What qualifies one as an anti vaxxer at this point? I’m just curious since many of the things that got people labeled anti-vaxxer at some point during the pandemic have been shown to be true (vaccines don’t significantly stop spread, you can still catch it if vaccinated, natural immunity from prior infection is comparable to vaccine over a certain period, vaccines do cause some increased risk of heart related issues particularly in younger men).
I’ve had 4 shots. Two standard series and two boosters. My first shot put me in the hospital with ventricular bigeminy after having never had a single heart issue in my life previously. It resolved relatively quickly but I’ve still had issues with PVCs periodically since.
I think on the whole the evidence supports getting vaccinated even for a (relatively) young healthy man like myself. But I wouldn’t fault a guy in his 20s that declines and I certainly don’t support mandates or firing people. Does that make me an anti-vaxxer in 2023?
I mean I was a “racist” for believing that the lab leak theory was at least reasonably plausible in 2021 (according to the lead coronavirus reporter for a small publication called the New York Times)
...
so it is clear that these labels can change over time. It’s almost as if we should be careful labeling large groups of people with nuanced views with dismissive labels. But nah…
So I'll share an anecdote from my own experience with an anti-vaxxer yesterday. I think she fills the bill.
We were at the recycle center unloading and this woman comes up to us and asks us for cardboard we were dropping off (she didn't want to fish it out of the bin). She's moving and needs it to box up some pictures. For some reason (she's younger than we are) she expects us to carry it from our truck to her car (a red flag there) but OK.
Then, in parting, over her shoulder she says "by the way, if you are thinking of getting that vaccine, don't! I have a friend who is probably going to lose their leg because of it!"
We're like, "what"?
I say, "I got the vaccine 4 times and I still have both legs!"
"I got it once," she says. Two good legs.
I'm like, "My neighbor didn't get the vaccine. He died in the ICU of Covid a year ago. His wife, who also wasn't vaccinated, brought it home from the grocery store to him. She died in December of cardiac complications of Long Covid."
"But I guess they still had 4 legs between them when they died."
The vaccines are still great at keeping people out of the ICU and from dying. Yes, they aren't perfect, in that they don't prevent spread perfectly. Vaccination for an RNA virus was never likely to do that, although honest people hoped it would. And yes, if you survive a case, you have immunity that is roughly equivalent.
But there's this thing now where some people are focusing on the small risks with the vaccines, and ignoring what they can do. This is letting perfect be the enemy of good. Which, in the long run, is a poor philosophy.
And that's what I said to the woman in the parking lot. "Nothing in this world is perfect."
We should all be objective and do the best we can with the data we have as it comes, and realize we don't know everything yet. We should also assume that most people have good intentions, and that everyone is wrong once in a while and we should be ready to learn from our mistakes.
