Yes, it is incredibly frustrating when trying to make an informed decision only to have folks treat you like you're an idiot. NOT to pick on the OP, but when I read stuff like this:
Following the science and using critical thinking really does foster having the best outcomes. There are bumps in the road, but without doubt, the best outcomes. You must be very relieved to be working in such a wise environment! It just makes me angry because I HAVE been following the science***, I have been thinking critically.
And to be honest, you're not helping either because what you have just said above...that because I'm not an "expert", I can't possibly understand.
No, I'm not an attorney though I did work as a paralegal and ran my own LPD business. These days I'm a Senior Staff Accountant for a CPA firm and even though I don't have a degree in business, finance or accounting, those that do consult with me quite frequently.
With that said.....
- You don't need to be an 'expert' to see that there has been a lot of misinformation and conflicting information regarding Covid, or how heavily it was politized (by both sides). Just type it in into any search engine and you will find millions of links...Google gave me 4,220,000 results in 0.62 seconds. Of course, you'll have to use multiple search engines to see the full scope since so many of them limit how far they go back or even what they show. Best to go your local library and pull old newspapers and magazines.
- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that studying a new disease or virus takes time. Yes, I understand that Covid-19 is part of the 'family of coronaviruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold', but therein lies the problem. And I understand that because of SARS and MERS the scientific community was able to quickly identify it as a coronaviruses and start developing strategies for diagnostics, treatments and possible a vaccine, but...this was not SARS or MERS...this was something new.
- You don't need to be an 'expert' to know that it takes time to develop develop treatments, medications, vaccines and hopefully a cure. On the average it takes 10 to 15 years for vaccine development...which is pretty **** good considering that it took 22 years from the initial development to approval for Chicken Pox vaccine. Again, no doubt that development of the Covid-19 vaccine was jump started with previous research with SARS and MERS, but both were still in Pre-Clinicals (animal testing). I get it, we're in the midst of a global pandemic...countries are shut-down, businesses are closed, millions of people are out of work, a lot of people are getting sick, some are even dying. Governments threw billions of dollars in to R&D and then took the most promising of what was being developed and authorized emergency use of...when you consider that there are over 20 vaccines in five categories (RNA, DNA, Adenovirus Vector, Inactivated Virus and Subunit)...the biggest Phase 3 trial ever in history.
- And you sure a heck don't need to be an 'expert' to see what what is missing or what is deliberately being ignored or gets spun...kind like the source that you cited. I was really dizzy after reading it.
“When a new vaccine is introduced into a population, when vaccination rates become very high, we can expect as many and sometimes more cases in the vaccinated population than the unvaccinated — even when the vaccine is doing its job and protecting people at a high rate — because the denominator of number of people vaccinated is so large,”
Does that makes sense to anyone? And doesn't it contradict:
While it’s not known how many visitors to Provincetown were vaccinated, anecdotally many of them were, and data from the state show that prior to the outbreak, virtually everyone in the town had received at least one dose of a vaccine, with 85% or more of each age group fully vaccinated.
“The 74% needs to be put in the context that a very high proportion of the people exposed were vaccinated,” said Hanage. “It suggests that in the absence of vaccination the outbreak would have been much larger.”
So let's say 60,000 and 85% fully vaccinated. That's 51,000 vaccinated and 9000 unvaccinated. Out of 60,000 folks, 469 folks came down with Covid-19; 74% were fully vaccinated, 26% were not. 347 folks out of 51,000 is 0.007 or 0.7%. 122 folks out of 9000 is 0.013 or 1.3%. So technically...it was.
This is the kind of stuff that keeps a lot of people from being vaccinated...feeling like they are being sold a bill of goods. And truth be told...they have been, they still are. But honesty is a double-edge sword. How many of you, had you been told:
So we have these vaccines. They've only been tested with a small number of people so they are still experimental. We know what some of the short-term side effects, but we have no clue what the long-term effects will be because it's only been a few months. Computer models suggest that it's 90% effective against Covid-19, but we really don't know because it's only been a few months. And then there is the issues that viruses mutate and so we don't if it will work against them because we don't know what they will be. We also don't know how long the vaccine will last because again, not enough time.
Would have gotten vaccinated?
But before you answer consider this: There are approximately 333 Million people in the US with 253K cases (0.08%) and 3k deaths (0.001%) to date. We KNOW that masks and physical distancing work, we saw the numbers go down starting in March 2020 and then saw spikes around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday 2020 and around Spring Breaks 2021. And we've seen the surge since mandates were dropped in June/July. Speaking solely for myself, until Phase 3 is complete, I think I have better odds of winning the lottery.
Bring on the pizza!
