Aug 29, 2021 12:47PM
runor
wrote:
I am late to the party!
I have not read all posts - there are a lot of them!
Wrenn, to your point which I think is basically' what would it take to convince someone to get the shot?' That is a HUGE question, but the one that (for me) gets to the heart of the matter.
Proof. I need proof that the threat is as big as the ask. I have been asked to do things FAR outside my cultural, societal and personal comfort zone. And by comfort I don't just mean comfort, but to do things that push me to the edge of my ethical and moral tolerance. So the THREAT must be MASSIVE and those who tell me it is better be telling the truth.
With this being an unknown (novel) virus, asking us to mask, distance, isolate, close schools and businesses etc was reasonable. For a very limited time. Reasonable, with a clear end in sight. While we were trying to get this figured out, trying to assess the SIZE of the threat, all emergency measures were warranted. But they were on the clock to provide supporting evidence that defined continuation or cessation of extreme measures.
As I see it, there is a hierarchy that determines the level of reaction warranted. 1) Is it killing our kids? This would be maximum, full panic, stop the world, freak the fuck out level shit! So this is at the top of the list. For this we inject oven cleaner into our veins if we think it saves our (and everyone's) kids from death and permanent injury. Very quickly we learned that kids were the safest of all. Right there the govts of the world should have backed the hell down. But like a dog on a bone once they grabbed on, the human drive to be evil shits took over and they plowed forward screaming that we were in an emergency when clearly, we were not even close.
2) was it killing everyone who is exposed? No. Not even close. It turns out to be extremely survivable by the VAST majority of people who encounter it. So most of the world was never at any risk of death or damage. That should have ended all public measures right there. Back to normal life people!
3) is the vaccine time tested, low risk, very tolerable and will one shot do it, like one polio shot and one smallpox shot? If the answer to that had all been yes, I might now have a shot. It's coming to light more and more that the bad reactions to this vax are mounting and its efficacy is waning. I would take one, safe, effective shot. I will NOT get on the merry-go-round of boosters and oops you still need to wear a mask and distance and slather hand sanitizer on yourself. Nope. That is not where I will go. This vax is seeming pretty half cocked and its looking worse all the time.
We often make reference on this site to 'playing the cancer card'. We say it thus because we know it's kind of a shitty, manipulative and sometimes dishonest thing to do to get our own way. It guilts people. It plays on making them feel bad. It's an emotional coercion to gain special treatment . Well, we are seeing that on a global scale. Scared people are playing the covid card, the social responsibility card. Someone else's risk is being laid at my feet as if I am guaranteed to be sick, guaranteed to sneeze on their cheese and crackers and they are guaranteed to get virus and guaranteed to die from it. We all know statistically that's a pretty big stretch. I see this insistence that it's someone else's social duty to sooth the public sense of panic as the very worst human ethic. We all accept very high risks every day of our lives and in accepting those risks we have cancelled our right to howl for special treatment, Papersss for zeee un vaxxxed! If you have ever loved someone who was unstable, who threatened to commit suicide every time life didn't go their way, threatened to kill them self if you didn't hand over what they demanded, you would quickly recognize when a ruthless foe was fighting dirty for their own gain at your expense. Emotional blackmail. If people have the means to protect themselves from risk by masking or staying home or vaxxing but still want everyone else to make them safe too, at their expense, regardless of how the others feel about it then they are the ruthless dirty fighter whose claims of loving thy brother are actually not true. Except in their own mind. But it has nothing to do with personal medical decisions.
I do not want to get covid. I don't know that I would survive it. My lungs are my weak spot. I was watching the J&J shot but in this part of Canada it seems it is not available. The next of interest was the Novavax, not sure if it is available here. So I have not removed vaccination as a possibility. I am not interested in the new mrna shots. But it will be a cold day in hell before I ever step forward in a line and say, I am better, more special, more deserving than everyone else and I want special treatment and they can go home because I am entitled to the life we had in 2019 and they are not - based on having a vaccination or not. I would rather eat a shit sandwich than be that person. My fears are mine. My health is mine. The steps I take to protect myself are personal and mine. No one owes me their life and freedom. Our kids are not dying. Everyone is not dying. We know who is dying and know how to help them. This is not an emergency. A tragedy is not an emergency.
Dx
3/23/2017, IDC, Left, 2cm, Stage IIB, Grade 2, 0/1 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-
Surgery
4/12/2017 Lumpectomy: Left; Lymph node removal: Sentinel
Radiation Therapy
7/5/2017 Whole-breast: Breast
Hormonal Therapy
Tamoxifen pills (Nolvadex, Apo-Tamox, Tamofen, Tamone)