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What stands out is the authors’ favor of natural immunity being better than vaccination.
It may well be, but it has this small caveat that you need to have had the virus to become naturally immune. E.g. you need to take that 1-2% of not surviving entirely, and if too many people take that chance at the same time, even higher.
The meaning is to protect unvaccinated from unvaccinated.
I don't think anti-vaxx content has a place here.
I don't think anti-vaxx content has a place here.
Hard-core anti-vaxxers are on the wrong side of science. We should not silence them. We should ask ourselves why they have such beliefs and understand what we have to do to improve their intellectual standing in life. At the end of the day it boils down to education.
I think these articles are ridiculous, but also know we are not going to get anywhere without (a) understanding their perspective and (b) using intelligence (rather than a hammer) to help them see why they are wrong.
Put yet a different way: You don't want these conversations to happen behind closed doors. If society is going to advance, they need to happen in the open.
I’m willing to read these articles, and even sort of willing to consider other viewpoints, but this is mostly garbage. What stands out is the authors’ favor of natural immunity being better than vaccination. It may well be, but it has this small caveat that you need to have had the virus to become naturally immune. E.g. you need to take that 1-2% of not surviving entirely, and if too many people take that chance at t…
> During lockdowns, essential and frontline workers bore the brunt of COVID-19 cases while affluent professionals stayed home, teleworked, and ordered delivery. These workers were once called “heroes.” Now the Zoom class labels the same workers “anti-vaxxers” if they prefer to rely on the natural immunity many of them have already acquired from previous infections.
I don't think anti-vaxx content has a place here.
Cancel culture isn't a good thing for society. If you want the freedom to present your case you have to tolerate and accept the idea that you will be exposed to content you do not agree with and might even find to be repugnant. Hard-core anti-vaxxers are on the wrong side of science. We should not silence them. We should ask ourselves why they have such beliefs and understand what we have to do to improve their intel…
I do not have to consider every argument presented to me, particularly the ones that run counter to things I know to be true. If someone comes to me with the flat earth theory, I don't need to hear them out. When someone comes to me with pseudoscientific bullshit about "natural immunity" - and then compounds it by pointing out that Covid mainly kills old and sick people, because, you know, fuck those people, right? - I don't need to stroke my beard thoughtfully and give them the benefit of the doubt. I can simply say "Oh, look, a moronic asshole" and go about my day. I don't need any external authority to tell me that I'm smarter and morally superior to this dude. I can figure that out all by myself.
The world is full of a lot of very stupid and very awful people who learned just enough in college to sound reasonable and thoughtful. One of the great skills in life is to be able to recognize their bullshit and dismiss them out of hand and ignore them. You will lose nothing of value by doing so, and you will gain the time you would otherwise put into listening to their idiot babbling.
It's why I no longer debate religious fanatics or free market capitalism fantasists. Life is just too short to talk to dummies, man.
I’m willing to read these articles, and even sort of willing to consider other viewpoints, but this is mostly garbage. What stands out is the authors’ favor of natural immunity being better than vaccination. It may well be, but it has this small caveat that you need to have had the virus to become naturally immune. E.g. you need to take that 1-2% of not surviving entirely, and if too many people take that chance at t…
The politicalization of the vaccine is foolish and unscientific.
The perspectives were interesting. I won't get into all the details here. I'll just say that the well-reasoned opinions spanned a range.
The teachers had legitimate concerns about their safety while teaching in-person classes. One of them told me that the students pull down their masks all the time and that it is impossible to enforce it (she even said it was somewhat cruel for some). Yet she was genuinely concerned about her safety and that of her family.
A tech executive, older than the rest of the group, said he waited as long as possible before getting vaccinated because he wanted to see more data. Or, to be more accurate, he said something like: I wanted to give it enough time to see if fully vaccinated people were going to end-up in the hospital because of the vaccine. He was concerned about potential long term issues (a decade or more). In the end he reasoned he is old enough that he was far more likely to die from something else anyway, so, in his case, the potential for long term effects could be discounted.
Everyone in this gathering was vaccinated, yet, vaccine hesitancy came up in a number of conversations. There were also threads about the idea of the government forcing people to do something with their bodies under threat of losing their jobs, not being able to travel, not being able to go to any public places, etc. In many ways it is an argument that rhymes with the abortion debate: In that case we (well, some of us) believe it is the woman's right to choose. In other words, the government should not have anything to do with a woman's body. And yet, with vaccines, we accept being forced to inject a substance under threat of harm? It's an interesting and very complex comparison.
If I had to summarize the various conversations I would say everybody there wants everyone to be vaccinated. The difference is in how different people think we ought to get there. Some were OK with forcing the issue, others though it was a potentially dangerous precedent.
As is always the case, when you have in-person conversations with people you can actually explore issues in a far more civilized and informative way, everyone is respectful and there is no down-voting or flagging. Just people talking and sharing ideas. Refreshing when compared to the shit show online discussions often turn into.
Anti-vaxxers need help. The path is education, not a hammer over the head. They are not elementary school dropouts without teeth. They come in all shapes, sizes, races and levels of education.