Pfizer/Moderna Vaccine

etherdome

SGH said:

Iblind99 said:

i told her to call scottie 

Brother Blind, had someone asked me about the vaccine just a few days ago I would of laughed at them just as I have laughed at the mask wearers for the past 9 months. 

However sometimes certain things really hit home and change one’s perspective. I just arrived home from a life long friends services. His funeral is tomorrow. He died from complications with the virus. With that said with a very heavy and hurt heart, I will take the vaccine. And my apologies to all the people that I insulted and ridiculed about the mask. 

 

@SGH  Im so sorry for your loss. .... your public change of heart and attitude towards this should not go unrecognized. It says a lot about you and I thank you for doing so.

kl8ton

Those that got the vaccine. . . I am curious.  

Are you paying out of pocket? 
Are you filling out forms? 
How are you determined to be eligible? 
Does the MIB contact you? 
Health insurance paying for it? 
Gubmint paying?  
Could you feel the microchip entering your body?  😉

lousubcap

@SGH - condolences to your friend's family. 
And I thank you for being big enough to explain your change in perceptions and actions regarding this virus.  It's not an easy thing to do on a public forum.  Much appreciated.  

ColbyLang

@SGH,
sorry for your loss. 

Does anyone else feel strange about signing the liability waiver while taking it? 

If you take it, still masking up? If so, why?
(Just looking for an honest answer here)

Who’s paying for it? 

Just thoughts I have. 

kthacher

I will mask up for as long as public health authorities deem it necessary.  Even prior to that, if I am in public no one will know I have been vaccinated.  So I will be inclined to wear a mask to avoid awkward situations, where others are looking at me and wondering if I am endangering them. 

Battleborn

Are these vaccines providing protection from this new strain across the pond? 

JohnInCarolina

Battleborn said:

Are these vaccines providing protection from this new strain across the pond? 

They are, yes.  

JohnInCarolina

ColbyLang said:

@SGH,
sorry for your loss. 

Does anyone else feel strange about signing the liability waiver while taking it? 

If you take it, still masking up? If so, why?
(Just looking for an honest answer here)

Who’s paying for it? 

Just thoughts I have. 

I seem to recall something from public health officials suggesting we all may still need to mask up for a good while after obtaining the vaccine.  I think the issue may be that while the vaccine protects you against getting sick from the virus, it doesn’t necessarily prevent you from carrying it and transmitting it to others if you’re infected.  

JethroVA

News from Virginia this morning. Horrible spikes in Virginia hospitals in three categories: hospitalized with COVID, in ICU with COVID, and on ventilators with COVID. The lives you save by wearing a mask, physical distancing, etc, could be others in your communities. Give the gift of love through these simple, selfless steps. https://richmond.com/news/local/strain-on-hospitals-intensifies-in-virginia-vcu-health-deploys-surge-capacity-plans/article_2cb29bf6-256d-55d9-8bbe-318873e74ab6.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

ColbyLang

JohnInCarolina said:

ColbyLang said:

@SGH,
sorry for your loss. 

Does anyone else feel strange about signing the liability waiver while taking it? 

If you take it, still masking up? If so, why?
(Just looking for an honest answer here)

Who’s paying for it? 

Just thoughts I have. 

I seem to recall something from public health officials suggesting we all may still need to mask up for a good while after obtaining the vaccine.  I think the issue may be that while the vaccine protects you against getting sick from the virus, it doesn’t necessarily prevent you from carrying it and transmitting it to others if you’re infected.  

Thank you for the answer. Consider me ignorant to what the vaccine protocols are. 

Foghorn

kl8ton said:

Those that got the vaccine. . . I am curious.  

Are you paying out of pocket? 
Are you filling out forms? 
How are you determined to be eligible? 
Does the MIB contact you? 
Health insurance paying for it? 
Gubmint paying?  
Could you feel the microchip entering your body?  😉

ColbyLang said:

@SGH,
sorry for your loss. 

Does anyone else feel strange about signing the liability waiver while taking it? 

If you take it, still masking up? If so, why?
(Just looking for an honest answer here)

Who’s paying for it? 

