Off-Topic Covid-19
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Up north here in Canada it’s not really a matter of will I but ‘when’ can I, as it’s made available to us. I trust our medical health officers and scientists and because this virus is so deadly - perhaps not to me, but to others in my community that I can infect and harm through transmission, I will get vaccinated.
I should add that until vaccinations are widespread and the transmission slows to a crawl I won’t be able to travel to the US to take that KB certification I’ve been patiently waiting for!
SteveR
Level 6 Valued Member
Yes, when this is all a story in the past, I want to know that I did everything I could with the information I had to protect myself, my loved ones and my fellow man. I know that sounds all noble and moralistic but I'll have to live with my response to this crisis the rest of my life.
My wife and I are both registered with our state and are looking forward to getting vaccinated and hopefully then being able to put this behind us, at least somewhere.
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North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
Yes. It is the only option for controlling this over the long haul.
Am not sure how I feel about mRNA vs the Adenovirus vaccines, but at this point I'd get any of them. Even the Russian and Chinese ones have enough testing history and high enough efficacy to be viable options, but the closest I'll get to that in the US is the Johnson and Johnson.
And I say this as someone who does not normally get a seasonal flu vaccine anymore.
Am not sure how I feel about mRNA vs the Adenovirus vaccines, but at this point I'd get any of them. Even the Russian and Chinese ones have enough testing history and high enough efficacy to be viable options, but the closest I'll get to that in the US is the Johnson and Johnson.
And I say this as someone who does not normally get a seasonal flu vaccine anymore.
Mike Torres
Senior Instructor, Jiu-Jitsu Brown Belt
Senior Certified Instructor
Elite Certified Instructor
I am also in the "hell yes / ASAP" camp. Being a non-essential worker in my 40s and in good health, I'm not sure when it will actually happen. But if I have to, I'll gladly wait in line overnight like I did for Windows 95, iPhone 3G, and the first iPad 
I have no concerns and trust the research that's been done to approve the vaccines.
I have no concerns and trust the research that's been done to approve the vaccines.
So far, I think everyone who's replied is planning to get vaccinated, so I guess it must be a small elephant, then.
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LukeV
Level 7 Valued Member
I will get the vaccine because I trust the science and view it as the end game in the public health response to this disease that will now be with humankind for the foreseeable future. But I think we have to be realistic about what will be achieved through vaccination. We can look to influenza for the example. Influenza can kill anybody, young or old, healthy or unhealthy, unlike COVID where almost everyone who dies is already seriously ill or infirm. The influenza vaccine is safe, effective, only requires one shot and is heavily promoted, readily available etc. Yet only 38% of Australians get that vaccination each year. Health professionals have been somewhat deified in the pandemic but their influenza vaccinations are only marginally higher than the community average, at 43% (also an Australian statistic). Yes, even though influenza can kill them and there is a safe and effective vaccine available, most health professionals do not take it. So what do we honestly think is going to happen with COVID, a disease that most people are not afraid of because they know it isn't a big deal for them? Now Australian governments are going to push hard to maximise the vaccination rate for COVID. It will be free and available across the health system. In response to low vaccination rates amongst health professionals, the influenza vaccine is currently mandated in nursing homes and critical areas of most public hospital systems. So I expect they will copy that with the COVID vaccine. International travel will almost certainly require it which will be a big help. But the COVID vaccine requires two shots, so expect a substantial reduction in presentations for the second as people don't come back because the needle hurts or they get a minor reaction like itchiness, swelling, headache etc. Then whatever is achieved in the first year, that effort has to be sustained in second and subsequent years for the booster so we can expect participation rates to drop off over time as government and community will wanes. In summary I would describe the COVID vaccine as very helpful, firstly in terms of reducing but not eliminating the disease and secondly, as like a community-wide anti-anxiety drug that will allow everyone to calm down as we make the difficult but necessary progression from crisis to acceptance that this disease is now with us for ever. (Paradoxically, those small isolated countries that have been successful in keeping the disease out, like New Zealand, Fiji etc will suffer more deaths from COVID after they vaccinate than before, because after vaccination they will open their borders allowing the virus to enter.)
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Chrisdavisjr
Level 7 Valued Member
A small but very vocal elephant, perhaps?So far, I think everyone who's replied is planning to get vaccinated, so I guess it must be a small elephant, then.
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krg
Level 7 Valued Member
My Dad was a volunteer on the Oxford/AZ trial one of only 800 or so over 70s in the Phase 3 trial.
