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Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#411

Post by baumy »

fabian2k wrote: post #374
tux1968 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not enough to know with absolute certainty what will happen when millions of people get it. Especially unforeseen reactions that take several years to appear. As much as you trust each of the (5?) vaccines, you yourself can not know for certainty.. there is some doubt. You may judge that that uncertainty and risk is minimal and well worth taking the vaccine, another completely rational person may decide that it is no…

You have a 0.5-1.0% chance to die from COVID-19, a higher chance to be hospitalized and experience serious consequences from that. And the chance to contract the disease is very, very high in many countries right now. The vaccines have been tested in 30-40,000 people each. The typical serious side effects for vaccines are something like 1 in a million or 1 in a few hundred thousand. Even if the vaccine had an usually…

CDC best estimate IFR for COVID-19 is as follows:

0-19 years: 0.00003

20-49 years: 0.0002

50-69 years: 0.005

70+ years: 0.054

So only age 50+ have at least 0.5% chance to die from COVID-19. These numbers also include everyone in that age range, e.g. the obese, diabetic, immunocompromised. If you know you are healthy, your odds are better. As a healthy 27 year old and something of a fitness fanatic, my odds appear to be 99.98% of surviving at minimum. Due to the reasons I just mentioned, in addition to being on the younger end of the 20-49 age range, my odds are actually quite a bit better than 99.98%, although I don't know the exact number. I'll roll those dice over a vaccine that has been rushed, and will get the vaccine some years in the future if no problems emerge.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scena...

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#412

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

EMRZ wrote: post #389

How many of the yes voters took the seasonal flu shot? Genuinely asking

This is a great question, and I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was quite low. Not because people are against it, but because people don't make the effort to get it. This will be a big hurdle for the covid vaccine as well I think.

A quick Google search tells me that in the US, 33.9%–56.3% of adults get the seasonal flu shot (children are higher at 46.0%–81.1%).

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#413

Post by Anon4Now »

bsder wrote: post #387
dustinmoris wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pregnant women or women who are planning on becoming pregnant should not have it according to UK government guidelines. That’s a pretty good reason to click NO.

Um, you do know that alcohol is something that pregnant women should avoid? Will you quit drinking alcohol?

Not the same. According to a former Pfizer employee, there is a ~70% risk that it could cause sterility in women. At this point (a) I don't know if this guy's a whack job or (b) whether he was implying permanent or temporary sterility. All I know is that I wouldn't want my daughter to take it until there's more certainty about the risk factors.

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#414

Post by yreg »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #167
bondarchuk wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what is the reason given for it being unethical? Of course I realize there is a tradeoff involved in delaying the rollout of a vaccine but I don't see how that is related to the way vaccines are made, specifically.

To truly prove the efficacy of a vaccine you would have to intentionally give a test subject the virus to see if the vaccine actually works. It's not been done once by modern western medicine because it would be unethical by modern medical practices to intentionally infect a person.

What, why would you need to do that? That's not how preventive medicine is tested.

Please explain how would your proposal be any more valid than a proper controlled study where you do the treatment on portion of your participants and wait how it works out for them.

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#415

Post by choward »

mombul wrote: post #206
parliament32 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sums it up pretty well. I'm not opposed to vaccines, and probably have had a lot more than the average HNer, but I feel like I'm being "sold" this a bit too hard... question everything, as they say.

Well, there IS a pandemic. So there IS a good reason for "selling it" "a bit hard". It will literally save lives and end a world-wide economy-crippling disease. Now I agree the process was quicker than usual, that it brings up a lot of questions. But it's the studies we should question, the efficiency, the long term effects. The way it's sold and "advertised" is just equally as dramatic as the disease it's trying to…

That doesn't make any sense. The worse the virus is the less you should need to "sell" the vaccine.

If it was a rushed vaccine to prevent you from becoming a zombie you wouldn't need to sell it.

If it was a vaccine for the common cold you would need to sell it.

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#416

Post by confidantlake »

viztor wrote: post #248
mrkramer wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who are super social (or stupid + spreading the plague) What if somebody has asymptomatic covid infection? He or she spreads it without intent, you can not blame them.

I doubt any one would spread with intent, which is probably criminal.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-03-18/japane...

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#417

Post by TheRealSteel »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #250
majormajor wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could use some elaboration. Have you been in all three of those countries recently? Or "watched" meaning "saw people talking about online" or such? Or something in between?

I was in Germany in October and with the individual the day they took the second shot. France is a professional contact who mentioned it on the phone, as is China. Same thing happened with tests a few months ago in Palo Alto. Billionaires with boxes of them at their homes while public stocks ran low.

Okay so first of all I'm almost certain no approved vaccine existed in October, the first one started rollout this week, can you back this up with a source?

Maybe you knew someone participating in a study but that's not queue skipping.

Don't get me wrong I hate billionaires but this just seems like it can't factually be correct.

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#418

Post by strstr »

I have 4 family members in trials (2 Moderna, 2 Pfizer). I would volunteer for challenge trials if given the opportunity. I got the swine flu vaccine in 2010ish.

I would take basically any covid vaccine in a heartbeat. Personally, I see it as a moral obligation, since it is a necessary step to end the pandemic, and avoid impacting those that cannot take any of the vaccines.

Historically, vaccine side effect profiles are at most as bad as just getting the disease itself. There are early examples of contaminated vaccines (polio with SV40 in the 50s), but we’ve learned a lot about vaccine production since then.

I don’t expect to have the chance until ~July or later.

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#419

Post by samatman »

bognition wrote: post #12

I'm surprised to see such a high percentage of "NO" responses. I'm genuinely curious to understand why

From what I'm able to gather, a COVID infection produces robust immunity in most people, which is expected to last several years.

Having recovered completely from such an infection, I should be fine without it, and vaccines generally don't feel great and are not, in fact, without risk.

I think vaccines are a wonderful technology, to be clear. I'll get one for COVID only if it's standing between me and, say, getting on an airplane or entering a foreign country, which, let's be real: it probably will. States see like a state, after all; you can't just be immune to infection, you have to be legibly immune.

Re: Poll: Will you take the Covid vaccine?

#420

Post by fabian2k »

tux1968 wrote: post #398
fabian2k wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a 0.5-1.0% chance to die from COVID-19, a higher chance to be hospitalized and experience serious consequences from that. And the chance to contract the disease is very, very high in many countries right now. The vaccines have been tested in 30-40,000 people each. The typical serious side effects for vaccines are something like 1 in a million or 1 in a few hundred thousand. Even if the vaccine had an usually…

0.5-1.0% chance to die from COVID-19 assumes an even distribution across all people infected. Which just isn't true, it very much depends on your current state of health. And again, my main point is that we should be honest about the risks and not pretend they're zero.

I looked this up for a comment some time ago, and for someone in the 20-30 years range, the chance to die was somewhere aroun 1:10,000. That's still far above what you would usually expect for serious side effects of a vaccine (and I'm comparing death with serious side effects right now, so the actual comparison would be even more favorable to the vaccine).

I'm not in the risk group, and I would take the vaccine right now if it was offered to me. Even in the worst case the potential risks are below what a real COVID-19 infection would entail.

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