Yes, the dynamic you identified is why sham treatments have sold for millennia. Teasing out what works is tricky. For some (to include people I knew) covid was a death sentence, but the fatality rate was around one percent, wasn't it? You'd never fly on a plane that crashed in one out of one hundred flights, but still they aren't too bad as odds go. Even so, once the vaccine came out, the only people I knew who died of covid were those who did not take it. Merely the observation of one individual, but it seems to match the wider data that was found.
So given that information, what is one to do? I took the vaccine and take the newer versions now too along with a flu shot.
The worldwide population COVID-19 infection fatality rate was estimated at about 0.27%, so substantially less than 1%. That number varied widely based on age.
> the fatality rate was around one percent, wasn't it?
According to one report at least, it was 1% for folks in their 60s. For younger demographics it was quite a bit less than that.
> We report IFR estimates for April 15, 2020, to January 1, 2021, the period before the introduction of vaccines and widespread evolution of variants. We found substantial heterogeneity in the IFR by age, location, and time. Age-specific IFR estimates form a J shape, with the lowest IFR occurring at age 7 years (0·0023%, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 0·0015–0·0039) and increasing exponentially through ages 30 years (0·0573%, 0·0418–0·0870), 60 years (1·0035%, 0·7002–1·5727), and 90 years (20·3292%, 14·6888–28·9754).
You make the best decision you can for yourself, and sounds like you did that. The frustrating part is when other people felt entitled to make that decision for you.
As far as I know, no one in my country (The US) was forced to take a covid vaccine. Some were compelled financially I have no doubt, but they would seem to me like fish that just realized that they were swimming in water after not having even realized it their entire lives. No wonder they were pissed; I can't say I've ever really gotten over it myself.
I treat it like anything else: I wouldn't be shocked to see evidence that incorrect things show up in places like the lancet. But I assume it's on par with the best I can get my hands on, so I use it.
I'm gonna skip the "technically not forced" debate, been through it too many times. I'll agree to disagree.
Is the fish metaphor to say that it was some people realizing how little control they have over their lives or something like that? Amen if so.
Yes, it's a profound thing to threaten someone's livelihood, though at the same time, society will squash individuals when genuinely threatened; never doubt that for a minute. For a time, it seemed like the vaccines might stop transmission of covid, but that seems to have been a bust. They do, however seem to rather clearly help an individual's response to the virus, and so it seems like it became a matter of individual responsibility.
As to the fish thing, you understood me correctly - when we are born, we are thrown into a world we did not create and have vanishingly little control over, and seemingly less as wealth and power accumulate into the hands of a few. I'm told that well-adjusted people are capable of adapting to their circumstances, and it is a mark of mental illness that one can not.
So given that information, what is one to do? I took the vaccine and take the newer versions now too along with a flu shot.