Thank you. We all need a little epistemic humility, and a little compassion for how others made decisions. That includes public officials who had to make risky decisions with poor information in a rapidly changing fact-environment.

When it became clear to me that:

(1) the virus would never be boxed in [we missed that boat] (2) the vaccines mostly just prevented serious disease, but only marginally prevented its spread [I've had 3 doses, and gotten the virus twice (3) the newest variants appeared to be less dangerous

I tended toward vaccination being personal choice (like with flu) rather than a mandate, something we'll just have to live with.

Meanwhile there are global outbreaks of polio. That's what pisses me off (having a relative who suffered the consequences of that disease long long after childhood).

> public officials who had to make risky decisions

I'm not giving them any compassion. State and local levels of health departments acted like dictators with lockdowns which harmed people and many school-age children. My neighbor sold their house and moved because the employer was enforcing the shot so they got fired. I literally got multiple postcards in the mail from health department telling me a shot was waiting for me.

There were not enough studies of efficacy and safety to do what they did based on hunches while not hammering a message of "get off carbs and sugar, lose weight, improve your health".

Polio cases are leading regular people to question much of the over-powered medical people. Maybe it is good people become skeptical.

If you do not extend compassion, then don't expect any.

>>>the vaccines mostly just prevented serious disease, but only marginally prevented its spread [I've had 3 doses, and gotten the virus twice

It's unfortunate for individuals, but vaccines are still helping prevent spread (my unvaxxed roommate has brought covid home twice and I've not gotten sick (or even tested positive the second time when I had tests) despite taking zero precautions.

I didn't say that it didn't reduce the probability of transmission ("marginally prevented its spread"). But it certainly didn't push the R value low enough to control its spread (and wouldn't have even if everyone were vaxxed). I was a no-covid-er for a long time; I really held out hope for eradication, quite a bit longer than most. But its not realistic anymore, at least with current vaccines. Meanwhile, it seems to be a lot less deadly now, possibly because it is more of an upper-respiratory illness than a lower one, which I guess also makes it more transmissible, and possibly because a lot of people already had acquired some kind of immunity (mild cases, vaccination, etc.).

I'm agitating against vaccination? Give me a break. My unvaccinated brother in law almost died from covid.

consider nuance, bud.

This strikes me as intellectually lazy and self indulgent. "This is the same group who..." arguments are weak if only because you haven't established that all members of this group are members of that group. I'd wager there are a great many people who oppose vaccine mandates because they worry about the precedent, or they worry about the risks, but don't also hate compassion. I'd also challenge your assertion that we shouldn't feel compassion for people who don't believe in showing compassion but I know that's a bit more controversial. "Love thy enemies" is not so popular these days.

> "This is the same group who..." arguments are weak if only because you haven't established that all members of this group are members of that group.

I see these arguments all over comment threads and always think something similar to what you said is the obvious response, and I never see anyone say anything about it. That was refreshing to read.

This reply come off clearly as divisive, but it says a lot how easy this is to interpersonal from le either side.