[Exhibitman]

One of my friends got COVID a month ago, fully vaccinated. He was ill for a while but not hospitalized, BUT he now has long COVID symptoms. He is a stand-up comic and the difference in his sets from pre-illness to post-illness is clear. He just is not thinking on his feet as quickly as he was and he is struggling to find a coherent structure to his jokes on stage. it is almost like he had a stroke.

The vaccinations are great at reducing hospitalizations and deaths for all but the sickest patients, but even so, long COVID is no joke and not worth the risk if you depend on your brain to make a living since no one knows who will get it. If you have a specific medical reason not to take a vaccine, that's something else entirely, but if the objections are not based in science, then you are just politicizing a deadly and debilitating disease. Do the vaccine, if not for you then for someone else's nana or pop-pop who may die or may be disabled as a result of your spreading the bug.