Just thoughts I have. 

I'm getting it Wednesday.


Are you paying out of pocket?  No.

Are you filling out forms?  Yes.

How are you determined to be eligible?  Front line health care workers at our institution.  


Does the MIB contact you?  Not to my knowledge.

Health insurance paying for it? I should know the answer to that, but I'm not sure.  We do have to register through our health care plan.

Gubmint paying?  See above.

Could you feel the microchip entering your body?  😉  No microchip.

Does anyone else feel strange about signing the liability waiver while taking it? Not at all.   My opinion (I realize that my not be worth much) is that nobody involved with this has malevolent intent - although I get that there is still potential for unknown side effects related to the vaccine.  This could change if we learn that the companies involved are found to have hidden data about bad outcomes - but if that is the case, they will be held liable, regardless of what forms people signed.  

If you take it, still masking up? If so, why?  
(Just looking for an honest answer here)   

Just doing the math.  Most people will not be vaccinated for months.  The vaccine appears to be 95% effective.  When 1) 70+% (might need to be 90%+) are vaccinated and 2) the incidence of COVID is way down in our community we can discuss unmasking.  

caliking

Foghorn said:

...

Does the MIB contact you?  Not to my knowledge yet.

Health insurance paying for it? I should know the answer to that, but I'm not sure.  We do have to register through our health care plan.

Gubmint paying?  See above.

Could you feel the microchip entering your body?  😉  No microchip.

...

Just messing with ya *ducks*

I think I recall Biden saying that the vaccine would be free to all. Trump may have stated something similar. Maybe the insurance companies will file with the govt. and be reimbursed? 

And yes, masks are here to stay for some time, despite the availability of the vaccine(s).

The vaccine should be looked at more like "ok, I/we have a much better chance of surviving now", and not so much as " YAY! I can go to the club now!!"

PigBeanUs

SGH said:

Brother Blind, had someone asked me about the vaccine just a few days ago I would of laughed at them just as I have laughed at the mask wearers for the past 9 months. 

However sometimes certain things really hit home and change one’s perspective. I just arrived home from a life long friends services. His funeral is tomorrow. He died from complications with the virus. With that said with a very heavy and hurt heart, I will take the vaccine. And my apologies to all the people that I insulted and ridiculed about the mask. 

First, the TL/DR, because I don’t care if anyone reads this: Sorry for your loss. Wear a fvcking mask, and ignore anyone praising you for finally figuring it out. Your (prior) grandstanding faux-ignorance is part of the problem and why we are where we are nine months later. You helped create a problem you could have helped solve. Fact. It is that position, held by half the population, that has compounded the problem and factored into 300,000 dead. 

Long version (and again, I don’t care if anyone reads this)

I am sorry for the loss of your friend, SGH. I didn’t know him, but I have lost a number of friends over the years, and can sympathize. Sympathy, as you know is when your prior experience allows you to understand what another is going through. 

It is a shame that it took something like this to make you consider others. You now have sympathy. 

Would that you had had some empathy though.

Empathy involves one being able to imagine what another might be going through even though we may not have direct experience. 

We have 300,000+ dead now, projected to be half a million or more by the 1year mark. 

How many of them died because people lacked empathy, and looked at the idea of wearing a mask as a chance to use their “big personality” to mock and deride and to literally dissuade people from doing a simple thing to keep OTHERS safe too. 

Big personalities. Those with a chance to say “look, it’s simple. This is serious, and we can make it far less serious by wearing a mask”

instead, we have big personalities and public personas who use the microphone to further their brand, or to mock their “opponents” in what they see as a forum for entertainment or politics only, and not as a health safety issue. 

Lockdowns are massively impactful on the economy. We can’t afford this. We all agree. 

Yet japan, a country where wearing masks was culturally normal already, has had only as many deaths for the ENTIRE PANDEMIC as the US has now every. Single. Day. 

They are basically carrying on as before with no huge hit to the economy (except as impacted by other countries’ economies, sure).

