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Originally Posted by haertig

And you are following the pattern of the USA very closely. When the vaccine was not readily available, the ones (in the USA) claiming they would not get it were similar to your 20%. But then, after the vaccine became readily available, for some reason the number of people claiming that they wouldn't get it rose. Since right now, in Canada, you guys are having trouble getting the vaccine one would expect you to be at that 20% hesitancy point. But eventually you will have easy access to the vaccine. It will be interesting to see what your hesitancy numbers are then.

Contrary to your assumption, the hesitancy numbers for Canada were higher and have dropped as the vaccines are being more readily available. To quote myself:

As more people get vaccinated, the non-fanatic "I'm not going to get vaccinated" crowd seems to be shrinking.

As of the evening of May 21, 2021, the numbers say that 49.3% of Canadians have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in comparison to 48.6% in the USA. Demand for vaccine is still outrunning supply in Canada while the USA has a good supply of vaccine but is having trouble locating the arms to inject. Several studies in the last week have shown vaccine hesitancy in Canada has dropped to 10% though like all such studies, the numbers depend on region and will likely change over time. Another difference is that the Canadian vaccine hesitancy does not seem to follow political lines—whether a person leans to the Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic Party, Parti Québécois, Green, etc. seems to have little effect.

It must be admitted that since Canada is attempting to make the best use of the vaccine supply by following an as many first doses as possible policy, we trail the USA in the percentage who have had a second dose.

Originally Posted by haertig

And as I'm sure you know, catching covid after being vaccinated is a nothing-burger. Most don't even know they caught it. That's what the vaccine does. You may be in that 5% who still catch it. With the majority of those not even realizing that they have caught it. The goal of the vaccines is not to make sure you don't get an asymptomatic case, the goal is to make sure you don't get really sick and die.

Ummm... you seem to have left out "with the original Covid-19 virus". At this point, there seems to be several variants that may or may not be equally affected by the existing vaccines and more variants seem to popping up. Much as the AstraZeneca vaccine ran into issues with the South African variant B.1.351 with the protection level dropping to 25%. The AZ vaccine seemed to be effective in preventing severe cases leading to death but the number of cases requiring hospitalization was far more than most of the studies I've seen considered acceptable. So I am unable to consider catching Covid-19 after being immunized as a "nothing-burger".

Originally Posted by haertig

Was it not clear that I was talking about long term unknown effects? Not short term stuff like reactions and death? I stated that in the paragraph you quoted. I will state it more clearly now, "I think that the risk of long term effects of the vaccines - which is unknown - presents a potentially greater problem than the risk of a vaccinated person catching covid, since most vaccinated people who catch covid never even know they have it." If you prefer your opinion over mine, that's fine (and expected). But I still get to have my opinion, despite yours.

Opinions are fine. And thanks for clearing up your meaning about long term effects. Though I tend to the belief that most of those "worrying" about the long term effects are not expressing an opinion that they have put any thought or study into.

Originally Posted by haertig

They are spewing a ton of crap, aren't they? I agree. But they are correct on one point - we really don't know the long term effects. I personally was not swayed by the long term effects point. I got the vaccine. And for people who say "we don't know the long term effects" I often times respond jokingly and say, "Yeah, but we do know the long term effects of death." Despite joking around like that, I do acknowledge their concern as legitimate.

A lot of the expressed concerns are hard to give any legitimacy to since they often seem to based on the a level of evidence that doesn't meet even anecdotal. Hmmm.... "scientists has shown that any of the Covid-19 vaccines will destroy your DNA", "people who get vaccinated become a public health hazard as they are spewing viruses from every square centimetre of their body", "Covid-19 vaccines are proven to cause reduced fertility and increased chance of a baby having genetic defects" (see the destroying your DNA meme), "Covid-19 can be prevented/cured by a proper diet and use of herbal remedies", "they were putting Covid-19 vaccines into other paediatric vaccines", etc. Then there was recent chuckle where I ran into "Covid-19 vaccines are proven to increase the number of autistic children" as a rewrite of the golden oldie vaccine of your choice has been proven to increase the prevalence of autism in children

Then we get into the real lunatic fringe where Covid-19 vaccines contain nanomachines allowing the government/big corporations/the Illuminati/etc. to track and/or control anyone who get vaccinated and do a deep dive into tinfoil hat territory from there.