(January 14, 2022, 3:06 pm)garadon Like many drug dealers, the first couple doses are free. When you’re hooked thats when they start charging. Also, you pay for them in your taxes anyway

 Well said, mate. Every time the government offers something for "free" people become excited while not realizing that just because there is no upfront cost they will pay for it eventually.

My 2 cents-
First and foremost, I am NOT against getting vaccinated!
I just want to say this upfront because folks tends to think I'm an anti-vaxxer and I'm not.
I'm the only one in my immediate family that has NOT been vaccinated and here's why.
Pretty simple in that I got Covid in Jan2021, before the vaccines had really ramped up and I have VERY mild symptoms. Only body aches; no cough, no fever, nothing!
I have allergies so my sense of smell is almost non-existent anyway so when they asked if I lost my taste... I just laughed.
I also got the mono-clonal ant-bodies infusion immediately afterwards cuz my doctor recommended it.
Every month since then I've gotten a blood test to determine if I still had viable anti-bodies and, 11 months later I STILL had Covid anti-bodies.
BTW, I also served in the Air Force for 10 years and worked for the government for an additional 29 years so I'm VERY familiar with gov't overreach and their constant knee-jerk reaction to pretty much everything!

Just 2 weeks ago I got Covid again and it was very, very easy. Again, minor body aches, minor fatigue and a very minor cough.
I didn't get vaxxed cuz I don't need it, I have natural immunity which should be included in all the gov't info they've put out.

Again, just my humble opinion

(January 14, 2022, 3:06 pm)garadon Like many drug dealers, the first couple doses are free. When you’re hooked thats when they start charging. Also, you pay for them in your taxes anyway

It must suck to live in a country where it's either pay up or die. But like the majority of the other countries, I don't have to deal with that shit.

Besides, afaik most places don't care if you receive any boosters. Just get the regular vaccine and be done with it.

The problem with covid has literally never been that it is likely to kill or cause long term medical problems in the majority of people it infects. It's been that more severe symptoms in *more people* overburdens hospitals.

I don't really understand why people don't seem to get that vaccinations serve dual purpose immunologically.
1. They reduce your symptoms, reducing the likelihood of you getting very sick for long
2. They let people clear the virus faster, so they are not as infectious for as long.

1 & 2 both help prevent vulnerable people from dying.

You know it's great if you didn't get very sick when you were infected, but that's only reason 1.
The problems with natural immunity from having been infected is that it only works for the people who survived getting infected without serious complications in the first place. And since most people don't know if they'll get through it easily that defeats the purpose of getting vaccinated as a preventative measure for reason 1. To be clear I'm not calling you an anti-vaxxer.

Just wanna say that your personal experience is the kind of reasoning people who haven't gotten vaccinated and don't understand immunology use to avoid getting vaccinated when it'd probably be of benefit to them.

The other thing that I don't get is why people seem to think the government (at least in most western countries) has a nefarious reason for getting people vaccinated. Obviously pharmaceutical companies want to sell their product to governments, but they also will take any opportunity to discredit their competitors if they can push their product further. Like if there is a problem with the Pfizer vaccine J&J has every reason to expose them and vice versa. They can't push their products by lying without major risks. To say that a company is motivated by profit is so mindnumbingly obvious, cuz we live under capitalism.

That's not here or there when it comes to vaccines being helpful in reducing negative impacts for humanity. I'm not an immunologist but I'm in a very related field and it baffles me how badly gov and science have bungled communication to the public on this. Which is also in part the fault of bad faith actors spreading bad info.

Most politicians fight tooth and nail to avoid vaccine mandates because it makes them look bad. It often doesn't actually benefit their careers at all, since it's really easy for the population to ignore the benefits of a high vaccination rate. In fact look at how many actively oppose them for brownie points with their base? The fact that it's become a partisan issue is silly.

Legitimately wondering too, what do people even mean by 'paying for it down the road' with accepting a booster shot?

Do people honestly think the drug dealer analogy is good when there are no drug dealers who give anything away for free? If the government saw the vaccines as a way to make money, they wouldn’t be free. If big pharma saw this as a way to make money from the government and the private sector, the vaccines and boosters wouldn’t be free

(January 14, 2022, 5:24 pm)alexgraves The other thing that I don't get is why people seem to think the government (at least in most western countries) has a nefarious reason for getting people vaccinated. Obviously pharmaceutical companies want to sell their product to governments, but they also will take any opportunity to discredit their competitors if they can push their product further. Like if there is a problem with the Pfizer vaccine J&J has every reason to expose them and vice versa. They can't push their products by lying without major risks. To say that a company is motivated by profit is so mindnumbingly obvious, cuz we live under capitalism.

That's not here or there when it comes to vaccines being helpful in reducing negative impacts for humanity. I'm not an immunologist but I'm in a very related field and it baffles me how badly gov and science have bungled communication to the public on this. Which is also in part the fault of bad faith actors spreading bad info.

Most politicians fight tooth and nail to avoid vaccine mandates because it makes them look bad. It often doesn't actually benefit their careers at all, since it's really easy for the population to ignore the benefits of a high vaccination rate. In fact look at how many actively oppose them for brownie points with their base? The fact that it's become a partisan issue is silly.

Preventative measures have the problem of being an invisable benefit. ie: "It worked, so nothing happened". 

A large part of the current anti-vax movement is evangelical christians who believe getting vaccinated is admitting a lack of faith in God. The weirdest part is the people slamming vaccines as a cash grab while hyping mono-clonal antibodies. One dose of antibody treatment costs $3,000-$5,000 usd.

Well here but I don't like to shout about it.

(January 14, 2022, 3:06 pm)garadon

(January 14, 2022, 2:47 pm)Simbasprime

(January 14, 2022, 2:34 pm)LTKNT101 There is also the factor of natural immunity that must be considered. Big Pharma is obviously pushing the vaccine because it makes them loads of money and they will say whatever they can to get as many people to take it as possible. Their best tool is using fear. Keep in mind that the survival rate for covid is extremely high and if you catch it you likely will not require a hospital stay. Several people have caught covid and recovered. There are medicines on the market that have been proven effective against covid but we don't hear about them in the news because of reasons. Covid is more manageable than we are being led to believe. A lot of what we are being told by the media is spin and fear-mongering. If you connect the dots you will find Big Pharma behind every organization that is pushing the vaccine.

So instead of blabbering, educate us on how "Big Pharma" is making money if they're giving the vaccines out for free.

Like many drug dealers, the first couple doses are free. When you’re hooked thats when they start charging. Also, you pay for them in your taxes anyway

It's not crack or heorin, so your comparison doesn't make sense. Nobody is addicted to getting the shot or are commiting crimes over it.