I used to roll my eyes at all the pictures of the japanese wearing masks. And Michael Jackson too. Right? Easy targets. I figured it was a pollution thing. Looked dorky and fearful. 

Very very easy to mock. 

Guess what?

they were right. 

It’s been said that if 95% of the population wore masks, we could fully reopen and get back to work

if we’d started wearing masks in March, the economy would have been impacted less, and fewer would have been infected. Simple fact. 

restaurants might be an exception (close quarters, extended maskless period while eating etc)

but if everyone simply wore as mask and set aside their feeling “silly”, or stopped thinking they were being some hero and “owning” others by not wearing a mask, fewer would be dead. 

If leaders, especially those with amplified voices and devoted adherents, had the desire to lead, they’d have a fireside chat and tell us this was the crisis of our lives, and instead of paper-drives, metal-drives, rationing, blackouts (as in WW2), all we had to do was wear a mask to save the country, we’d have thousands fewer dead. 

Happy to see a number of highly public personalities getting the vaccine, including those who openly mocked it, held gatherings of hundreds proudly maskless, and who spread patently false information about the virus. Because of them, thousands are dead. But at least maybe some of their followers are beginning to do the math. And if their blind-followers get the vaccine because their heroes did, it’s a net positive. 

I do wish these “public figures” who furthered their brand by mocking mask wearers and spreading falsehoods would wait their turn and let front line workers get the vaccine. But rank has its privileges. 

Again, I do feel sorry for your loss. 

But I am not going to praise you for coming to a conclusion nine months late. You are an intelligent person. You heard the risks, heard the science, and understand the mechanism of transmission..

You made a conscious decision to openly promote dangerous propaganda partly, possibly to reinforce your position as a contrarian and “big personality”. Whether this is in emulation of any other “big personalities” you admire or not, I don’t know. But I would bet a part of it is due exactly to that: to “owning” others simply for the sake of a haughty self satisfaction from irritating someone momentarily. 

But providing a moment’s irritation and then laughing to yourself because you mocked a scientist (or otherwise sincere messenger about the dangers), is just shallow. It may be indicative too of a bravado borne out of insecurity. It certainly isn’t because you actually believed it was a hoax, was it? It isn’t possible to be that naïve. It was a choice, and a desire to join the cool crowd maybe. 

If only you had a little humility nine months ago and were man enough to put on a mask and say “well, yep. I feel a little foolish I’ll admit. But it’s the right
thing to do. Why not?”

because every voice influences others, especially those in a family or community. 

instead, we have half the population spewing nine months of foolishness, downplaying, mocking, pretend to be outraged at “civil liberty infractions”... and more dead by far than any country on earth. 

Best scientists. Best medical system. Best agencies in a position to deal with this. Ready to go and address the greatest crisis we may ever face. 

And instead we have 300,000 dead because half the country demands to go to walmart (and elsewhere) without a mask

Congrats on coming around. 

If you had been able to do so earlier, and to further convince family and friends that it was the right thing to do (instead of grandstanding and making them comfortable to ignore science) there would be fewer dead in your community and country-wide. That is simple fact. 

I’m not saying you are directly responsible for 300,000 dead, or the death of anyone you know

But promoting and amplifying ignorance causes ignorance to spread. Just like a virus. It normalized unsafe  practices. 

Those who still hold the attitude you formerly held (until forced to face facts only recently), certainly are responsible for the huge numbers of dead, for the overwhelmed hospitals and for the overworked healthcare workers

Someone very close to me had emergent heart surgery yesterday and the day before. The surgery had to be done now because the hospital knows we have a wave of further covid cases on the horizon, and the surgery would have had to be put off until the wave past in February. Too long to wait. Likely heart failure and death. We snuck in literally a day before they initiated a ban on admitting non-covid. 

I am unable to visit post-op, for a week, and spent the last few moments before saying a potentially final goobye in PPE gear. No hugs, no contact. 

I had to do this because even in one of the most educated states, with one of the best hospital systems in the country, we still have a sizable portion of the population who is literally too ignorant to wear a fvcking mask for their sake AND FOR OTHERS’.

