Will I get it?

“People who haven’t been sick all year are willing to get sick from a shot to feel protected from something that hasn’t made them sick all year??”

Seen on antivaxxer poster.
(Image excluded so as to not trigger filters.)

But will I get the shot?

You’re damn right I will! However I am well aware that my reasons for doing so are lost on the anti crowd, who will cry “sheeple” and “5G”, and shout already thoroughly debunked conspiracy hogwash at me.

Of course I’ll get it for my own sake. Of course! Who wouldn’t! I’ve no desire to get sick from COVID-19, with all the risk of dying or suffering permanent damage to my lungs and whatnot, and I want to be able to move around freely without risk of getting infected. But also, and equally important, I want to be able to move around freely without being a risk to others who for whatever reason cannot be vaccinated, so that they, too, can move around freely.

I have family, friends and colleagues who suffer from asthma, weakened immune response, various other respiratory issues, heart conditions, recovering from cancer and chemo treatment, who are elderly, or who have simply been too damn frightened by the anti-vaccination, anti-Covid conspiracy propaganda, to dare to get vaccinated themselves.

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Most antivaxxers show a total lack of understanding for what vaccines really are, and what they actually do, coupled with not knowing much or anything at all about science and medicine in general. Yet they claim to be far more qualified in those fields than the people who have studied and worked them for years, decades, and lifetimes.

So, if you’re an antivaxxer who happens to read this and want to argue your point, I don’t have time for you. We’ve already had that conversation. The topic has been debated to death already and you’re simply a total waste of mine and everybody else’s time. COVID-19 is real; there’s no “deep state” or “new world order” involved; vaccines are for the greater good; 5G has nothing to do with any of this; and the only reason why efforts like face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitiser haven’t helped more than they have, is because morons like you are doing your worst at every turn to sabotage the fight to stop the virus.

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Do I expect to get sick from the vaccine? Sure! Most if not all vaccines cause some amount of reaction. After all, you’re tricking your immune system into thinking that your body has been infected, that you have become sick. That’s exactly how a vaccine causes immunity, by forcing the body to react to what seems like an infection, even though it isn’t. And because your body thinks it’s fighting off a disease, you’ll have symptoms as if it actually was. Briefly. Fevers, fatigue, dizzy spells, nausea, any combination or all of those or any number of other amusing things, to a greater or lesser degree. Some hardly notice anything at all, others have to spend a day in bed with a bucket handy. I’ll take that unpleasantness if it comes to that, because I believe it’s worth it, both for myself, and for the people around me.

Do I think I’ll die from getting the shot? Let me reframe that: I drive a car every day, even thought I know full well that people get killed in traffic every day, and that if I’m really unlucky, I could end up one of them, yet the benefits of driving a car somehow outweigh the risks. The point here being that, just like I drive a car, so do most antivaxxers, though my impression is that most of them consider themselves immortal in traffic. No, I don’t think that I’ll get dead by the vaccine any more than I expect to get dead from driving to work. I drive with caution (I wear a mask and wash my hands), and I wear my seatbelt (I get vaccinated). I also drive carefully because, much as I don’t want to get hurt or killed in traffic, I also don’t want to hurt or kill anyone else.

If anyone thinks that my caring about other people is stupid, then I quite seriously question their values.

Protect each other!
Get vaccinated if you can!

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Update: Things are moving forward! I’m getting my first Pfizer shot on April 29th! 😊