Vaccines work. All you need to do is look what’s happening in Brazil and India and then here and Israel and even how well Europe is starting to do again. The risks of the vaccine far outweigh the risks of covid and long term health consequences, not to mention exponential growth of the virus and role it has played in destroying families. It’s also not just impacting older people.
In other news, following cdc guidelines at twin 1 fantastic covid protocol school, if vaccinated no more masks required outdoors. More than 50% are vaccinated. In person graduation is happening. School has been open all year. No lockdowns. No sending anyone home early. So happy they were able to have as normal a year as possible under the circumstances.
The statistics from that article would still suggest that vaccinated grandpa is pretty well-protected when exposed to Covid, and as the article points out: "those who had been vaccinated fared much better with fewer or no symptoms . . . ". Unfortunately the level of continued contact between assisted living/nursing residents and the staff leaves no room for shoddy practices. The workers should be fully geared in PP&E (as they are in my parent’s retirement community) and vaccinations should be required as a condition of employment once the vaccine is fully approved. We know for a fact that assisted living and nursing communities have indeed killed grandparents.
For the 18-39 years, you are going to see notably more in the 30-39 than in the 18-29 year old range. Covid problems increase with age. It’s unfortunate that these studies don’t subscribe to the CDC’s own age stratifications so that more accurate comparisons can be made.
Well, what we did prior to the vaccine being available is #3 with modifications - and no one got Covid. Our “normal” may be a bit quieter than those who love those large gatherings and crowded bars and parties and what-not, but we found that our life didn’t really change that much (except for the part about not being able to dine out or find toilet paper . . .). We certainly didn’t restrict our travel or live in a virus-paranoid manner. We knew that common-sense practices will minimize the chance of getting Covid. (Edit to add: and the vaccine doesn’t mean everything will return to 100% normal right away either). Maybe I’m mis-reading here, but I’m beginning to wonder if some people simply weren’t capable of getting on with their lives this past year. People are smarter than viruses!
Actually, most of the facilities I know of restricted loved ones but allowed infected staff inside the community - the result is that lonely elderly were deprived of their family AND catching Covid! Didn’t happen in my parent’s community but they were in a state that didn’t get a big surge for quite a while and when the did the management was well prepared to be aggressive and keep Covid from spreading throughout the facility. They also arranged for vaccinations early on. My parents were vaccinated in January.
This is true with some health care providers as well. It’s unfortunate.
How many more schools will now go ahead and mandate the vaccine with this announcement that Pfizer is filing for full FDA approval at the end of them month? The number of covid cases as a result of people getting the vaccine are way down and breakthrough cases are so rare that the vaccines are showing more than 99% efficacy. There are so many myths going around about the vaccine that people against them need to get educated so that we can get to herd immunity. Watching what is going on in India is devastating and that was us to some
degree not too long ago.
As for “considering all sides” of taking the vaccine? I don’t get that. Don’t see any downside at all. I do not understand anyone not willing to get it. The people I know who will not get the vaccine have zero good reasons just ridiculous misconceptions and angry that anyone can tell them what to do with their body. Some have juniors who are seeking colleges that are not requiring the vaccine. That’s a crazy way to narrow a list.
I agree. People can’t really justify the why and usually those who try have misinformation. The chicken pox vaccine was brand new when my son was born but he got it and then they learned they needed the booster. Big deal. There weren’t many deaths left year from it but the overall outbreaks and other benefits it prevented was substantial. Same with HPV. The reasons people don’t get it blows me away. There are enough doctors/pediatricians in this group that can weigh in on that.
My daughter has a friend who hasn’t gotten in. The only one in her sorority her year. This is in Texas mind you and the girl is from NY. She can’t even give a good reason why she won’t get it. Her excuses are completely irrational and when pushed by others she says something else that doesn’t make sense. Perfect example of someone who won’t get educated and just goes by what someone else is telling her. The funniest is thing is she has a sibling about to go off to a UC school. I wonder how he feels about the mandate for the vaccine there now that it should definitely get FDA approval.
People need to get it! If San Francisco can get 75% vaccinated then other places too. They can’t be the only city full of people who know this is the right and safe thing to do!
