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As a healthy, 30 something year old living in the UK the only reason I took the vaccine (both doses) was in the civic duty which said that once a certain percen

As a healthy, 30 something year old living in the UK the only reason I took the vaccine (both doses) was in the civic duty which said that once a certain percentage of the population was done, then restrictions could end. Now it looks like that's kinda happening in a week but even so the BMA and others are calling this irresponsible and there's an unsaid expectation of further lockdowns. I'm really starting to wonder why I bothered with the vax. This will just go on and on.

LifeIsThermal 5y ago
There´s only one reason for taking the vaxx, to protect yourself from severe disease. You should not take it because you want restrictions to end, it has been clear for a long time that the restrictions will not go away. If you´re young and healthy, and maybe even already had covid, you benefit as much from the vaccine as you do from a tinfoil hat.
- irish_guy_uk 5y ago
  I already had covid. Extremely mild. The first vax does had me in bed for a day, missed work with chills, shakes and the worst "hangover" ever. The other main reason I got it is that I want to see my parents (abroad) and the vaccine status will no doubt factor into that. Not for another couple of months hopefully but I haven't seen them in nearly two years.
  - rich_sasha 5y ago
    In the UK, most people getting into hospitals now with severe Covid are young and unvaccinated. So while yes, the risks are much lower for young people, there are enough of them getting seriously ill.
    - LifeIsThermal 5y ago
      Not much different from how influenza also gets some young people in hospitals then? We don´t vaccinate young people against influenza either, because the risk is so low. Let the children build up natural immunity, they´ll benefit from that in the future. Vaccinate people at risk, elderly and sick people. Just like we always do. Changing strategy from what´s already known to work, when the stakes are this high, is very reckless.
      - basch 5y ago
        The population has built in immunity to influenza. There's a combination of health risk and spread potential, and if you continue to limit the benefit to only one of the two, it's easy to distort the conversation in a way that benefits your point of view. >Let the children build up natural immunity If a vaccine is safer, why? Framing a covid infection as "natural" is pretty twisted. It's not like primates have been developing immunity to this strain of bat poop for millennia. Pretending a natural infection is better because its natural is reckless. I bet, and I could be wrong, most people who had chicken pox wish they had the vaccine instead.
      - Pyramus 5y ago
        > We don´t vaccinate young people against influenza either, because the risk is so low. We do. You might want to read up on why the seasonal influenza is a seasonal influenza and how it is different from a new, pandemic strain. There is a reason children are ill all the time - their immune systems are naive with respect to (almost) all strains of influenza. That's also the reason the 1918 flu killed predominantly young people - it is conjectured that their immune systems hadn't seen the new strain yet, while older people had.
      - rich_sasha 5y ago
        As of yesterday (2021-07-12), there were 563 people admitted to the hospital with Covid in the UK [1]. If 80% are young and unvaccinated (and I think the proportion is higher), that's 450 severly ill people going into hospital per day. Doesn't sound much like the flu to me. Even if "these young people" (makes me sound like a dinosaur, though in fact I'm in that cohort) don't care about that risk, they are wasting doctors' time, and taking resources away from overstrained health system. So maybe I'd say: if you don't want to get vaccinated, without an overwhelming reason, then stay at home (so as not to risk infecting others) and if you do get sick, don't go to the hospital (as it was your risk you were taking). [1]: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
- mattashii 5y ago
  > There´s only one reason for taking the vaxx, to protect yourself from severe disease. My second reason to get vaccinated was to slow down spread as far as reasonably possible. Ergo, there are more reasons to get vaccinated than just that one you mentioned. > If you´re young and healthy, [...] you benefit as much from the vaccine as you do from a tinfoil hat. Bullshit. A tinfoil hat doesn't protect you against a covid infection a few weeks down the line, a vaccine does. And even though the likelyhood of severe symptoms for COVID-19 is generally lower for younger people, it's still beneficial to get vaccinated due to the lower chance on extreme symptoms and 'long covid'.
