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Erik Rutins -> RE: Swimming in the Sulu Sea (1/2/2022 1:24:34 AM)
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I agree that choosing whether or not to get a vaccine is someone's personal choice and as with anything, experiences on an individual level can vary widely. Vaccinated people are getting hospitalized and dying from COVID, just in very small numbers relative to the unvaccinated when adjusted for the rate of vaccination in the population.
On a personal note, I and my entire immediate and extended family are vaccinated. No bad side effects, just felt a bit run down for a day after each dose. We chose to be vaccinated both because some have health issues that make them more vulnerable to COVID and to try to avoid the debilitation of "Long COVID" which affects a far larger percentage than those that become severely ill. Thankfully, no one in my immediate or extended family has had a bad case of COVID so far and I hope that continues. COVID has hit some of my acquaintances pretty hard unfortunately, as far as I know all the ones that had a tough time were unvaccinated. One of our unvaccinated friends who got it was also extremely sick until getting the monoclonal antibody treatment. Each person has a right to make their own informed decision on this and there are many places where you can seek out the best information both for and against to help make up your mind.
Outside of personal anecdotes, which run the entire gamut of possible outcomes, I think the evidence is clear that overall, on a population level, the vaccines have been very protective against hospitalization and death. Against Omicron especially, they no longer really provide much protection against infection but they still provide a lot of protection from severe disease.
However, vaccination as a topic is unfortunately quite political and any time spent on internet discussion boards or social media over the past year would make that very clear. Therefore, while I would be happy to have a civil discussion about all this, as it has become a politicized and heated topic, it would inevitably end up creating more division here as well. Locking this up.
Regards,
- Erik
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