Boots & Sabers

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Owen

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0656, 20 Nov 20

Will You Take the COVID Vaccine?

Well?

Pfizer said Friday it is asking U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, starting the clock on a process that could bring limited first shots as early as next month and eventually an end to the pandemic — but not until after a long, hard winter.

The action comes days after Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech announced that its vaccine appears 95% effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease in a large, ongoing study.

The companies said that protection plus a good safety record means the vaccine should qualify for emergency use authorization, something the Food and Drug Administration can grant before the final testing is fully complete. In addition to Friday’s FDA submission, they have already started “rolling” applications in Europe and the U.K. and intend to submit similar information soon.

I am not one who rejects vaccines. I have taken all of the normal ones throughout my life and believe them to be a prudent way to prevent severe illnesses with minor risk. There’s no way I’m taking the first round of a vaccine that was rushed to market to prevent a disease that my immune system will almost certainly be able to fight of when I get it. For people who are in a higher risk category for COVID, y’all’s risk/benefit assessment may be different. But I would count on wide swaths of Americans taking a pass for a while until we see how the first few waves of vaccinations go.

The question will be… what will the government and businesses do to force it? We have already see several businesses jumping to find ways to force their customers to get a vaccine. We are in a dangerous transition point in our nation’s history. I’m not sure that we will ever get back.

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0656, 20 November 2020

16 Comments

  1. dad29

    How will they ‘force’ it?

    C’mon, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!

    You’ll need a vaccine stamp to do ANYTHING.  Enter any public buildings, e.g., and if you think your driver’s license renewal will be automatic, think again.

    And that’s just the public “services” segment.

  2. jsr

    I’m expecting that there will be millions of doses given to higher priority people than I before I am offered the option.  That ought to be enough to expose any risks that are not yet known.

    On the other hand, my wife is higher priority than I due to health issues and she agrees with you – she’s not going to jump right on it.

  3. Mar

    No, I only got a flu shot once, when the Air Force forced me to get 1. Then I was as sick as I ever had been and about as sick i ever gotten in my life, after i got that shot.
    If my employer forces me to get 1, then I will be looking for a new job.

  4. Merlin

    Let the teachers be the first to test the efficacy of the new vaccines. That way they can get their asses back to work while they find something new to cry about.

  5. jonnyv

    Well, I do hope that some public places where large gatherings enforce it. Disneyland, Summerfest, etc. Large congregation places. Man, I really hope they enforce it at schools for all teachers and students as well, lets watch some people lose their shit over that.

    Yeah, I will get it. Even though my family just got over COVID a few weeks ago. Odds are I will get the shot when it is readily available. By the time they even release it to first responders and high risk, thousands of people will have already gotten it in the trials. The question is, how long will you wait? 1 year? 3 years? When will you know what the “side effects” are? We don’t even know what kind of long term affect COVID will have on our bodies. Hopefully none??? But who knows.

  6. Le Roi du Nord

    I’m with you on that, johnny.

  7. Mar

    “Man, I really hope they enforce it at schools for all teachers and students”
    Why? Then why not mandate flu shots? Meningitis shots?

  8. Billiam

    I’ll take the ‘wait and see’ tack as well. I think that’s the best course of action. I have several friends that have had it, The Beast from Wuhan. We’re all of the late 50’s persuasion. One was asymptomatic. The others went through what they described as a “miserable few days” before they started feeling better. Their doctors didn’t give them any special meds or anything other than to treat it like a bad flu and to call immediately if symptoms got worse. I’m usually not overly skeptical of vaccines though I only tried the flu shot once. I was sick for a few days afterward. Haven’t had it since. I think I was 36 at the time. I did get the two-shot Shingles vaccine though. Watched my mom go through that years back and her facial nerves always pained her afterward.

  9. jonnyv

    Mar, that was more tongue in cheek than a serious statement.

    Ultimately I hope the shot is free for all, just roll into Walgreens and get it and go… But I would be pleased to see them roll it out as a tax based refund. Whatever it costs, you get refunded back as a tax rebate. Incentivize it. Although I worry that if the cost is high, that could cut off much needed lower income families from getting the shots if they want them.

  10. Mar

    Well, President Trump says it will be free, so I will take his word for it.
    But of course, nothing is ever free

  11. jonnyv

    Mar, Trump won’t be president at that point. He lost, handily. But, I hope that the next administration follows suit.

  12. Mar

    It’s interesting politics, isn’t it Jonnyv?

  13. Tuerqas

    No, I only got a flu shot once, when the Air Force forced me to get 1. Then I was as sick as I ever had been and about as sick i ever gotten in my life, after i got that shot.If my employer forces me to get 1, then I will be looking for a new job.

    The only time I got the flu shot (Doctor pressure because I had been getting bronchitis every year) I got the flu right after, as bad as I ever had it before or since too.  I’ll get the Covid vaccine if it is required to go to Disney World, because we need to go again soon.

  14. Jason

    I got a flu vaccine once got very sick. Didn’t get one for 3 years after that… but I’ve gotten one the last 4 years and have been happy to not catch the flu.

  15. jonnyv

    It looks like there is starting to be talks about Airlines requiring the vaccine for international travel. Cool beans.

  16. Mar

    But it also looks like the Moderno vaccine will prevent from getting symptoms but won’t stop you from spreading the virus.
    Back to square 1

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