Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Vaccines are not 100% effective. In addition, some people are unable to take the vaccine. But if everyone who could get the vaccine did so, the number of cases would drop exponentially, as each active cases would no longer infect more than one other person on average. This is what's meant by herd immunity.
People who could get the vaccine but choose not to have it are putting everyone else at risk, by helping to keep the vaccine circulating (and mutating).
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This is all true. No disagreement from me (other than that "no more than one person infected" claim - I don't have any data to confirm or dispute that). And what you say is true for EVERY vaccine for EVERY disease out there as well. Not just covid.
Now that we agree on your statement, what do we do about it?
Are you in favor of forcing everyone who is medically able to take this vaccine to do so (and while you're at it, every other vaccine out there as well)?
We are not talking about a small handful of people. It appears that about 1/3 of the population of the USA is hesitant to take the vaccine. I assume numbers are relatively similar in other free countries. Regardless of how you or I view the success of the vaccine(s), there are a bunch of people who do not agree with us. So even if you wanted to force these people to take a vaccine against their will, how would you accomplish that?
I would never force something like that on anyone. But if I had a mind to, then I would have to admit to myself that there's no way it could realistically happen. So really, forced vaccination is off the table (except maybe in places like North Korea, China, Venezuela, etc.)
I would also have to admit to myself that the risk the unvaccinated would present to the vaccinated, while not zero, is very very small. Making it even tougher to force anything on them.
I would even have to admit, that the risk the unvaccinated present to the vaccinated is much smaller than the risk associated with the vaccination itself. Right now, things look good for the vaccines. They seem safe. And effective. But truthfully, we do not yet have a good handle on long term effects. Vaccine hesitancy is not a trait of the stupid, rather, it is a trait of the cautious (some of the super conspiracy theorists indeed appear stupid, but they are in the minority). I cannot fault them for being cautious, even though I myself chose less caution and got the vaccine.