  - LifeIsThermal 5y ago
    The risk of severe illness in healthy people is extremely low. Here in Sweden it´s less than 0.2%. If you already had covid the risk is something like 0.00008% to even get infected. In my view, both of those numbers are so low that protection from vaccination is equal to a tinfoil hat. Only an idiot vaccinates himself for a virus with 0.2% risk of severe disease. Now, there might be a difference in what we call "healthy people" here in Sweden. Because we´re not fat.
    - lawn 5y ago
      Only an idiot thinks that 0.2% is low or that a tinfoil hat (which gives exactly zero protection) is equal to the protection the vaccine gives.
    - shaftway 5y ago
      So, I think you're trying to say the risk is low, but non-zero. And getting vaccinated would seem to lower this further. Making it more valuable than a tin foil hat?
  - checkyoursudo 5y ago
    Other than not wanting to get the illness yourself, there is another major reason to get the vaccine. The more that people get the illness, then the more likely the virus is to evolve variants. Regardless of how bad or not bad it is now, a future variant could always be much, much worse. And there is just no way to know if or when that might happen. As many people as possible getting vaxxed is the best way to prevent some future deadly variant. Getting it naturally is and surviving does not help in this regard, because that is where most (all?) of the variants come from to begin with.
- Nursie 5y ago
  > There´s only one reason for taking the vaxx, to protect yourself from severe disease. This is nonsense. There are several, and they include helping to protect other people both directly by reducing spread and indirectly by not acting as a host for potential variants. > it has been clear for a long time that the restrictions will not go away And this is pure conspiracy thinking.
Nursie 5y ago
> there's an unsaid expectation of further lockdowns Because the disease is still running rampant, unfortunately, as we still have a way to go with the vacciantion effort > I'm really starting to wonder why I bothered with the vax. Why? You've cut down on the chances of getting the disease, you've cut down the chances you'll be a vector that gets other people infected, and you've cut down the chance you'll be the source of a new variant. And at what cost? Very little.
Mordisquitos 5y ago
> I'm really starting to wonder why I bothered with the vax. This will just go on and on. Don't worry. This will not go on an on, we're just living through the death rattles of the pandemic completely dominating global, collective, and media awareness over the past year and a half. Of course the BMA are concerned: they are doctors, they have taken the worst of the pandemic, and they just want this damn thing to stop. The difference is that for them, this damned thing is people needing medical attention, and they can only wish it were possible for everything to just bloody stop if that would release them with dealing with the worst of COVID-19. But it will get better, with minor ups and downs. SARS-CoV-2 is of course not going anywhere. There will continue to be new variants, the media will for a while loudly (and clumsily) echo any clinical paper about breakthrough infections, or increases of cases in this or that population, or collapsed ICUs [0]. Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturers will try to lobby governments into buying and administering newly developed booster doses for this or that variant of concern. The new variant may or may not really be truly concerning for public health, but their business is manufacturing and selling pharmaceuticals, so fair enough. But in any case, once a critical mass of the population is vaccinated, COVID-19 will gradually become irrelevant. Virtually everyone will have significant immunity, a few people will catch it and think it's just a cold, fewer people will catch it and develop a nasty flu-like case which will be correctly diagnosed as COVID-19, and there will even be nasty and even deadly cases in vaccinated people. But there are nasty and deadly cases of flu, and even nasty and deadly cases of common cold viruses. However, as the media little by little gets bored of making a big thing every time this happens, the epidemiology of COVID-19 will slowly become only of interest to people actually working in the field — just like they have been silently studying the epidemiology of every seasonal flu strain without any media attention. [0] For Spain at least, I can find you news about collapsed ICUs... during pre-2019 flu seasons!
- premium-gecko 5y ago
  > This will not go on an on At what point would you be willing to admit you were wrong? If we're still doing whatever-variant this time next year, would you reconsider?
  - Mordisquitos 5y ago

