Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I will say that the bolded portion is important. If she's had the virus already, there is less pressure to get the vaccine IMHO because you have some level of immunity to it. We've seen reinfection is possible, but it appears to be very rare.


And again, I'm not saying it's unreasonable or abnormal for people to think like that--I'm saying it's irrational. That's not a criticism. People are irrational.

I said it before that psychologically, there's a very big difference between deliberately choosing to go get yourself injected with something vs catching COVID by chance. If you get COVID and you have a severe case, you can write it off as bad luck. If you choose to get a vaccine and have some really bad side effect, you feel like you've made a bad decision.

We're wired to avoid the latter.

That's why I think it's seen that the people who have done the most thorough research on the vaccine become more likely to want it than less... Because it allows the rational side of the brain to take over and do cost/benefit analysis whereas the emotional side of the brain is simply risk averse.

She sounds like she's done zero actual research. So she's letting her risk aversion drive her more than a rational decision. It's not misinformation and it's a 100% natural way to respond, but it's not necessarily an informed decision or the right one if there's no research.

I don't think it's irrational at all.  I've had COVID myself, confirmed by test and then antibody test.  Wasn't too bad, sick for 2-3 days.  I'm really not worried about catching it again.  Rationally, the evidence tells me that catching it again is very rare and there is not great information on it yet.  Nobody really knows how long immunity lasts.  Reports are anywhere from 3 months to forever.  Even if I do catch it again I don't think it will be severe.  

Rationally, the vaccine is only authorized under an emergency authorization.  I now know about a dozen people who have taken it, including some my age.  I have not seen anything yet to be concerned about.  I also don't know anybody that has caught it twice.  Having lost my dad to COVID back in October I know how deadly it can be as well.  Yet I will probably wait awhile until I decide to take it.  I'm really not afraid of it at all at this time, but in the same token there have been lots of things the gov't said was safe and yet later on we find that they were not quite as safe as we were led to believe.  Remember phen fen?  Or the arthritis drugs that were banned a few years ago? 737 Max?  All of those people thought that they were good, and the truth is most of them were.  But nevertheless changes had to be made because things came to be known as time and usage went on.  

No, not irrational at all.  

@Gigem if you hadn't had COVID already, would that change your mind on the vaccine?

As mentioned, I don't think there's a huge pressure to get the vaccine if you've already had COVID, because it appears to confer natural immunity. For how long, we don't know, and whether it protects against new strains, we don't know. But so far reinfection is very rare.

If I had already had COVID (maybe even twice!), I probably wouldn't care about getting the vaccine very much. 

I do think that changes the calculus significantly.

@Gigem if you hadn't had COVID already, would that change your mind on the vaccine?

As mentioned, I don't think there's a huge pressure to get the vaccine if you've already had COVID, because it appears to confer natural immunity. For how long, we don't know, and whether it protects against new strains, we don't know. But so far reinfection is very rare.

If I had already had COVID (maybe even twice!), I probably wouldn't care about getting the vaccine very much.

I do think that changes the calculus significantly.

You know when people are making these risk assessments, I doubt they're using calculus.  Probably no more than just basic  algebra.

@Gigem if you hadn't had COVID already, would that change your mind on the vaccine?

As mentioned, I don't think there's a huge pressure to get the vaccine if you've already had COVID, because it appears to confer natural immunity. For how long, we don't know, and whether it protects against new strains, we don't know. But so far reinfection is very rare.

If I had already had COVID (maybe even twice!), I probably wouldn't care about getting the vaccine very much.

I do think that changes the calculus significantly.

Good question.  After thinking about it, without a doubt I would have gotten the vaccine.  The reasoning I use is that you don't know how your body will react to COVID until you've had it.  Although we all know it affects more of the older crowd there are people that are young that are dying.  And so far the side effects of the vaccine seem very minimal.  I guess now I'm really afforded the time to make a decision, but I never take a flu shot either.  FWIW I'm in my mid 40's, relatively healthy (no diabetes etc, just a kinda fat) and active.  

Probably some day I will start taking the flu shot as well.  Anecdotally my father in law, at the behest of his physician, took the shingles vaccine about 3-4 years ago and has been suffering with bad rashes/skin problems ever since.  On his face, his ears, all over his body.  For years now.  So just because something has been deemed as safe does not mean zero side effects.  The rash started immediately after he had the shot, so it's not unrelated.  My son had the chicken pox vaccine and still got chicken pox.  No big deal, all of us over 30 probably all had it.  

I never had chicken pox.

So does that mean you should, or should not, get the shingles vaccine?  Or is everyone supposed to get that vaccine regardless, when you hit age 60 or whatever?

The notion Bill Gates was putting a  tracking chip in the COVID vaccine was worth a chuckle.

If somebody said Zuckerberg I'd be down with that.He needs to be locked in a porta-potty and knocked over.

I am transferring files to new computer, it says it will take more than a day.

Oh, COVID, yeah.

Bad.  China bad.