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The most important comparison is the risk of getting severe covid and/or dying from it if unvaccinated. It's tricky cause it depends on what you do (you get to

The most important comparison is the risk of getting severe covid and/or dying from it if unvaccinated. It's tricky cause it depends on what you do (you get to do more once you are vaccinated), as well as the ever-changing rate of infection in the community where you are (which will change as more people get vaccinated among other things). But in general, your risk of having severe complications from covid if unvaccinated is far more than your risk of complications from the vaccine. And on the population level, we can say if say 1 million people get the vaccine, X will have blood clot complications (about 1)... if 1 million people go two months without being vaccinated, how many will get covid and have severe complications? (more than X). So if using the J&J gets a million people vaccinated two months earlier, it's a win. Of course, ALL of this is an embaressment of riches when the USA has access to large quantities of three effective and safe vaccines, when much of the planet still has zero.

jonplackett 6y ago
I agree that's an important part - BUT there's more to this all than the risk to ourselves as individuals. For older people, getting the vaccine is a no brainer. The risk of covid is high, they can't see their grand kids etc, so they're lining up to get vaccinated. For young people, the risk from Covid is low, but we need everyone to get vaccinated anyway because that's the only way to stop it spreading, infecting more vulnerable people, maybe even mutating enough to escape the vaccine. So what this is about is asking people who might not be at that much risk from covid, to get a vaccine that they're also not that much at risk from (but might worry about with all the negative headlines), in order to save all the other people and the economy and country / world as a whole.
- caddemon 6y ago
  We have 2 other vaccines that do not present this risk. It seems pretty likely the issue affects mostly younger women, so I don't see the problem with encouraging that demographic to get a different vaccine if they have reservations about J&J. To me that seems like the more practical approach as far as safety of all involved AND actually convincing people on the fence to get vaccinated. Let's stop with the "all vaccines are the same" bullshit.

jonplackett 6y ago

I agree that's an important part - BUT there's more to this all than the risk to ourselves as individuals. For older people, getting the vaccine is a no brainer. The risk of covid is high, they can't see their grand kids etc, so they're lining up to get vaccinated. For young people, the risk from Covid is low, but we need everyone to get vaccinated anyway because that's the only way to stop it spreading, infecting more vulnerable people, maybe even mutating enough to escape the vaccine. So what this is about is asking people who might not be at that much risk from covid, to get a vaccine that they're also not that much at risk from (but might worry about with all the negative headlines), in order to save all the other people and the economy and country / world as a whole.

caddemon 6y ago
We have 2 other vaccines that do not present this risk. It seems pretty likely the issue affects mostly younger women, so I don't see the problem with encouraging that demographic to get a different vaccine if they have reservations about J&J. To me that seems like the more practical approach as far as safety of all involved AND actually convincing people on the fence to get vaccinated. Let's stop with the "all vaccines are the same" bullshit.