I've already gone over how you're misinterpreting the VAERS data, and why the numbers seem higher, so I don't agree that it's not disputable that these vaccines are not nearly as safe. Let me know when another vaccine goes into half the country's population in the stretch of a few months and then we'll compare the numbers. Once again, VAERS data are reports of events that happened sometime after getting a vaccine. They aren't reports of events caused by the vaccine.
The "inventor" of mRNA is one guy with one opinion. He hasn't been involved in the clinical trials of this vaccine to my knowledge.
You know what else causes myocarditis in young people? Covid. Remember when we all had a discussion about that when it was being caused by covid and we said it's a common condition that happens after a lot of viral illnesses and therefore we can't definitively conclude that covid was causing all of it? And anyway it's generally mild and most recover from it fully? Some don't even know when they have it? Remember that discussion? Would it shock me if there was an extremely small increased risk of any kind of inflammatory condition after a vaccine? No. That's how the immune system works. As long as they recognize it's a slight risk they can catch it and treat it. The benefits outweigh the risks.
I think the question of whether all young children should get the vaccine is still undetermined. Certainly any kid who is morbidly obese or has other high risk conditions should. I worry about the (very minor) effects my son still has from covid and what that might mean. My friend's son's fiance who was perfectly healthy in her 20s but still has no taste and smell and respiratory issues 6 months later. Is there cellular damage? Brain damage? I don't know. My kid's got a really good brain so I hope not.
My confidence comes yes from my friend in the pharma industry who looked into this extensively and couldn't wait to get his entire family vaccinated. His own beloved children. From my nurse practitioner friend who is the director of a clinic that serves the local Hispanic population and has seen numerous young healthy people get very, very sick and die of this. From my voracious reading and the fact that most of the anti-vaccine stuff I read has little basis in fact, regularly intentionally distorts facts and does not come from any kind of credible sources.
My general respect for the medical profession and science in general. Unlike some of you there's not a shred of me that thinks doctors and pharmaceutical researchers would purposely inject millions of people with something they knew was harmful. Call me crazy I believe they know a bit more about this stuff than I do. I don't think they're so evil that they'd harm people on purpose or conceal harmful effects just to make a few bucks.
Once again, how do you know that any medical treatment is safe in the long term without administering it to lots of people and waiting to see what the long term results are? You don't. If I'm gonna roll the dice on a vaccine that's been studied, developed by professionals and tested in tens of thousands of people or a viral illness that originated in the wild or a Chinese lab that has been proven to kill people and cause at least year long symptoms in many others, I'd take my chances with the former. Unfortunately covid caught up with me before the vaccine did, and I've been lucky that I don't seem to have any serious effects from it. Many others weren't so lucky.
Meanwhile aside from Ron Burgundy's sister I know of no one that has had any kind of serious effects from the vaccines. Out of the hundreds of people I know who have mostly gotten it. Anecdotal, yes. But we are at 80% vaccinated in my county and I haven't heard of a one. I work with the elderly and every single one of them has gotten it and not one story of an adverse effect yet.
I'm not misinterpreting VAERS data. I know that there is no cause/effect relationship established in those reports.
But here is what I do know. COVID stats have been over and under-reported. What we have been fed about COVID is equally as much a farce. Hell, last week they established an 11K difference in deaths reported due to COVID in NY alone.
Likewise, we know that VAERS adverse-effects are under-reported. This has been established. What we see reported is just a % of the actual # of events that have happened.
To say that these vaccines are far less safe than all other vaccines combined isn't my opinion, it's the opinion of doctors and medical researchers I've read. I've seen nothing reasonable that can disprove this.
Yes the cause and effect is suspect. But the old "where there is smoke there is fire" adage should apply. 16 year old females don't just drop dead of heart attacks or brain aneurisms that often.
Likewise, we also don't know the long term effects of these vaccines. I was fortunate enough to live in an era when diphtheria and mumps and small pox vaccines were administered, they had already been tested. Tried. We had faith in their efficacy.
I and my family now live in a moment in time where these COVID vaccines haven't had that same trial. So there is faith involved. That's really what it boils down to. Faith. Hope that these vaccines do not come with long term effects. Belief that they are safe. Some of us have that belief, others do not and want to wait for data.
The reality is, in this moment - which is a rushed, immediate, here and now moment....with vaccines that don't have history and data to support they are truly safe - I and others have to make a decision. Trust the government and these pharmaceutical companies that these vaccines are safe or roll the dice with COVID? When they are EUA approved, when every single pharma company is exempt from lawsuits...it makes me scratch my head and say why? Why should they be immune if their drugs cause mass issues among the human population?
It's a choice that I weigh heavily. Not without a lot of thought and my own research.
I spent the past weekend surrounded by thousands (literally) of college kids, in their bars and clubs. Not a single person with a mask. A COVID breeding ground. I'm unvaccinated. The rest of my family has had it, and are immune. I'm not. Unless, which I believe I have, I have the antibodies because there's no way they all got it and I didn't given where we all were together. Maybe I'm immune, maybe I'm not.
My parents are ill. My sister, who lives with them and cares for them, is out of town. They are alone and not doing well. I'm going to spend a few days with them and work there and care for them. Before I go, I'm going to get tested. My stepfather, when I told him I would be there tomorrow after getting tested, said "You didn't get the shot?" I said nope. He said "Well I don't feel sorry for you, you're 52 and you have asthma." I said "I know, I don't trust the vaccines though and I'm waiting for a naturally developed one." He shrugged.
Even my own family, some of them, question my decisions. That's fine. It's
mine to make.
Anyone questioning these vaccines has every right to do so. No one on the other side can say "they are safe" in the same vein that same person may say "the polio vaccine is safe." We literally do not yet know. Those people that are saying they are safe are lying. They don't know this. They simply cannot know this. No one currently knows this.
I don't know anyone that has died of COVID. I don't know a person that has a relative or friend that died of COVID. Yet I know two people, one morbidly obese, hospitalized from it. All recovered. Quite near everyone I know has had it. Lived. Zero long term effects but one, a runner, who has to use an inhaler at times.
That's it.
Which goes back to my original premise. We all have our own experience. People should be able to make the decision to roll the dice. You did by getting vaccinated. Others are rollling the dice by not. Both decisions involve incredibly tiny chances of death. And both, over time, will reveal where we truly are.
I do hope they are safe vaccines and there are no long term effects and my fears were unwarranted. But I've told my kids to not get them, under any circumstances. They don't need them. The risk for them is far greater than getting COVID...again. I'm a different story.
www.kff.org
www.theguardian.com
www.voanews.com
www.cnn.com
