Today’s Provocative Question, Fandango asks:
Have you gotten vaccinated for COVID-19 yet? If not, are you planning to? If you have, or are planning to, how do you think your life will change afterwards? If you’re not planning to get vaccinated, why not?
I got my first shot of the Astra Zeneca vaccine on 22nd January. I’m still waiting for the second shot. AZ state that the second shot should be within 11 weeks, which takes us to 16 April.
On getting the vaccine, the con was that these are all basically untested chemicals that we are injecting into our bodies. You might argue otherwise, but they are not really tested enough for me to feel happy. I’m not worried about surveillance chips or other shit (definitely not worried about sterility!) but I am worried that the vaccine either won’t work, or will have side-effects.
The pros are severalfold.
First, it has the potential to protect me, it has the potential to protect others.
Second, it allows me to resume a life out of doors again, versus being perpetually semi-locked down.
Third, and this is a biggie, it allows me to hopefully play a part in eradicating it from society. Okay, not eradicating, exactly, but to suppress it to the same levels as measles, mumps, rubella, tb. polio, smallpox, blah, blah, blah. These illnesses have been suppressed to the extent that people can get away without taking vaccines now. But they have been suppressed exactly because other people have taken the vaccine. My word for that is freeloading. but we can use another word if you wish.
Fourth, there might well come a time when we adopt a vaccine passport, like Israel. Those who are vaccinated, can, those who aren’t, can’t. I don’t think that’s sustainable in the long term, because sooner or later we will reach a point where everybody who wants a vaccine has had it, and you then have the uncomfortable decision whether you exclude everybody else, pretty much perpetually.
Specifically on the AZ vaccine, a lot of European countries have gotten jumpy about it at the moment, blaming it for blood clots. One, I don’t see that from the data so far, and two, I’m kinda already sucked into that programme anyway.
I have worries that the UK government will not deliver the second shot within 11 weeks. But they have the math on their side. It makes more sense to administer Shot #1 to everybody, before administering Shot #2 to anybody.
One interesting point about the vaccinations for UK readers. My wife is part of the programme. To check who is vaccinated or not, they have created a national database. Now, do you remember all the shit that was flying around Tony Blair when, not so very long ago, he wanted to create a national database for his ID Card scheme that never flew? Well, these guys just went and did it. I guess it is “just” an extension to theNational Health database thatalready exists, but isn’t it interesting how quickly you can do all this stuff when you’ve declared martial law?
Mister Bump 
I’ve never minded about ID cards, I’ve nothing to hide. We’ve been on a database since the day we were born. The data-base is updated every time a child changes schools and moves house and registers with a new doctor.
If proof of vaccination stops the virus from spreading and others from becoming ill, then I’m all for it.
It’s bad enough that we’ve endured months of mostly staying at home (or one year) but I’ve spent most of the past three feeling ill with a type of post viral fatigue syndrome, that in this case we call Long Covid. I’m also very resentful and that’s because it was so avoidable, if people had just obeyed 2 m rule and constant washing of hands.
So far no evidence to support the blood clot claims in the AstraZeneca vaccine, apparently, the instances are no higher than they are at any other time. It’s More dangerous to refuse the vaccine.
Let’s hope the present data proves to be correct and they don’t find any evidence to back up the new claims. But knowing the EU, someone will find another reason to slam it and give people the heebie-jeebies; the European press will have another field day and meanwhile people over there will continue to become ill and die.
The latest claim this afternoon is that the EU is not receiving enough vaccine, and apparently it’s our fault!
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I’d go along with most of that.
I always thought it ironic that the very people who wanted to control immigration were the people most vocal about ID cards. It seems to me that the very first step to controlling something like immigration is to adopt something like ID cards in order to restrict access to state resources. But you are right, we are issued NI Numbers at birth which are stored on some database, somewhere.
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