I can’t imagine that fear of needles is that big of a deal overall for vaccination rates. If it were, why would we see the positive correlation between age and percentage vaccinated? Even in Florida, vaccination rates for the 65+ crowd are north of 84%. Do older people lose their fear of needles? Perhaps…
I think the better answer is that people are making choices based upon the information available to them and their personal evaluation of the risks of vaccinating versus the possibility of contracting COVID. In this calculus, one’s personal level of risk tolerance is also a factor.
At this point, with widespread vaccination, and the possibility that vaccination actually encourages the creation of variants (the “escape vac” hypothesis), I would think that disdain and moral superiority towards those who are not yet vaccinated is counterproductive.
I listened to this podcast last weekend. There’s studies out there that support this theory:
In essence, human nature is to push back against pressure. Once someone takes a position, the harder you press, you only serve to entrench the person further. If you want to get someone to change their position and take a particular action (like get a vaccine) (1) take away obstacles - eg for some obstacles are maybe fear of needles, maybe for others the hassle of scheduling an appointment); (2) create a situation where the person’s change is their own idea. They give examples, too long to repeat here.
The thing is, you have to get to the person before the person is dug into their position. Once that happens, and that’s where anti-vaxers are now (in part because of how much they have been pressured), nothing will change minds.
From what I see, people are making their choices based upon the crowd they associate with and where they get their news. This goes for all ages - high school kids to seniors.
That’s why next month I am not going to my dad’s church, where a lot of my unvaccinated relatives also go. I don’t want to say something to them I will regret, because it’s hard for me to contain my anger at them for endangering my dad. Potluck lunches in Texas in 2020, really?? Not vaccinating and then not masking around him? Ack.
People are travelling on interstate highways every day. The virus has ready access to all states. People from Vermont could just as easily have travelled elsewhere and brought it back too. The virus doesn’t care about state borders. And while the vaccine certainly helps to slow the spread, it has yet to stop it. I think slowing it is where we are at anyway.
I think the bit about Vermont and travelers bringing it in giving them their higher numbers now makes a lot of sense since we just passed peak leaf peeping season, plus VT is quite the destination in summer/fall.
But still, there are plenty of unvaxxed folks in VT (and every other state) so Covid has plenty of “willing to have bad cases because the odds are so low (or it’s a hoax)” spreaders.
Staye vax rates vary between 41 and 71% of the population, leading to an overall rate of 59% of Americans. Europe is around 66% of aggregate population vaxxed. There are substantial groups in every state and country who chose to not vaccinate.
Not sure if this has been posted yet, but there are suddenly a lot of news articles like this:
I wonder. Do people watch these videos for fun, or because they really think the “remedies” suggested might possibly work? A mix of both? People who just watch because it shows up on their feed? Or do people seek this stuff out? I’m not super familiar with how tiktok works.
That cool heat map over time that someone posted above tells the story of of when covid moves to different regions (eg people going on vacations, truckers, etc), and what happens when it gets there (depends on vax rate, rules, weather, etc). Both things are happening at the same time. Nowhere has gotten down to zero cases, and therefore can’t definitely blame a covid bloom on outsiders. Sure there are gatherings that are spreader events, that probably sparks s bloom. But at the end of the day both traveling and local vax rates contribute. And vaccinated people spread it too - but are very minor contributors.
We all know all of this by now, don’t we? Covid is not 100% containable. All we can do is try to minimize the impact. Some people are acting selfishly. Some people are acting like martyrs. Some people are especially vulnerable. Some people are succumbing to powerful propaganda. Some people are maliciously spreading that propaganda. Some people are burned out and acting imperfectly but mean well. The vast majority of people are doing the best they can in a bad situation.
One thing for sure: No one at this point is going to change anyone’s minds.
As long as they aren’t subjecting their children to dangerous practices, I’m fine with it too. I’m just surprised it took so long for usual detox grift to make its way to the Covid vaccine.
Bob Sampson said he was supposed to have surgery at UCHealth Anschutz this coming Friday to remove a tumor, and then a nurse called.
“She goes, ‘Well, I wish I had better news for you, but we have to cancel your surgery because of COVID,’” Sampson said.
The Vietnam veteran began a fight for his life in 2019 when he was diagnosed with cancer. It’s now stage 4, and the Boulder resident is living with a tumor in his lung.
“I am in this to survive and extend life, and I’m really healthy other than this tumor inside me,” he said.
According to UCHealth, nearly 90% of COVID patients in their ICU on Nov. 11 were not vaccinated. Sampson said he’s received three COVID-19 vaccine shots, and he’s upset that people who didn’t get any are now taking up a bed he needs to recover.
“That is really disturbing, actually, because they had a choice and now they have negated my choice,” he said.
Yep. This happened in my area in early October. The hospitals were so full that two different friends of mine had to call/drive their parent around in order to get them hospitalized (for non-Covid conditions). One woman in the county over from me went to the ER with heart/ blood pressure issues. The hospital said normally they’d keep her overnight but there wasn’t a bed. They sent her home with instructions to come back immediately if things got worse. Her daughter found her dead the next morning.
WHY are folks who made a conscious decision to pass on the vaccine prioritized over other emergencies and non elective procedures? I do not get this. I clearly remember from my medical ethics class that it was considered ethical to put an alcoholic or a smoker at the back of a liver or lung transplant list. In my mind this is not different from that.
By all means, treat unvaxxed Covid patients, but only if they are not impinging on others’ freedom to make medical decisions in their own best interest. Wouldn’t that be consistent with the whole point of the unvaxxed?
So you’re going to unhook a patient on a ventilator in the ICU who was intubated last night or last week to make room for a surgical patient scheduled for surgery tomorrow? What if the COVID ICU patient was vaccinated….does that buy them more time in the ICU bc they’re more worthy? Or if you reserve a certain number of ICU beds for non-COVID patients, what happens when they’re full and you still have to cancel surgeries due to lack of beds?
And that patient with stage 4 lung cancer (who oddly claims he’s healthy except for his stage 4 cancer ): does it matter whether he smoked, or how much? Did he engage in any other behaviors that may have contributed to his cancer? If so, should that put him at the back of line too? Is he more entitled to an ICU bed if he didn’t smoke?
Like it or not health care systems are pretty much first come first serve.