First, I am not a scientist. I have high school Applied Science, at best and a good lot of those classes were spent in malls, at the homes of friends and in nice weather, a local beach.
Second, I am getting the vaccine but…and it is a bit “BUT”, I neither trust nor believe the pharmaceutical companies, nor the various government agencies involved. See, I do have a bit of an “in”; a very close family member was high on up in the Canadian arm of Food/Drugs. He was involved in testing, interpreting literature…the dude was an analytical, science brain on two feet. He was the prototype of the stereotypical scientist persona. Loved the guy but he could be an ass. Through him and as it was through him, not personal experience, my conclusions/opinions of pharmaceutical companies and government are very…very dim.
Yes, government (bureaucrats and politicians) are bribed. Yes, pharmaceutical companies are profit driven (duh).
As a result, we can’t trust either entity to give us the truth. The uncomfortable fact is that even the pharmaceutical companies don’t know “the truth”. Let us not forget that it is these two entities permitted Celebrex, Vioxx and Zantac to enter the market, and in decades passed…Thalidomide. Diet pills, (Speed in the modern vernacular) were prescribed to pregnant women, albeit, also in decades passed.
Oxycontin, morphine derivatives….yes, the onus is on the patient to fully understand contraindications, risks but let’s face it and pharmaceutical companies are more than aware that patients do not use due diligence when taking medications, prescribed or off-the-shelf.
The rush toward the vaccine can be cloaked in “the public good” but you have to really be a bit of a moron, to believe this is the driving force. The driving force is money and there are a lot of folks, in both government and pharmaceuticals making truckloads off these products.
Are you aware that if there turns out to be long term, serious side effects, that the government has protected the pharmaceutical companies involved, with the vaccines, from legal repercussions, down the road? This should terrify everyone.
The truth is – pharmaceutical companies just don’t know what long-term effects may be. We are learning that some variants, of Covid are, themselves, “immune” to the vaccine.
Will the vaccine trigger autoimmune conditions, later on? We don’t know.
I looked at the studies and even I am leery about them. There are reams of conspiracy theories out there, from the sublime to the ridiculous. I don’t need them to harbour a healthy (pun not intended but welcomed), mistrust of pharmaceutical companies and government. The highest R-naught factor for the original virus is 6.6 and with the UK virus, it is 7.
Here’s a chart of the R0 factors of well-known diseases, for comparison and a link to the web page.
So yes, Corona virus is pretty high as a contagion and using the euphemism of “variant” (Far less “scary” than mutation, which is what variants are, in reality.), the R0 will, probably, climb. It is a virus. The whole raison d’être of a virus is survival. How does it survive? By mutating. Sometimes a virus will mutate itself into harmlessness but, Corona doesn’t seem to be on that particular track, or at least some of the strains aren’t quite ready to fly the white flag. The strains that have taken an unwitting self-destruct sequence…well, they have self-destructed. Will the variants end up that way or will they continue to adapt and mutate, rending our vaccines useless? Who knows…
So, I guess it comes down to each of us, to weigh the pro’s and cons. Do your own investigating, don’t rely on the internet, government, or pharmaceuticals to do your thinking for you. Read the studies, (Keep a bottle of Advil handy or wine…your choice; they are rough going for the layman.) Forget mainstream news agencies. If you haven’t figured out, they are full of shite…then you aren’t paying attention.
Conclusion to all of the above? I get my vaccine next week. I don’t want to do this, but…I do want to be able to travel, in the future and I am, pretty much, convinced, that like the smallpox vaccination cards of the 60’s – we will not be able to indulge in free movement without proof of vaccination. I am older and long-term side effects are less of a concern for me. Please, I can’t encourage you enough, to read – inform yourself, ask questions and when you have collected all the information you are able to gather – make your decision. Don’t be forced either way. This decision could not be more personal. This cannot be undone.
Here are some links to get you started:
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04470427
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.20021154v1
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