Quote:
Originally Posted by ForgotMyPW
Charlie might be a cringelord but he's not wrong here.
1 this is a RNA "vaccine", it's not your standard vaccine
2 they worked on this vaccine for less than a year, for comparison the flu vaccine is nearly 75 years old, yet only 45% effective
3 last I heard these covid vaccines are supposedly 95% effective, while your immune system is 99.9% effective, assuming you're not 80 years old with health problems.
1. So what? Pieces of nucleic acid have been given to hundreds of thousands of people for other disease indications without serious adverse events. Both biologically and chemically they're not like the small organic molecule drugs that can sometimes have unanticipated and nasty off-target biological effects.
2. On this we agree. But do the risk/reward analysis: a highly effective preventive that's been safe for 3 months or longer in tens of thousands of people, or contracting COVID-19? The only group for whom that ratio might be unfavorable would be for those with autoimmune disorders, whose response to vaccine-based activation of their immune systems might be unpredictable.
3. Your immune system might be highly effective on its own, but you've got to be infected with the virus to activate it for near-certain protection against this particular virus. And even then human immunity isn't perfect, as evidenced by the thankfully rare number of instances of people being infected with COVID twice.
Look, I totally get that some people will be reluctant or unwilling to be vaccinated against COVID, especially given the short-term nature of our experience with the vaccines. But I expect their numbers to dramatically decline over time next year as everyone sees those around them getting protection from COVID, and the long-term experiences with the vaccines continue to show benign safety profiles. And as a 66 year old currently protected through vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza, bacterial pneumonia, and tetanus, I'm very favorably inclined to get protection from COVID ASAP.
Last edited by namisgr11; 12-04-2020 at 10:26 AM.