Okay. Since a group from which I have been banned (coughCovidCultcough) still has posts showing up in my feed, so I can see the titles and sometimes summaries without being able to read the posts themselves, I see that some people here still, after 18 months, don't understand how viruses and vaccines work. So I'm going to try and tackle this subject, in easy-to-understand words.

1. NO VACCINE GIVES PERFECT IMMUNITY

There. It's out in the open (even though it's been in the open forever). Being vaccinated against flu, for instance, doesn't mean you are invulnerable to the flu. It means your immune system has a much greater defense against the flu than if you had not been vaccinated.

Some people have a naturally higher immunity to the flu, since they've been exposed to it in its various strains all their lives, and some immune systems respond better than others. Since almost nobody on the planet has had time to build up an immune defense against covid-19, it is crucial that we developed a vaccine, and as many people as possible get it; because otherwise, they will be left with nothing but their body's own natural defenses, which, as stated, are basically nil.

2. EVEN VACCINATED PEOPLE CAN CATCH COVID

Or any other virus, for that matter.

Bluntly put, the more sick people you hang around with, wittingly or not, the better your chances of getting sick yourself. And, since most covid cases are asymptomatic, at least to begin with (meaning the patient doesn't know they have it), it's very easy to be around sick people without realizing it.

A vaccine that's 94% effective, to look at it another way, is 6% ineffective. And unless the people around you are vaccinated too, you're basically playing dice with covid. The more unvaccinated people you are near, the better the chance that one of them has an asymptomatic case. And the more asymptomatic cases you're exposed to, the better the chances that your 94 (or 96, figures have varied, and now those who were vaccinated first may be down to only 80) percent immunity won't prevent you from contracting the virus yourself. Yes, your immune system should be stronger, so the case should be less severe; but there's a lot of should in that sentence.

The fact that vaccinated people still catch Covid does NOT mean the vaccine doesn't work. It means that it doesn't work perfectly. See point #1.

3. PEOPLE ARE NOT DYING LIKE FLIES AFTER GETTING THE COVID VACCINE

I don't really care what "source" you're going to quote at me, sorry. Websites run by anti-vaxxers and whole-food retailers don't count as news, nor do third-hand apocryphal reports like "Funeral Directors See Wave Of Vaccine Deaths". Here are the statistics. [cdc.gov]

The one that matters is that, after over 380 million doses (380,000,000) given between December 14 2020 and September 13 2021, 7,653 deaths were reported among people who received a vaccine.

The FDA requires any death be reported by a health care provider once someone has had the vaccine, even if there's no known connection. Even if, for example, the individual was 90 years old with heart disease, even if they died of cirrhosis of the liver at 40, any death. That's a roughly 0.002% rate; 2/1000ths of a percent. Two of every 100,000. Even if every death was due to the vaccine, which is almost vanishingly unlikely, that's an extraordinary record.

Now, I'm concerned about anyone dying. But that's a much better safety record than the auto industry, and right up there with the ladder industry.

Along with this, just as concerning, 854 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis were confirmed in patients under age 30; around 195 preliminary reports of Guillan-Barre Syndrome identified among the 14.5 million who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, mostly in men over 50, as well as 46 confirmed reports of thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

Between 2 and 5 per million experienced an anaphylactic reaction after the vaccine, which is the same rate as with any other vaccine.

The covid vaccine is a safe and routine procedure, or it would be routine, if the Republican party hadn't made it a political issue, along with mask-wearing and social distancing. And in the world where the Republicans listened to science instead of a failed real-estate developer-cum-con artist-cum-twice-impeached President, we might already be over this. Instead, we're up to nearly 700,000 Americans dead.

Seven. Hundred. Thousand. Americans.

Those people weren't killed by a vaccine. They were killed by people who insisted that it's "no worse than a bad cold", and it can be prevented with proper nutrition, and all the CDC's measures to control the worst pandemic in a century are really an evil plot to kill half of us and enslave the rest. Really, it's been a perfect storm of the worst disease in a century, plus the worst presidential administration ever, plus the most amazingly gullible people, who won't believe anything that doctors with thousands of years combined education say, but will immediately and unquestioningly swallow anything put up on an anonymous website.

4. IN CONCLUSION

I operate under no illusion that I've changed anyone's minds here tonight, but then again, I've never been a persuasive writer. I just lay the facts out and you can do with them what you will. Those who already disagree with me, will almost certainly disagree even more, and feel insulted as well. Too fucking bad.

5. P.S.

The Earth is round. I just wanted to slide that in there, too.