Im not educated or know statistics. What I do know that my being vaccinated is the smart thing to do. You can post all kinds of percentages, but in the end, doesn’t it just matter that getting vaccinated does protect you?
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/25/neil-cavuto-vaccine-plea/
Nearly a week after announcing he had tested positive for a breakthrough coronavirus infection, Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Sunday pleaded with viewers to forget politics and get vaccinated.
“Take the political speaking points and toss them for now,” Cavuto, 63, said on Fox’s “MediaBuzz.” “I’m begging you — toss them and think of what’s good, not only for yourself, but for those around you.”
When he announced his diagnosis on Tuesday, Cavuto was outspoken about the importance of getting immunized. In a statement released by Fox News, he said doctors told him he would be in a “far more dire situation” had he not received the coronavirus vaccine, and “I’m surviving this because I did.”
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Im not educated or know statistics. What I do know that my being vaccinated is the smart thing to do. You can post all kinds of percentages, but in the end, doesn’t it just matter that getting vaccinated does protect you?
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My company just sent out an email saying they are mandating getting vaccinated to be in compliance with the federal mandate. Didn’t take long for all the anti-vax/pro-freedom/conspiracy folks to come out of the woodwork.
Luckily so far the number of people complaining and liking those type of complaints is tiny compared to the size of the company. I feel sorry for our HR department who is getting caught up in the whirlwind of a few.
Ty!
My client also just put in a mandate based on being a federal contractor. Their most outraged response came from an employee who wanted a medical exemption and was mad that a third part provider would be evaluating that. She told co-workers her doctor had been willing to write a note but warned her the independent expert was going to tell her she had a hundreds of thousands fold increased likelihood from having a problem if she got Covid vs from the vaccine.
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Those darned logical experts! 
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The US has dramatically underinvested in public health expenditures for decades and states have as well. There was recent article about the tiny budget states have with no pandemic and are diverting that for the Pandemic. Because of our highly fragmented system of health insurance, we don’t have simple ways to get data.
Israel has four HMOs for the whole country and hence relatively complete data. Because of that, they made a deal with Pfizer that was described in the Wall Street Journal in which Israel got the first vaccines in return for a complete disclosure of data (possibly even in violation of the country’s privacy laws). Great for Pfizer as their studies always come out first and they get market share. Great for Israel as they have had first access to vaccines. So, perhaps we should look to Israel for more accurate data on vaccine effectiveness.
Here is a post by Francis Collins (head of NIH) summarizing an Israeli study that estimates the rate of breakthrough infection at 0.4%. I think that counts as pretty rare. There is more to the study but studies should be given a lot more weight than second/third-hand anecdotal stories.
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Unfortunately, you can’t just take the Israeli study and stop there: you have to consider local vaccination and other mitigation rates. If breakthrough is low in Israel in part because in general they’ve got strong pandemic hygiene and, in case you’re not imagining this scenario fully, it’s a very small country bursting with Jewish mothers, you’re going to see something else in most of the US and UK.
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Colorado’s hospitals are nearing capacity because of Covid. Eighty percent of those hospitalized for Covid are unvaccinated.
“If Colorado’s COVID-19 situation doesn’t improve in the next few days, the state could call in federal backup, stop nonemergency surgeries or even allow hospitals to ration care, Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday.”
They may also make it easier to transfer patients to different hospitals where ICU beds are available.
Vaccine reluctance affects all of us, not just the unvaccinated and their families, but also their communities and even people in other communities where vaccination rates are higher and hospitalization is lower.
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I’m not a fan of anyone named Kardashian but I was pretty happy to see this story. Big takeaway is that she’s announcing that even though she had covid before, she got vaccinated anyway. Unfortunately still managed to catch covid a 2nd time, but is saying publicly she’s going to be ok because she’s vaccinated.
If any of her fans are vaccine-reluctant, I hope they’ll see that a) yes you can catch covid twice b) you should get vaccinated even though you already had covid c) vaccines help you recover faster and prevent severe illness.
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“Supreme Court upholds vaccine mandate for Maine health-care workers that does not include religious exemption.” Good.
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We had a real life experience with the effectiveness of masks and vaccinations recently. My college kid was notified she had a close contact with a Covid positive student-- someone sitting next to her in her least distanced class. She was around 2 feet apart from the student for an hour and a half, with a lot of talking. But they were both masked (cloth) and she was vaccinated. The incubation period has passed and she’s negative for Covid.
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Just to be clear, SCOTUS rejected the request for an Emergency Stay of the Appellate Court ruling. Thus, plaintiffs can still appeal the Appellate Court ruling the old fashioned (non-emergency) way, and SCOTUS may or may to hear it later.
So, for now, ME health care workers must get a jab or a new job.
In other news, a DC Judge put on hold the military’s plan to start firing unvaccinated troops and contractors.
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My best friend from grade school is not vaccinated, and has no intention of ever getting vaccinated. She says she had antibody testing and has antibodies presumably from a case of Covid she thinks she had in December 2019.
This is the friend I always counted on…knew I could call for any reason.
Now, I’m not sure I’ll ever see her again.
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That’s a pretty sad story. In the end I don’t exactly understand not seeing her again though. Yes, she is apparently not getting vaccinated but that doesn’t mean she really needs to be completely avoided does it? Obviously that’s a personal decision for you.
For myself, I’m fully vaccinated and don’t really intend to avoid anyone who is not. In fact I don’t think it would be possible for me to do as I have been working this whole time around some individuals that haven’t been vaccinated, flying on planes with presumably unvaccinated people, eating in restaurants with presumably unvaccinated people, etc. One of my closest friends is unvaccinated for what I consider a good reason in her situation and I’m not avoiding her. Obviously I have a different approach to things but I’m not going to stop seeing a best friend based on vaccine status. I trust my vaccine to do it’s job and realize in the end I can’t avoid all contact with it. Presumably with the Delta variant I’m likely to get the virus from anyone anyway since it’s more contagious and transmissible by vaccinated individuals. Life can go on.
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I’ll let @thumper1 answer for herself.
But for me when a person decides they will never get vaccinated, it means that they are putting themselves above the good of all. They’ve become a person who’s values don’t align with mine anymore and it’s a gulf I don’t think I can see anyway back from.
I still remember those who ignored that we were in a pandemic and ignored advice that we should be careful and stay home. It was very selfish and self centered.
People are happy to ignore whatever or have different ideas of what’s important to them. It may not bother you if a person chooses not to be vaccinated or acted in a way while we were in the depths of the pandemic that is opposite of how I live. But every one of us gets to chose what bothers us and what we value in a friendship.
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You’re absolutely right that we all have the freedom of choosing what bothers us and reacting accordingly. Obviously different people have different ideas. I have family that have chosen, as of yet, to not be vaccinated. I wish they would but I don’t think less of them for making that personal choice. I won’t avoid seeing them because of it either.
I do respect your choice to cut out those you feel aren’t protecting others, I just don’t share your sentiments.
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TBH, I DO think less of my uncle and aunt for not being vaccinated. They visited my high risk father at his long term care facility weekly. Then my aunt got COViD and was in direct contact with her unvaccinated pregnant granddaughter. How can I not think less of them? They were foolish and selfish.
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