apologize for either way.
But do not let your opinion be assigned to you by anyone and do not make an emotional or political decision: set aside preconceptions and realistically ask yourself: when I get COVID, will I want to have had the vaccine prior, or not? That’s the real question. You ARE going to get COVID. Not if, but when.
You have no moral obligation to take on personal risk for others. Demanding self-immolation is the hallmark of the worst human misdeeds throughout history.
* Avoid the J&J vaccine; they apparently failed to pay off their FDA lackeys. Go with Pfizer, which knows how to do business properly. And the Modern vaccine is “fine” but a notably higher dose, so I deem it higher risk.
As for myself
I would listen to a a well-reasoned argument from an MD who knew my situation and history, or anyone similarly intellectually viable. But few MDs understand the issues (or care to, most just follow guidelines), and of those that do, few could afford the time for each patient. But some MDs have crossed an ethical and intellectual red line that makes them vociferous proponents of vaccinating everyone, including children. Such physicians should be hounded out of the medical profession, for intellectual dishonesty and medical malpractice. Whether or not the COVID vaccines prove out to be as harmless as claimed.
As for a theoretical myself with moderate/typical health issues at my age, I’d get a single dose of Pfizer and leave it at that. That’s not medical advice, it’s what a theoretical me would do if I were less healthy.
As for my myself as I am: I have no comorbidities and I rarely become ill (years can go by!). I eat very healthy stuff, I exercise a lot and so on. And given my own history which includes medical harm from doctors, my perspective is rather different.
My personal physician has no disagreement with my position, asserting strongly that it is my choice and refraining from suggesting I be vaccinated. I deem it medically unnecessary, while carrying risks I deem far higher for me than the crude bulk statistics bandied-about for vaccine safety. I will not for example take on any risk of neurological damage, having already experienced that from medical carelessness (Metronidazole). Medical “science” has damaged me in at least 3 major ways in my lifetime. I have to live with that. I’ll be damned if they get a 4th change to damage me while taking zero responsibility/liability for severe side effects, particularly when there is no credible argument for me getting vaccinated.
Proofs in the form of epidemiological statistics from liars, politicians, and those financially-incentivized to not understand or even study the risks properly let alone track them are just garbage “science”—scientism that would be more appropriate in the Church of Scientology.
