Vaccination - Yes or No

[MaryN]

So, the Government is hopeful of providing a vaccination against the dreaded microbe sometime in the near or not so near future. Are you going to accept it?

Personally, I'm going to see which makes the biggest hole - their needle or my pitchfork!

[Pete Grey]

Over the years vaccination is proved to have saved countless millions of lives, one example is how the world is now free of smallpox. I do not understand how anyone would not chose to get protection from any potentially dangerous or fatal disease, or refuse it for their children. I say YES, but it’s your choice.

[MaryN]

Pete. vaccines can be in test mode for 10+ years before they are unleashed on the general public. It takes that long to establish that they are safe so far as potential death or side effects are concerned. Any vaccine for Covid will not have had that sort of time for testing, and there is no guarantee that they would be safe.... at all. Not only that, the "carrier" for the vaccine also has to be tested, and one or two of the proposed vaccines that may be made available have been found to minutely alter DNA. Not something that appeals to me.

[bigpaul]

there is no vaccine for Covid- unless you believe the BS coming out of Russia- and there isnt likely to be one for at least a year, if not longer, if ever.
I stopped having the flu jab about 6 or 7 years ago, and I havent had flu in that time, a cold yes but not the flu.
the main problem with any vaccine is -is it safe? every medication these days seems to have side effects.
maybe just staying away from other people is the best option, not a problem in my case, wife says I have become more of a recluse since the pandemic started and I cant see me changing even after/if the pandemic is over.

[Straight Shooter]

To be honest .......I do not trust anything tptb have to say about anything ......They have ruined this country along with most of the globe , vaccine ? We will see , I would be in no rush to put belief or trust in any straight off ,by such time life as we know it will have changed (as it already has ) out of all recognition .

We need to realise what is going on right now .....right in front of us ,and wake the f..k up.

[Skean Dhude]

There are 4 common viruses that circulate around the world on a regular basis. This is going to be no 5. It isn't like the mumps or or one of the similar type diseases that a vaccine will fix. There is no cure and people have to get Flu vaccines every year. It you them ill because it give you a small dose of the disease and bear in mind social distancing would help protect you during flue season. If you have a weak immune system then being ill with a small dose is preferable to death. Normal immune system means you have a very small chance of kicking the bucket. The same chance we have had for decades without being scared to death.

I'm very much in the No camp.

[Mortblanc]

SD when you are 40 and healthy you can be all macho and brave and depend on your healthy immune system.

When you are 70, survivor of two heart attacks, with type 2 diabetes, you have some realizations to face.

One of them is that for each year you survive your chances of surviving the next year are even less. Here in the states 98% of the deaths from CV have come from the 70+ age group.

I truly feel that I have not yet survived the CV plague, I have just survived so far.

Another realization I have come too during this experience is that I do not have control of who and what comes near me, not really. Systems still break down and necessitate repair that outside people must do, neighbors still walk up on my blind side while I am tending the garden, shipments still come in (from of all places CHINA), and the post man still brings me junk mail from contaminated sources.

There is also the need to leave my sanctuary and find items needed for the repairs I do myself but could never have anticipated a need for that particular washer that was left out of the repair kit that I did have. Eventually you have to go out.

As has been pointed out, this virus is here to stay. I am quite sure that I have already been exposed to it and fought it off. So far-so good, but how long will my aging immune system triumph over this eternal threat?

That brings up realization number 3. How long do I want to live?

At one time my goal was 60. Then the goal was 70. Do I now press the reset button in the middle of a pandemic and shoot for the age where there is a 99% chance of fatality?

My criteria for taking the vaccine? It has to have a fatality rate less than the CV itself for people in my age group.

So far, in spite of the huge numbers brandished about, the U.S. infection rate for the entire duration is less than 2%. Of that 2% the fatality rate is 5%.

Not %5 of the total population, just 5% of the 2% that caught the disease. This is the kind of place where the media distorts the numbers. the numbers are huge because the population is huge, the percentages tell a different story.

(Alcohol related causes account for 2.6% of our death rate ,about the same for you folks, and you can still advertise and sell alcohol legally, and people still drink it.)

And my doctor tells me that there are people that have massive heart attacks and refuse to take their meds, and people with type 2 diabetes that still eat ice cream and candy bars.

They simply do not want to believe they are sick, or different from anyone else. It is totally psychological, and it kills them.

As for me, if they come up with an effective and relatively safe vaccine I will take it.

[Little Lou]

I'm with Mortblanc here. I'm only (!) 60, but severe asthma puts me on the danger list, and the risks of the vaccine seem to me less than the risk of the virus. Yes, I've so far managed to avoid going out for anything, and all deliveries are thoroughly sanitized, but the time will come when I WANT to go out, and I won't accept being a prisoner of this virus if there's any alternative.

That said, I do understand the reservations, and wouldn't trust the government further than I can cough. I'm sure they'll try and rush this out before it's ready (as Russia seems to have done) and am content to wait it out until the scientists themselves are happy. Because actually I DO trust the Oxford scientists (especially as I know one of them personally) and have noted the way they're quite prepared to contradict the government if it tries to make grandiose claims which aren't yet reflected in the research. Yes, the programme is government-funded, but it isn't stopping these scientists from saying 'stuff the funding, we have to tell the truth'. That's good enough for me.

I am aware that vaccination programmes have been used deliberately in the past for various nefarious purposes (Tuskagee, anyone?) but in this instance I don't see what any government would have to gain. What they really want are their eager litle wage slaves back on the economic hamster wheel, and that means they want them healthy. Healthy is what I want too.

Vaccination is arguably the ultimate 'prepping' - preparing your body to fight what might come against it. When the time is right and the scientists are convinced, then yes, it's definitely for me.

[Skean Dhude]

That is basically what I said. If you have a weak immune system, which also means other illnesses like diabetes, then being ill with the vaccine is preferable. We are on the same page here. I don't believe my immune system is that weak so I'm not taking it. In a couple of years things may be different. I'm not going to be a guinea pig for this.

[Tartar Horde]

It's nothing more than a money making scam riding a wave of media led fear mongering. Big Pharma are rubbing their collective hands at the juicy profits to be made, hoping vaccination will become mandatory kerching! All this for a virus that is comparable to other Flu strains in its mortality and infection. The population is being led by the nose.