Wendy,
With respect, it’s hard to know where to begin. There are so many misstatements in what you are saying. As a researcher, I want to consider your point of view, but you are making too many untrue assumptions about what people (including me) are saying. I am most interested in the links that justify your opinions.
First, there are semantical issues here. I never said vaccines or booster shots are government “mandated” — yet, anyway. I am saying booster shots are “required” to maintain real-world vaccine effectiveness for Pfizer and Maderna vaccines, which have dropped from 90% effectiveness to 50–60% depending on the study.
In recent press releases, Israel is starting their fourth round of shots now. In addition, the US is beginning its third round of vaccines now for “people aged 65 years and older, and adults 50–64 years with underlying medical conditions should get a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.”
The CDC’s targeted vaccine rate started at 60–70%. However, in a September 23rd New York Times article, Dr. Fauci explained that the original percentage range was wrong, and it now needs to be around 90% to control Covid. Still, he sees citizen compliance towards that percentage as unrealistic to blunt the virus.
So all I am suggesting here is we may need to adjust our expectations of what this mRNA technology can do. If vaccine effectiveness is 50%, well, that’s a lot better than 0%. As Moderna Chief Executive, Stéphane Bancel, says on September 23rd, the vaccine protocols will be “similar to that of the flu.”
In the US and worldwide, vaccines are being soft-mandated if you want to keep your government job, travel, shop, be in the military, and so on. Biden recently presented two executive orders mandating vaccines that affect 100 million workers. These issues are front-page headlines every day in countries all over the world.
Also, I never said the aftermath of a Covid infection wasn’t dangerous. It can be. I also never said the mRNA vaccine is harmful to most healthy adults. It’s not. However, I do say that the real-world effectiveness of the Pfizer and Maderna shots wanes over time and becomes less effective, thus “requiring” the boosters.
Israel has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and Covid is spiking there. Of note, 50% of the serious cases are from the remaining 20% of the unvaccinated population. That isn’t good, but that also means the other 50% are breakthrough cases stemming from the 80% vaccinated. Pfizer, in partnership with Israel, is studying real-time data ongoing, but conclusions will take time.
On the statistical fringes, there are tragic side effects on both sides of the vaccine debate. While the damages to the body caused by Covid-19 infected are apparent, we also know that the mRNA vaccine can cause side effects such as Bells Palsy and Myocarditis and Pericarditis (heart inflammation) immediately after the jab. The CDC acknowledges this, saying the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
About your comment, “Vaccines don’t have long term side effects. It is not even a thing, it’s nothing but a lame excuse people are using.” That statement is categorically false. Google “cancer-causing SV-40 virus found in the original polio vaccine.” Health officials administered this vaccine to millions of unsuspecting people for over nine years before discovering it in the vaccine. Oops! Drug recalls are common in pharmaceuticals.
To me, you sound scared and over-reactive, and more so, inconvenienced and judgemental. For you, the unvaccinated makes for an easy scapegoat and a comforting answer.
This pandemic disrupts my life as much as yours. Yet, we must adapt and work through this crisis together. The answers to the vaxxed-unvaxxed question lie somewhere in the middle of both extremes of perspective.
Though this may sound harsh, you are not the smartest person in the room. Nor am I. Neither of us can be a fair judge of anyone’s choices based on their personal circumstances and the moving target nature of information coming in daily about Covid and mRNA vaccines.
In my case, I live in the Philippines, and Covid is not affecting us here like in the US, UK, or wherever. This past year, you wouldn’t even know we were in a pandemic in my area if the local news didn’t broadcast pandemic news 24/7.
We use masks here, social distance ourselves, and spray alcohol on our hands when entering stores, all of which have helped. In addition, the people here are very compliant compared to the US, and there is no political divisiveness surrounding the pandemic.
If you are vaccinated, and the vaccine is working as advertised, you should be fine and worry-free, no matter what anybody else does. Let other people make choices for themselves and pay the consequences if there are any. Covid will die down and turn into a type of annual flu or common cold in a year or so.
And remember, we were all unvaccinated when this pandemic first spread, and infection and death statistics soared. We should see a significant statistical drop in Covid infections in this upcoming flu season because of all the Covid responses to date.
I will leave you with some encouraging Covid news:
According to this University of Missouri School of Medicine study, “A review of more than 9,000 US patients with severe COVID-19 infection showed less than 1% contracted the illness again.”
And as this Israeli study posted on August 25th concludes:
“This study demonstrated that natural immunity confers longer-lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease, and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”
That’s a big win for the human immune system.
That means the unvaccinated person who recovers from Covid-19 is no more an infectious threat to those around them than the vaccinated ones, and maybe less so.
As Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel says in this September 23rd Reuters article,
“Those who do not get vaccinated will immunize themselves naturally.”
“Asked if that meant a return to normal [life] in the second half of next year, he [Stéphane Bancel] said: ‘As of today, in a year, I assume.’”
None of the above is a conspiracy theory. As a researcher, I only want to present unbiased information. So, I do my best not to cherry-pick information. I offer this data to everyone so we can have a little peace about this situation and less media-induced panic.
Let me know if this makes more sense, and I would love to get your response. Did we find any common ground?
In the end, we may disagree on a few points, but we are likely closer in beliefs than you might assume. And for the record, I am not anti-vax. I have all my other shots.
Respectfully,
Adam
