In 2000, WHO declared measles "eradicated" in the United States [1]. Of course, that's no longer the case thanks to those who have decided their feelings and watching an unverified Youtube video trumps science.
Requiring vaccination is not new. As a matter of law in the US the issue was settled by the Supreme Court in Jacobson v. Massachussetts in 1905 [2]. Mandatory vaccination has been used to effectively eliminate smallpox and polio, in particular.
We've now administered billions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The idea that we're somehow missing side effects is quite frankly ridiculous at this point.
That idea also shows a basic misunderstanding of what's going on here. Immune system responses to something like a vaccine are actually extremely quick. This is not the same as, say, other drugs or compounds that live in the body for a long time. The body's response is known very quickly, which is why the very slight possibility of a clotting issue with AstraZeneca, for example, was identified extremely quickly.
Vaccines just aren't a personal choice. If it was, nobody would care what individuals did. The idea that someone's baseless opinions should trump public good as a matter of principle is sad, false as a matter of law and baseless as a matter of principle.
Contrary to the opinion of many (sadly) absolute selfishness isn't a virtue, it's just selfishness. And it's the latest iteration of the underlying anti-intellectualisms in the US.
What's especially disappointing, even worrying, is just how much traction these baseless ideas get from those who allegedly have a science education.
With NYC's mandate (which I support), it still doesn't mean you have to get vaccinated. It just means there are consequences if you don't. We already have this with schools. While we're at it, it's time to stop this nonsense of vaccines being against one's "personal beliefs" to get an exemption.
If you want to live in a society that benefits from mass vaccination you should be prepared to do your part, particularly when that part just means getting an extremely safe needle. If you want to opt out of that, you also opt out of the benefits of that.
> The idea that we're somehow missing side effects is quite frankly ridiculous at this point.
I personally went to the ER with heart attack like symptoms (chest pain) and it was Pericarditis . No one warned me of this risk. Now I'm footing the $15k bill for the good of the public. Additionally no doctor suggested reporting it to VAERS. Why? i suspect because it's become taboo to speak ill of the vaccine in any way. (watch to see if this comment gets downvoted to oblivion, proving the point)
> We've now administered billions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The idea that we're somehow missing side effects is quite frankly ridiculous at this point.
So let's give the risks here the benefit of the doubt and assume the odds of dying from the vaccine are 1 in a million. Given that we've administered >1B doses, that would mean >1000 people have died from the vaccine. This clearly isn't the case. Any argument that the death rate will increase long term just shows a clear misunderstanding of the immune response. But that aside, let's still give it one in a million.
The one-year chances of dying in a car crash are ~20 in a million [1]. I assume then that if the vaccine "risk" concerns you, you've clearly given up driving, right?
A quick search suggest that US has had ~35M cases of Covid-19 and ~615K deaths. Deaths in particular is likely underreported but we'll go with the official figures.
That puts the odds of dying from Covid-19 at ~2%, which is of course 20,000 in a million. The vaccine isn't perfect but recent data shows that almost all severe cases (including death) occur in the unvaccinated population, even when there's a breakthrough infection of someone vaccinated.
This is the problem many including myself have when anyone raises the specter of "risks" because even if you assume the worst case scenario of getting the vaccine, not getting it is literally thousands of times more likely to kill you.
And that would be fine I guess if that only applied to you but it doesn't. The unvaccinated pose a health risk to everyone around them.
The anti-vaxxer position just completely defies logic. Worse, defying logic seems to be a badge of honor for some.
Why people are so quick to blame to blame anti-vaxxers? The United States has millions of immigrants and visitors from other countries. Some go through official channels which require vaccinations, many do not.
According to the CDC, Measles is brought into the US by international travel:
Measles cases in the U.S. originate from international travel. Make sure you and your loved ones are protected against measles before international travel. [0]
Requiring vaccination is not new. As a matter of law in the US the issue was settled by the Supreme Court in Jacobson v. Massachussetts in 1905 [2]. Mandatory vaccination has been used to effectively eliminate smallpox and polio, in particular.
We've now administered billions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The idea that we're somehow missing side effects is quite frankly ridiculous at this point.
That idea also shows a basic misunderstanding of what's going on here. Immune system responses to something like a vaccine are actually extremely quick. This is not the same as, say, other drugs or compounds that live in the body for a long time. The body's response is known very quickly, which is why the very slight possibility of a clotting issue with AstraZeneca, for example, was identified extremely quickly.
Vaccines just aren't a personal choice. If it was, nobody would care what individuals did. The idea that someone's baseless opinions should trump public good as a matter of principle is sad, false as a matter of law and baseless as a matter of principle.
Contrary to the opinion of many (sadly) absolute selfishness isn't a virtue, it's just selfishness. And it's the latest iteration of the underlying anti-intellectualisms in the US.
What's especially disappointing, even worrying, is just how much traction these baseless ideas get from those who allegedly have a science education.
With NYC's mandate (which I support), it still doesn't mean you have to get vaccinated. It just means there are consequences if you don't. We already have this with schools. While we're at it, it's time to stop this nonsense of vaccines being against one's "personal beliefs" to get an exemption.
If you want to live in a society that benefits from mass vaccination you should be prepared to do your part, particularly when that part just means getting an extremely safe needle. If you want to opt out of that, you also opt out of the benefits of that.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles_resurgence_in_the_Unit...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts