INTRODUCTION
Not that long ago, I wrote down a well-meant "fuck you" aimed at anyone who purposefully declined on (ever?) getting vaccinated against corona. And it's easy to write off these people as "less intelligent" or "paranoia", but of course it's never that simple. I mean...my own father had a conversation (debate?) with a friend of his who'll refuse the vaccine when it became available. My father remarked that if he he purposefully declined, it should only be fair that he's rejected from the hospital in case he does get infected later. It's harsh, but I tend to agree with my father on this one.
Look...those who know my writings know I hardly ever go full on one-sided on an issue (fuck...even Donald Trump has gotten plenty of "yeahbuts" from me...far more than he deserves, even). And I know that starting my writing this way isn't going to make me friends with those I'm hoping to convince. Still...should you be on the fence about it, at least hear me out on this. It's important. If it was just for you, I wouldn't even be writing this stuff (honestly: I don't know you and am in no position to judge your actions in life. Criticise, yes, but judge? no. You're a free individual). The problem is that if you don't get vaccinated, you can still carry the infection to someone else who hasn't yet gotten it, whose immunity falls short or something else. Basically: I'm worried for the people around you. For you as well, but again: your life, your choice.
Unless I'm mistaken, the two main arguments against it are "normal vaccines take years to develop. If this can be done in less, that means something's fishy" and "we have no way of knowing the side effects". They're both flawed arguments, but they are arguments. Let's see...
Yes indeed: normal vaccines take much longer. But normal diseases don't keep the entire fucking world in their grasp like covid-19. As a result, the research is top priority in most if not all research labs. Earlier pandemics certainly had economical damage, but when compared to covid-19 these blend into nothing. Result: just about any government WANTS and FUNDS any sort of research, because every day it's stopped earlier is a day that's worth it.
And the elephant in the room: a wider spread disease means more test cases to work on. It's a lot easier to find a cure if the disease isn't in some exotic location but available in patients in just about every hospital worldwide. Same with volunteers: there are plenty, again for the law of large numbers.
But an important missed factor is the way vaccines are developed. It's a staged approach, with steps 2, 3, 4 taking place after succesfully finishing the earlier step. This is needed, but because of the earlier funding, these steps were "somewhat" taking place during the finishing of the previous step. In other words: while step 1 was being finished, step 2 got underway in the assumption that 1 was succesfull. If 1 wasn't, then that step 2 needed to be rolled back, but that's at most some extra work that could be done while a new step 1 was underway.
(I hope this makes sense, because I'm not sure how to properly explain it without sacrificing the actual process for the sake of clarity).
All in all: this results in an earlier vaccine. Yeeeey.
As to the side effects...well: what do you want me to say? There's potential side effects on any legal drugs, but can you honestly tell me you never took any medicine whatsoever? Yeah, don't answer me that one. Lemme be clear here: the pfizer medicine has about 10-20% chance of inducing fatigue, fever and/or a headache for about a day. Not too shabby a sacrifice to put an end to a deadly disease, right?
But yeah: you're talking the long-term side effects. Those are unknown, I'll give you that. Unfortunately for you...the same goes for most medicines, and the cases where long term effects are mentioned are generally because it was proven after it was released. Because like it or not, but tracing back anything after two years after vaccination is very hard to trace back to its origin.
(RE-)INTRODUCING COVID-19
So what's in this vaccine anyway? Well...nothing that can alter your DNA, if for no other reason that it contains nothing that works onto our DNA. But as any vaccine, it contains fragments of the actual illness, with its more vicious parts removed. That way, our bodies not only fight and win against it but become better prepared to battle it in the future (yeah, and I'm probably shortening it too much. correct me if I'm wrong, okay?
). I don't know why we'll need two shots for immunization, but I've got no reason to doubt it's for a good reason (hint: every paranoid story I've heard can be countered with "even if that's true, it can be done with one shot as well").
But what the anti-vaccers seem to forget is that if you get this, you'll get a neutered version of covid-19. If you don't get this and run into covid-19, you'll get the nasty stuff. And the idea that you're totally immune afterwards was debunked months before Trump became infected in the first place. And that's where the title of this writing comes in: some bad conversations regarding covid. Luckily none that concern myself or my immediate family, but enough to share with potential anti-vaccers to give them some food for thought...
The first one I heard from a friend over the telephone. One of his colleagues from work caught it...and "bad" is an understatement. I've heard on the news that some people got it so bad that they had to be put in a coma, but I always assumed these were very unfortunate elders with underlying health issues. Well...at least in this case, it was absolutely NOT true. I don't know this colleague myself, but my friend told me he was just "a guy" (not his closest colleague, luckily enough). In his thirties, physically fit, no known (visible) medical conditions...and he got covid so bad he had to be put in a coma for months.
Unfotunately, it didn't end there. When he came to, his kidneys (or liver? I don't quite recall what my friend said) were completely gone. So in the end, he went for euthanasia.
That's one thing for statistics: because he didn't techically die from covid-19 he is not in that infamous death chart. But obviously: without covid he'd still be here.
The second story hits much closer, but was, in a way, predictable. My uncle's a doctor. Some time ago, he got summoned to a retirement home to check upon someone who got sick. Normally he'd needed a full face shield, but it was unavailable (so he just had a regular face mask). From what I've heard, this patient was alone in an airtight room and without mask. My uncle examined her and she had covid. Some time afterwards, she died from it as well.
Unfortunately, because of the circumstances, my uncle got it as well. I only know he was "very sick" and had 40° celcius fever (that's 104° fahrenheit...so A LOT). He came through, but still...the least you can say is that a face mask doesn't mean full protection.
The third one is probably the saddest one. It's from my girlfriend, who works in a hospital (not the covid-department, though she knows many who work there). There was a huge downer yesterday: a girl from 13 died there from the virus.
Yeah...another one for the statistics: when you look at the actual charts and conclude that a large majority of deaths are people over 65, it still leaves a minority that can pass away as well.
*sigh*
Did I tell you about the girlfriend of my best friend? She "probably" caught it in the first wave (also a nurse), but because her job didn't order her a test, she can only "assume" that because she had all the symptoms it must have been covid. She lost her sense of taste for at least two months.
Then there's a former colleague of my mother, who got it months ago as well and (last I spoke my mother about this), this same colleague still had a lessened longue capacity (which was what? about a half year after getting it?). This one's harder to confirm, as it's one step beyond 'fact' and into 'rumour' territory. Still...
The action plan
Am I trying to scare you? Well...Yes and no. I'm aware of newspapers having a bias, but that doesn't mean they're hatching an evil plan of spreading a hoax in order to get everyone a shot of something. Simple logistics: if they wanted that, they'd just put whatever it was (nanobots? mind control drugs? Whatever they fancy) in regular flu shots and turn everyone into body snatchers that way and leave out any controversy about it.
On the other hand: covid-19 ain't no picknick. The above isn't from a newspaper or from hearsay, but from friends and family whom I absolutely trust. They might miss details (they're not reporters, and neither am I), but know what they've experienced.
And that leaves only the possibility that the vaccine is real, and fights an equally existing threat to humanity. And that's why we need action, damnit. Up until now, most of us had just to follow some rules about social distancing and face masks. This can be temporary. We can go back to normal. And all it requires is cooperation.
Do we need you? Well...we'd need at least 70% of the population to push the virus back to a point where it simply cannot infect enough people to survive. At least in Belgium, I dare say that we'll easily get that amount (for the US, I...am less optimistic ). But that's not really a reason for optimism. Let's say that 5% of our population joins the denial cult. Once everyone had their chance of vaccination, the restrictions will be eased and contacts will increase. And that means those 5% still have a chance to catch it. An even higher chance than before even, because the restrictions are lifted. Should they self-quarantine longer, they'll theoretically save themselves more, but let's not kid ourselves: that ain't gonna happen.
And 5% is still over half a million people of our population. Should they all get infected and the , that still means we're averaging over a full cemetery of new graves to dig.
And frankly: I don't want to be in a position where I've got to tell a full cemetary "you had this coming". More so: I don't want to look at the survivers with disdain because their hardcore ignorance caused them to infect others who were less fortunate.
So here's my ending plea: don't be like that. Freedom above all else is a nice slogan, but at least ask yourself: is this really worth it?
Would you want to tell your children and grandchildren that you survived the 2020 pandemic but that you flat out refused to participate in covid-19's demise?
Local politicians will get it. You can bet that all sorts of celebrities will do their part. You will have friends and family who will get it.
As a Belgian, I'm not a patriot (heh...good luck finding one in this shithole ). I don't believe this country's better than any else. But I believe in humanity. I believe that as a species, we'll understand the threat that covid-19 poses against us and that we'll fight back and win against it. Fuck...the hard part (creating a vaccine) is even done. This should be the aftermath. It's just that it's an individual aftermath that only works if we all do our part.
So FFS...let's do our part already. Not just "some", not just "most"...I'm talking everybody.
Cheers,
Taleweaver
Not that long ago, I wrote down a well-meant "fuck you" aimed at anyone who purposefully declined on (ever?) getting vaccinated against corona. And it's easy to write off these people as "less intelligent" or "paranoia", but of course it's never that simple. I mean...my own father had a conversation (debate?) with a friend of his who'll refuse the vaccine when it became available. My father remarked that if he he purposefully declined, it should only be fair that he's rejected from the hospital in case he does get infected later. It's harsh, but I tend to agree with my father on this one.
Look...those who know my writings know I hardly ever go full on one-sided on an issue (fuck...even Donald Trump has gotten plenty of "yeahbuts" from me...far more than he deserves, even). And I know that starting my writing this way isn't going to make me friends with those I'm hoping to convince. Still...should you be on the fence about it, at least hear me out on this. It's important. If it was just for you, I wouldn't even be writing this stuff (honestly: I don't know you and am in no position to judge your actions in life. Criticise, yes, but judge? no. You're a free individual). The problem is that if you don't get vaccinated, you can still carry the infection to someone else who hasn't yet gotten it, whose immunity falls short or something else. Basically: I'm worried for the people around you. For you as well, but again: your life, your choice.
Unless I'm mistaken, the two main arguments against it are "normal vaccines take years to develop. If this can be done in less, that means something's fishy" and "we have no way of knowing the side effects". They're both flawed arguments, but they are arguments. Let's see...
Yes indeed: normal vaccines take much longer. But normal diseases don't keep the entire fucking world in their grasp like covid-19. As a result, the research is top priority in most if not all research labs. Earlier pandemics certainly had economical damage, but when compared to covid-19 these blend into nothing. Result: just about any government WANTS and FUNDS any sort of research, because every day it's stopped earlier is a day that's worth it.
And the elephant in the room: a wider spread disease means more test cases to work on. It's a lot easier to find a cure if the disease isn't in some exotic location but available in patients in just about every hospital worldwide. Same with volunteers: there are plenty, again for the law of large numbers.
But an important missed factor is the way vaccines are developed. It's a staged approach, with steps 2, 3, 4 taking place after succesfully finishing the earlier step. This is needed, but because of the earlier funding, these steps were "somewhat" taking place during the finishing of the previous step. In other words: while step 1 was being finished, step 2 got underway in the assumption that 1 was succesfull. If 1 wasn't, then that step 2 needed to be rolled back, but that's at most some extra work that could be done while a new step 1 was underway.
(I hope this makes sense, because I'm not sure how to properly explain it without sacrificing the actual process for the sake of clarity).
All in all: this results in an earlier vaccine. Yeeeey.
As to the side effects...well: what do you want me to say? There's potential side effects on any legal drugs, but can you honestly tell me you never took any medicine whatsoever? Yeah, don't answer me that one. Lemme be clear here: the pfizer medicine has about 10-20% chance of inducing fatigue, fever and/or a headache for about a day. Not too shabby a sacrifice to put an end to a deadly disease, right?
But yeah: you're talking the long-term side effects. Those are unknown, I'll give you that. Unfortunately for you...the same goes for most medicines, and the cases where long term effects are mentioned are generally because it was proven after it was released. Because like it or not, but tracing back anything after two years after vaccination is very hard to trace back to its origin.
(RE-)INTRODUCING COVID-19
So what's in this vaccine anyway? Well...nothing that can alter your DNA, if for no other reason that it contains nothing that works onto our DNA. But as any vaccine, it contains fragments of the actual illness, with its more vicious parts removed. That way, our bodies not only fight and win against it but become better prepared to battle it in the future (yeah, and I'm probably shortening it too much. correct me if I'm wrong, okay?
). I don't know why we'll need two shots for immunization, but I've got no reason to doubt it's for a good reason (hint: every paranoid story I've heard can be countered with "even if that's true, it can be done with one shot as well").But what the anti-vaccers seem to forget is that if you get this, you'll get a neutered version of covid-19. If you don't get this and run into covid-19, you'll get the nasty stuff. And the idea that you're totally immune afterwards was debunked months before Trump became infected in the first place. And that's where the title of this writing comes in: some bad conversations regarding covid. Luckily none that concern myself or my immediate family, but enough to share with potential anti-vaccers to give them some food for thought...
The first one I heard from a friend over the telephone. One of his colleagues from work caught it...and "bad" is an understatement. I've heard on the news that some people got it so bad that they had to be put in a coma, but I always assumed these were very unfortunate elders with underlying health issues. Well...at least in this case, it was absolutely NOT true. I don't know this colleague myself, but my friend told me he was just "a guy" (not his closest colleague, luckily enough). In his thirties, physically fit, no known (visible) medical conditions...and he got covid so bad he had to be put in a coma for months.
Unfotunately, it didn't end there. When he came to, his kidneys (or liver? I don't quite recall what my friend said) were completely gone. So in the end, he went for euthanasia.
That's one thing for statistics: because he didn't techically die from covid-19 he is not in that infamous death chart. But obviously: without covid he'd still be here.
The second story hits much closer, but was, in a way, predictable. My uncle's a doctor. Some time ago, he got summoned to a retirement home to check upon someone who got sick. Normally he'd needed a full face shield, but it was unavailable (so he just had a regular face mask). From what I've heard, this patient was alone in an airtight room and without mask. My uncle examined her and she had covid. Some time afterwards, she died from it as well.
Unfortunately, because of the circumstances, my uncle got it as well. I only know he was "very sick" and had 40° celcius fever (that's 104° fahrenheit...so A LOT). He came through, but still...the least you can say is that a face mask doesn't mean full protection.
The third one is probably the saddest one. It's from my girlfriend, who works in a hospital (not the covid-department, though she knows many who work there). There was a huge downer yesterday: a girl from 13 died there from the virus.
Yeah...another one for the statistics: when you look at the actual charts and conclude that a large majority of deaths are people over 65, it still leaves a minority that can pass away as well.
*sigh*
Did I tell you about the girlfriend of my best friend? She "probably" caught it in the first wave (also a nurse), but because her job didn't order her a test, she can only "assume" that because she had all the symptoms it must have been covid. She lost her sense of taste for at least two months.
Then there's a former colleague of my mother, who got it months ago as well and (last I spoke my mother about this), this same colleague still had a lessened longue capacity (which was what? about a half year after getting it?). This one's harder to confirm, as it's one step beyond 'fact' and into 'rumour' territory. Still...
The action plan
Am I trying to scare you? Well...Yes and no. I'm aware of newspapers having a bias, but that doesn't mean they're hatching an evil plan of spreading a hoax in order to get everyone a shot of something. Simple logistics: if they wanted that, they'd just put whatever it was (nanobots? mind control drugs? Whatever they fancy) in regular flu shots and turn everyone into body snatchers that way and leave out any controversy about it.
On the other hand: covid-19 ain't no picknick. The above isn't from a newspaper or from hearsay, but from friends and family whom I absolutely trust. They might miss details (they're not reporters, and neither am I), but know what they've experienced.
And that leaves only the possibility that the vaccine is real, and fights an equally existing threat to humanity. And that's why we need action, damnit. Up until now, most of us had just to follow some rules about social distancing and face masks. This can be temporary. We can go back to normal. And all it requires is cooperation.
Do we need you? Well...we'd need at least 70% of the population to push the virus back to a point where it simply cannot infect enough people to survive. At least in Belgium, I dare say that we'll easily get that amount (for the US, I...am less optimistic
). But that's not really a reason for optimism. Let's say that 5% of our population joins the denial cult. Once everyone had their chance of vaccination, the restrictions will be eased and contacts will increase. And that means those 5% still have a chance to catch it. An even higher chance than before even, because the restrictions are lifted. Should they self-quarantine longer, they'll theoretically save themselves more, but let's not kid ourselves: that ain't gonna happen.And 5% is still over half a million people of our population. Should they all get infected and the , that still means we're averaging over a full cemetery of new graves to dig.
And frankly: I don't want to be in a position where I've got to tell a full cemetary "you had this coming". More so: I don't want to look at the survivers with disdain because their hardcore ignorance caused them to infect others who were less fortunate.
So here's my ending plea: don't be like that. Freedom above all else is a nice slogan, but at least ask yourself: is this really worth it?
Would you want to tell your children and grandchildren that you survived the 2020 pandemic but that you flat out refused to participate in covid-19's demise?
Local politicians will get it. You can bet that all sorts of celebrities will do their part. You will have friends and family who will get it.
As a Belgian, I'm not a patriot (heh...good luck finding one in this shithole
). I don't believe this country's better than any else. But I believe in humanity. I believe that as a species, we'll understand the threat that covid-19 poses against us and that we'll fight back and win against it. Fuck...the hard part (creating a vaccine) is even done. This should be the aftermath. It's just that it's an individual aftermath that only works if we all do our part.So FFS...let's do our part already. Not just "some", not just "most"...I'm talking everybody.
Cheers,
Taleweaver
