Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
I'd rather be sick for months, than dead for eternity.
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I don't buy that.
Suppose that a vaccine tested against COVID prevented all deaths from the disease, but everyone who took the vaccine got long haul COVID. There's no way that vaccine should, or would, be authorized. And Barbara1955 is, as I read it, saying that she believes, based on experience with some other vaccines (tetnus? diphtheria? flu? pneumococcal?) a COVID vaccine would give her a long haul illness.
I was given the Moderna first dose, just this afternoon, after having
read the evidence concerning benefits and risks. I think the benefit-risk ratio is better than with other vaccines (and I take all my family doctor suggests). But AFAIK, in our society, adults like Barbara1955 are allowed to make their own medical decisions. Pressuring strangers, whose medical history I don't have, to make the same judgment I do doesn't feel right to me.
What if, God-forbid, the next time there is a new virus as easy to catch as COVID, it kills with the lethality rate of rabies (maybe something like 99 percent) or smallpox (maybe 30 percent). Then I expect physicians would refuse to treat those who declined vaccination, or the government would force-jab refusers. But in this more borderline situation, where the death rate is closer to 1 percent, I think this is between her and her physician.
I do agree with the point in
#61. But there are other ways Barbara1955 can reduce the chances of giving the illness to others, such as not flying on an airliner.