I have never been more proud of him.
And I am looking forward to getting a shot in the arm at some point in 2021
william bad butt
Level 7 Valued Member
Yes. But I am the last group in Delaware. May - July per the plan on the website.
My bro and sons-in-law, from Florida, have already been vaccinated.
My bro and sons-in-law, from Florida, have already been vaccinated.
Nate
Level 6 Valued Member
Though I had covid (got lucky, no symptoms), I'll be getting the vaccine soon, being a highly exposed teacher.
Just like i come here when it comes to fitness questions, i have medical researchers at WashU School of Medicine that i go to when it comes to health questions. Zero hesitation from them.
Just like i come here when it comes to fitness questions, i have medical researchers at WashU School of Medicine that i go to when it comes to health questions. Zero hesitation from them.
crazycanuck
Level 9 Valued Member
I am an RN who on occasion works with covid patients (positive, sick enough to be in distress and then admitted/kept hospital, but not ICU level sick yet due to our facility limitations), and just got my first vaccination, here where I am it is available pretty much to only health care workers in still fairly limited age groups and a start today on some nursing home residents. Like others have said, I trust the science. I have a sibling who is in medical laboratory technology and she has explained many things to me. It may seem "rushed" but the prelimary groundwork had been laid in research on other coronaviruses, SARS, etc over the last number of years to make a vaccine come quickly.
We have a whole generation or two that does not have any recent memory of major outbreaks of disease sweeping the population. I am old enough to have that smallpox vaccine scar on my arm, a major disease eliminated through vaccination. My grandfather lost his mother, and his grandmother in the same day in the Spanish flu epidemic when he was only 6 years old. I have been told by my older relatives the relief and excitement that happened when the polio vaccine came about. We don't know what it is like to die from infections that would be regarded as simple in today's terms because penicillin hadn't yet been discovered. I think that really affects the general populations' view on some things....sometimes when we have the technology, we feel invincible and don't expect to be felled by a mere virus. Maybe that contributes to the whole "it's just a flu" mentality, or vaccine hesitancy, I don't know.
Maybe it's an "out of sight, out of mind"concept....if you don't know anyone who has contracted Covid it's hard to see the reality of it. I've been in on my fair share of deaths in my day, but believe me the ones I have been directly involved in from this are not pleasant---when you can barely speak and are gasping in a panic, medication and oxygen only do so much and seeing someone go downhill in a matter of hours after that is heartbreaking. And not just those who died, but the aftereffects of living through a bad case of it.
The things I have experienced so far make me not hesitate to take that vaccination, and believe me I stood in that line on Sunday in reverence and appreciative of my chance I have over others right now. "Preexisiting conditions" or "old age" be damned, these people who have died are still someone's loved one, still meant something to someone. To fight this disease, we at the very least need to realize that it is not all about us, it is about society as a whole, our fellow man, including those categories of people. Makes a whole new meaning to the platitude "we are all in this together"....
We have a whole generation or two that does not have any recent memory of major outbreaks of disease sweeping the population. I am old enough to have that smallpox vaccine scar on my arm, a major disease eliminated through vaccination. My grandfather lost his mother, and his grandmother in the same day in the Spanish flu epidemic when he was only 6 years old. I have been told by my older relatives the relief and excitement that happened when the polio vaccine came about. We don't know what it is like to die from infections that would be regarded as simple in today's terms because penicillin hadn't yet been discovered. I think that really affects the general populations' view on some things....sometimes when we have the technology, we feel invincible and don't expect to be felled by a mere virus. Maybe that contributes to the whole "it's just a flu" mentality, or vaccine hesitancy, I don't know.
Maybe it's an "out of sight, out of mind"concept....if you don't know anyone who has contracted Covid it's hard to see the reality of it. I've been in on my fair share of deaths in my day, but believe me the ones I have been directly involved in from this are not pleasant---when you can barely speak and are gasping in a panic, medication and oxygen only do so much and seeing someone go downhill in a matter of hours after that is heartbreaking. And not just those who died, but the aftereffects of living through a bad case of it.
The things I have experienced so far make me not hesitate to take that vaccination, and believe me I stood in that line on Sunday in reverence and appreciative of my chance I have over others right now. "Preexisiting conditions" or "old age" be damned, these people who have died are still someone's loved one, still meant something to someone. To fight this disease, we at the very least need to realize that it is not all about us, it is about society as a whole, our fellow man, including those categories of people. Makes a whole new meaning to the platitude "we are all in this together"....
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