LifeIsThermal 5y ago

There´s only one reason for taking the vaxx, to protect yourself from severe disease. You should not take it because you want restrictions to end, it has been clear for a long time that the restrictions will not go away. If you´re young and healthy, and maybe even already had covid, you benefit as much from the vaccine as you do from a tinfoil hat.

irish_guy_uk 5y ago
I already had covid. Extremely mild. The first vax does had me in bed for a day, missed work with chills, shakes and the worst "hangover" ever. The other main reason I got it is that I want to see my parents (abroad) and the vaccine status will no doubt factor into that. Not for another couple of months hopefully but I haven't seen them in nearly two years.
- rich_sasha 5y ago
  In the UK, most people getting into hospitals now with severe Covid are young and unvaccinated. So while yes, the risks are much lower for young people, there are enough of them getting seriously ill.
  - LifeIsThermal 5y ago
    Not much different from how influenza also gets some young people in hospitals then? We don´t vaccinate young people against influenza either, because the risk is so low. Let the children build up natural immunity, they´ll benefit from that in the future. Vaccinate people at risk, elderly and sick people. Just like we always do. Changing strategy from what´s already known to work, when the stakes are this high, is very reckless.
    - basch 5y ago
      The population has built in immunity to influenza. There's a combination of health risk and spread potential, and if you continue to limit the benefit to only one of the two, it's easy to distort the conversation in a way that benefits your point of view. >Let the children build up natural immunity If a vaccine is safer, why? Framing a covid infection as "natural" is pretty twisted. It's not like primates have been developing immunity to this strain of bat poop for millennia. Pretending a natural infection is better because its natural is reckless. I bet, and I could be wrong, most people who had chicken pox wish they had the vaccine instead.
    - Pyramus 5y ago
      > We don´t vaccinate young people against influenza either, because the risk is so low. We do. You might want to read up on why the seasonal influenza is a seasonal influenza and how it is different from a new, pandemic strain. There is a reason children are ill all the time - their immune systems are naive with respect to (almost) all strains of influenza. That's also the reason the 1918 flu killed predominantly young people - it is conjectured that their immune systems hadn't seen the new strain yet, while older people had.
    - rich_sasha 5y ago
      As of yesterday (2021-07-12), there were 563 people admitted to the hospital with Covid in the UK [1]. If 80% are young and unvaccinated (and I think the proportion is higher), that's 450 severly ill people going into hospital per day. Doesn't sound much like the flu to me. Even if "these young people" (makes me sound like a dinosaur, though in fact I'm in that cohort) don't care about that risk, they are wasting doctors' time, and taking resources away from overstrained health system. So maybe I'd say: if you don't want to get vaccinated, without an overwhelming reason, then stay at home (so as not to risk infecting others) and if you do get sick, don't go to the hospital (as it was your risk you were taking). [1]: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
mattashii 5y ago
> There´s only one reason for taking the vaxx, to protect yourself from severe disease. My second reason to get vaccinated was to slow down spread as far as reasonably possible. Ergo, there are more reasons to get vaccinated than just that one you mentioned. > If you´re young and healthy, [...] you benefit as much from the vaccine as you do from a tinfoil hat. Bullshit. A tinfoil hat doesn't protect you against a covid infection a few weeks down the line, a vaccine does. And even though the likelyhood of severe symptoms for COVID-19 is generally lower for younger people, it's still beneficial to get vaccinated due to the lower chance on extreme symptoms and 'long covid'.
- LifeIsThermal 5y ago
  The risk of severe illness in healthy people is extremely low. Here in Sweden it´s less than 0.2%. If you already had covid the risk is something like 0.00008% to even get infected. In my view, both of those numbers are so low that protection from vaccination is equal to a tinfoil hat. Only an idiot vaccinates himself for a virus with 0.2% risk of severe disease. Now, there might be a difference in what we call "healthy people" here in Sweden. Because we´re not fat.
  - lawn 5y ago
    Only an idiot thinks that 0.2% is low or that a tinfoil hat (which gives exactly zero protection) is equal to the protection the vaccine gives.
  - shaftway 5y ago
    So, I think you're trying to say the risk is low, but non-zero. And getting vaccinated would seem to lower this further. Making it more valuable than a tin foil hat?
- checkyoursudo 5y ago
  Other than not wanting to get the illness yourself, there is another major reason to get the vaccine. The more that people get the illness, then the more likely the virus is to evolve variants. Regardless of how bad or not bad it is now, a future variant could always be much, much worse. And there is just no way to know if or when that might happen. As many people as possible getting vaxxed is the best way to prevent some future deadly variant. Getting it naturally is and surviving does not help in this regard, because that is where most (all?) of the variants come from to begin with.
Nursie 5y ago
> There´s only one reason for taking the vaxx, to protect yourself from severe disease. This is nonsense. There are several, and they include helping to protect other people both directly by reducing spread and indirectly by not acting as a host for potential variants. > it has been clear for a long time that the restrictions will not go away And this is pure conspiracy thinking.

Nursie 5y ago

> there's an unsaid expectation of further lockdowns Because the disease is still running rampant, unfortunately, as we still have a way to go with the vacciantion effort > I'm really starting to wonder why I bothered with the vax. Why? You've cut down on the chances of getting the disease, you've cut down the chances you'll be a vector that gets other people infected, and you've cut down the chance you'll be the source of a new variant. And at what cost? Very little.

Mordisquitos 5y ago

> I'm really starting to wonder why I bothered with the vax. This will just go on and on. Don't worry. This will not go on an on, we're just living through the death rattles of the pandemic completely dominating global, collective, and media awareness over the past year and a half. Of course the BMA are concerned: they are doctors, they have taken the worst of the pandemic, and they just want this damn thing to stop. The difference is that for them, this damned thing is people needing medical attention, and they can only wish it were possible for everything to just bloody stop if that would release them with dealing with the worst of COVID-19. But it will get better, with minor ups and downs. SARS-CoV-2 is of course not going anywhere. There will continue to be new variants, the media will for a while loudly (and clumsily) echo any clinical paper about breakthrough infections, or increases of cases in this or that population, or collapsed ICUs [0]. Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturers will try to lobby governments into buying and administering newly developed booster doses for this or that variant of concern. The new variant may or may not really be truly concerning for public health, but their business is manufacturing and selling pharmaceuticals, so fair enough. But in any case, once a critical mass of the population is vaccinated, COVID-19 will gradually become irrelevant. Virtually everyone will have significant immunity, a few people will catch it and think it's just a cold, fewer people will catch it and develop a nasty flu-like case which will be correctly diagnosed as COVID-19, and there will even be nasty and even deadly cases in vaccinated people. But there are nasty and deadly cases of flu, and even nasty and deadly cases of common cold viruses. However, as the media little by little gets bored of making a big thing every time this happens, the epidemiology of COVID-19 will slowly become only of interest to people actually working in the field — just like they have been silently studying the epidemiology of every seasonal flu strain without any media attention. [0] For Spain at least, I can find you news about collapsed ICUs... during pre-2019 flu seasons!

premium-gecko 5y ago
> This will not go on an on At what point would you be willing to admit you were wrong? If we're still doing whatever-variant this time next year, would you reconsider?
- Mordisquitos 5y ago