This diatribe was shorter last night, but it had far more rancor and swear words. 

Thankfully I wasn’t logged in. And then later, at 3am, finally got news after 36 hours that a heart was beating again that had been in danger of not beating anymore, following a pair of surgeries which were impacted by maskless antivax morons who are too self-absorbed to think of their fellow man for once. 

Sorry for the loss of your friend. It is horrible. And I know exactly how it feels. 

But you get no gold star for merely admitting you perpetuated a situation you actively consciously chose to perpetuate. 

This pandemic isn’t a joke. 

EDIT: typos

kthacher

The above rant pretty much sums up how I feel.  All of us are paying a terrible price right now, made worse by willful ignorance that is worn like a badge of honor.  People are needlessly dead because of this.  

I also agree that congratulations and praise ARE NOT in order. 

Legume

Nailed it.

PigBeanUs

Now watch. Those of us who spend our lives being reasonable and compassionate, or at least try to be, will be told we’re not considering others’ feelings. Not to be harsh. 

I really don’t care. 

A reasonable man can put up with a lot, overlook failings in others, try to improve their own... or especially spare someone’s feelings

But we know what these blowhards care about others’ feelings. They even print it on red t-shirts. 

Why are their feelings suddenly supposed to be a consideration? 

Well. Because they know we have sympathy and empathy. We’ll cut them slack. We’ll forgive. We’ll consider their feelings. 

They don’t consider anyone else’s though. 

Kthacher referred to people wearing their ignorance as a badge of honor. Well said. In not too many years it will be seen as a badge of shame. The video of that crowd marching thru a store maskless as some assertion of their “rights” proves they are not only uneducated and ignorant about the virus and its effects, but they apparently are unable to understand property rights. 

They have no right to go into a store maskless if a mask is required. Don’t try to debate this. Because if you think otherwise, yes, you are ignorant. 

Botch

@PigBeanUs, thank you.  You wrote that far more eloquently than I could've.  

dmchicago

I agree with every single word. Well done@PigBeanUs.

SGH

@PigBeanUs
I truly appreciate your condolences. Short of my own father and grandfather, I admired him more than anyone. What is truly sad to me is he actually feared the virus from day one. He did all the things they said to do. He wore masks religiously. He avoided going to the stockyard and he loved that more than anything. He did everything right. And yet he spent the final weeks of his life alone dying. We could not even go see him or talk to him. 

Sometimes it does take something dramatic to open peoples eyes. Be I right or wrong in my former views of the virus my opinion has definitely changed. A very wise man once asked the question “is it ever wrong or to late to do the right thing?”. I am now trying to do the right thing.  

PigBeanUs

It’s a question of whether one knows they were doing something wrong and still chose to do it. 

And did so proudly, and loudly. 

When you ignore the example set by someone you admired as much as your father and grandfather, what does that say?

And not only ignore the example he set by his taking precautions, but then actively advocating against them?

I try not to judge. 

But yours is one of the loudest proudest voices here. And I imagine that carries into the real world. 

If you really were as active in speaking against masks as you say, in the real world as here, you have some soul-searching to do. 

I hope the comically ignorant persona you have played here is not nearly as close to that in reality. 

Masons and men of Christ who profess publicly to be just that, ought to set better examples. 

We all are lacking somewhere and can improve. 

Foghorn

Two comments about masks.

1) It is impossible to be pro-economy and anti-mask.  Masks are the keys that unlock the economy.

2) Masks are just a safety device like seatbelts.  Only they protect others more than they protect you.  As we have known from the beginning - not wearing a mask is like disabling the seatbelts in other people's cars.  @SGH, your friend - like many of the 300,000 - was likely undone by someone else not wearing a mask.  

I also offer my condolences for your loss.

PigBeanUs

Well said. And in far fewer words than my rant. 

Better man than I, foghorn

dmchicago

SGH said:

@PigBeanUs
I truly appreciate your condolences. Short of my own father and grandfather, I admired him more than anyone. What is truly sad to me is he actually feared the virus from day one. He did all the things they said to do. He wore masks religiously. He avoided going to the stockyard and he loved that more than anything. He did everything right. And yet he spent the final weeks of his life alone dying. We could not even go see him or talk to him. 

