Will you get vaccinated against COVID once it's available?

[Peter_Spaeth]

I've never seen more confirmation bias in my life than in the discourse on the virus and the vaccines, and I am not pretending I am (pardon the pun) immune to it. But the way people gravitate towards the people and other sources that support their pre-existing agendas/politics/attitudes is quite clear. Maybe it's always the way I don't know. Who among us can honestly say he has been truly agnostic in evaluating all the information available?

[Republicaninmass]

His flip flopping would rival Nadia Comaneci

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Who among us can honestly say he has been truly agnostic in evaluating all the information available?

I have. From the very beginning, when some politicians said the virus didn't originate from the lab that had been studying (developing) viruses just a few miles from the first victims, I knew there would be a massive cover-up going on with all aspects of the killer virus. It could've been considered a preemptive strike and act of war by China, IMO. But, timed as it was, with our country in a divisive election cycle, China never faced, and never will face, the consequences they deserve for creating and unleashing this thing on the world.

So I took it all with healthy cynicism. When it came to deciding what to do, I looked at the danger posed by the virus, I considered the ethics and expertise of our drug industry, and decided to trust Moderna or Johnson & Johnson. So I got the shot. Politics had zero to do with it.

To sum it up, when I realized I was being lied to, I tuned the noise out. I made my decision based on the reality of the virus, my relative vulnerability, and my confidence in our (mostly) free market drug companies.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Mark17

From the very beginning, when some politicians said the virus didn't originate from the lab that had been studying (developing) viruses just a few miles from the first victims, I knew there would be a massive cover-up going on with all aspects of the killer virus. It could've been considered a preemptive strike and act of war by China, IMO. But, timed as it was, with our country in a divisive election cycle, China never faced, and never will face, the consequences they deserve for creating and unleashing this thing on the world.

+infinity

[G1911]

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[Peter_Spaeth]

Yeah, the problem is all of the major actors involved in getting information to the public -- on whom one had to rely unless you could somehow get your hands on the primary material -- had and have a bias or agenda resulting in spin. President Trump wanted, among other things and I mostly won't go there, to downplay things (for different possible motives). Drs. Fauci and Birx were walking a tightrope trying (I think) to be relatively truthful but at the same time not going too far to anger President Trump. President Biden wanted to get elected. CNN and MSNBC just wanted to make the Trump administration look bad. Fox News wanted the reverse. The WHO did not want to alienate China. China of course would do anything to hide its negligence (or worse, if they are guilty of worse.) The CDC, God only knows. And so on. When the truth is filtered through bias and agenda, you get a freaking mess.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Incidentally, as to the constitutional point, I don't think we actually got to an appellate decision on First Amendment issues other than freedom of religion, but courts typically go pretty far to uphold so-called "time, place and manner" restrictions on what superficially are absolute First Amendment rights such as speech and assembly. It's a fascinating area of the law, for sure. But the bottom line is that our rights are not nearly as absolute as the Bill of Rights reads ("Congress shall make NO law ……").

In that regard, I believe a few lower courts denied requests for injunctions against some of the COVID-19 regulations but haven't studied that. If it ever got to the Supreme Court, I would think the current iteration of the Court would be very concerned with individual liberties, but that's just informed speculation.

[buymycards]

Putting all of the political bullshit aside - I live in a small city of 3000 people. Yesterday, one of our firefighters died after a short battle with Covid. He was healthy, fit, and 30 years old.

Be careful. Wear a mask. Avoid crowds. Protect yourself.

[buymycards]

After talking to his family today, I learned that he didn't believe in wearing a mask. Even though, as a firefighter, he could have received a vaccine during the initial wave of vaccinations, but he refused to get one.

This mask/vaccine controversy reminds me of when I was in Viet Nam. We were issued flak vests, which were hot and very heavy. Many of the soldiers left them behind. When the mortar shells started exploding around us, those of us who were wearing our vests were thanking God that we wore our vests, while those who didn't wear their vest were probably begging God to keep them alive, while thinking - "why in the hell didn't I wear my flak jacket?" More than a few soldiers were wounded or died because they weren't wearing their flak vests.

The mask/vaccine issue is the same thing, except it is much easier to don a mask or receive a vaccine than it is wear a flak jacket while trudging through a hot, humid jungle. I wonder how many people who were in intensive care wards with a respirator tube shoved down their throat were wondering - "why in the hell didn't I just put on my mask?"

[G1911]

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