All sides meaning, educating yourself about something before making a decision. Perhaps I worded that wrong - by “sides” I didn’t mean those who are pro-vax and those who are anti-vax. What I meant is that he had concerns about a vaccine that only had emergency approval and had not been in use very long. He didn’t want to rush out and get it without considering the possible downsides, which were unknown. Just days after he was vaccinated with J&J, it was pulled. What happened was exactly the kind of thing that concerned him - and yes, while we know that the clots/strokes only affected a small percentage of women, the risk is there and he wanted to know what the risks/side effects were before deciding. In the end, he decided it was worth it to accept the unknown risks versus the known risks of having Covid. When my daughter was about 12, the vaccine for HPV was brand new. I educated myself making the decision to get it for her. I appreciate that my son wanted to do the same thing.
You misconstrue what I say. There is simply nothing wrong with educating yourself about a medical procedure, medicine, vaccine, etc before making a decision. That is all my son was doing. I appreciate that he wanted to have a discussion about it before deciding to get it. He was not basing his reluctance on misinformation.
This is where my son is at. My son is not anti-vax as he took his flu vaccine, but as a healthy 20 yo he is having a lot of trouble with a vaccine with only Emergency approval, and limited time that it has been in use. His though is how do we not know long term what these vaccines might do (yes short term so far seems ok). And the JnJ situation did not help . I also have friends that are waiting as well. they are not anti-vax but what if one of them was one of the very few to to have died from the JnJ. yes, a higher chance of getting hit by a car, but still a risk in peoples minds.
I have a hard time with schools requiring the vaccine for existing students, without maintaining a virtual option. My son’s school has gotten 2 years worth of tuition from us and to put an ultimatum on him that its vaccine, or done come here, where does he go if he feels uncomfortable about the vaccine still. Also some schools are requiring the students and not the professors. I think covid restrictions/testing should be in place for those existing students (versus incoming) that are not vaccinated, so that there are consequences, but those consequences are not “you are not welcome here anymore”.
And before anyone jumps on me, The rest of my family is vaccinated. My S is 20 years old . I can Force him. What do I do, kick him out of the house? Make him pay me back the tuition, because he is not ready? Of course I will continue to ask him to please vaccinate, and if he school requires it, even more so, but I do see his point.
Is your son planning to live off campus? If so then he won’t be obligated to get vaccinated for housing purposes. So then, could he just ask to wear a mask to classes and to other on campus facilities?
Currently he is living in on campus apartments. So far his school has not announced that they will require it, but if they do for housing purposes, then yes, we could likely move him off campus . He also hates masks, but that might be life. If the schools in the fall still require social distancing and masks and vaccines, that would be a triple whammy. That is the other part of all this. His school has had hybrid classes all year and he has had in person classes, and there has been some limited , mostly outdoor, activities. If even with vaccines things dont “go back to normal”, then what is the purpose? Right now for his school, and the school that my daughter went to, classes are listed as hybrid or virtual for fall. I just dont get it. Why not list them in person, and then pivot, versus the other way.
The school probably wants students to have as many options available to them as possible and hybrid is the most flexible option. Someone who wants in person classes can get that and another who might be immunocompromised or just doesn’t want to get out of bed that morning can attend online.
I don’t work in education so this Is just a guess but from reading about various schools policy’s on here virtual only classes seem to occur in either very large classes which would be impractical to conduct in person or the professor preferred to teach online.
For the fall though, in a class that pre-covid was not a large lecture, why does the professor still choose to teach online at this point. So we require all the students to be vaccinated, yet the professors and the schools can choose to still hold virtual classes. Also pre-covid lectures were also in person. I get being cautious about this in the fall., but this likely means that many freshman classes will still be online. If everyone on campus is supposedly vaccinated since schools are now requiring it. Why allow this? I just hate double standards. I know that Covid has been unknown and there could be new vaccine resistant variants (after we just required vaccines), and other things that will pop up, but already listing classes as online now, I would think the pivot is easier the other way. (I am not talking about hybrid classes here to accommodate those students who still dont want to return to campus). I guess I can voice my thoughts here, but nothing is going to change things. might as well just then be quiet, and hope for the best. Thank goodness if all goes well by next spring I will be done will all schooling for my kids. Hindsight is that if I knew Covid was coming neither of my kids might have attended where they did/are. I guess I was the stupid parent that paid extra for private versus a state public, and now feels like my kids did not get the full education/college experience I was paying for. Too late for my S to transfer at this point.
If you look at my post, that wasn’t directed specifically at you nor did I tag you, so I apologize if you think it was. It was directed at anyone who is misinformed as a whole, not your son and I wasn’t even thinking about you or your son when I commented to @homerdog . The point is exactly what you say, people need to educate themselves and get the accurate information because there is so much information out there and many myths that people are believing without doing research on it.