Sometimes it does take something dramatic to open peoples eyes. Be I right or wrong in my former views of the virus my opinion has definitely changed. A very wise man once asked the question “is it ever wrong or to late to do the right thing?”. I am now trying to do the right thing.  

Scotty...I'll add my condolences as well. 

Although your "poem" at the end of your signature tells me that you still don't get it. I'm not sure if it's a joke or not but that ahole is the leader of the anti-mask troop. I would think you would hold him a little responsible, no?

The dude would have been terminated for job abandonment by now if he worked in our world. 

Legume

dmchicago said:

SGH said:

@PigBeanUs
I truly appreciate your condolences. Short of my own father and grandfather, I admired him more than anyone. What is truly sad to me is he actually feared the virus from day one. He did all the things they said to do. He wore masks religiously. He avoided going to the stockyard and he loved that more than anything. He did everything right. And yet he spent the final weeks of his life alone dying. We could not even go see him or talk to him. 

Sometimes it does take something dramatic to open peoples eyes. Be I right or wrong in my former views of the virus my opinion has definitely changed. A very wise man once asked the question “is it ever wrong or to late to do the right thing?”. I am now trying to do the right thing.  

Scotty...I'll add my condolences as well. 

Although your "poem" at the end of your signature tells me that you still don't get it. I'm not sure if it's a joke or not but that ahole is the leader of the anti-mask troop. I would think you would hold him a little responsible, no?

The dude would have been terminated for job abandonment by now if he worked in our world. 

...and if had shown any public health leadership through this pandemic rather than be a denier, he would be heading into a second term.  So afraid of not being re-elected, he sunk his own ship.

HeavyG

Doonesberry was right on the money today...

QDude

dmchicago said:

SGH said:

@PigBeanUs
I truly appreciate your condolences. Short of my own father and grandfather, I admired him more than anyone. What is truly sad to me is he actually feared the virus from day one. He did all the things they said to do. He wore masks religiously. He avoided going to the stockyard and he loved that more than anything. He did everything right. And yet he spent the final weeks of his life alone dying. We could not even go see him or talk to him. 

Sometimes it does take something dramatic to open peoples eyes. Be I right or wrong in my former views of the virus my opinion has definitely changed. A very wise man once asked the question “is it ever wrong or to late to do the right thing?”. I am now trying to do the right thing.  

Scotty...I'll add my condolences as well. 

Although your "poem" at the end of your signature tells me that you still don't get it. I'm not sure if it's a joke or not but that ahole is the leader of the anti-mask troop. I would think you would hold him a little responsible, no?

The dude would have been terminated for job abandonment by now if he worked in our world. 

It is not just Trump who did not lead.  There were many dems who ignored their own dictates and traveled only to be outed by the public.  The mayor of Denver was one.  I am sure there were many republicans who also were doing that.  When the public sees our "leaders" being stupid, that only causes people to also do stupid things.  

nolaegghead

While the virus-hoax, anti-mask movement is synonymous with a certain political paradigm that is nearly impossible to ignore given its impact on public health and the economy, we all know that.  Contemporaneous stories are apparently the only convincing means of convincing some people they have been buying into a dangerously false narrative and conspiracy theory. 

That said, going back to the OP, try to keep the more venomous politics out of this so the thread will persist to do good rather than be buffaloed by a mercurial moderator. 

Legume

You’re right.  Vaccines are good.  So are masks.  There is no single silver bullet.

PigBeanUs

QDude said:

dmchicago said:

SGH said:

@PigBeanUs
I truly appreciate your condolences. Short of my own father and grandfather, I admired him more than anyone. What is truly sad to me is he actually feared the virus from day one. He did all the things they said to do. He wore masks religiously. He avoided going to the stockyard and he loved that more than anything. He did everything right. And yet he spent the final weeks of his life alone dying. We could not even go see him or talk to him. 

Sometimes it does take something dramatic to open peoples eyes. Be I right or wrong in my former views of the virus my opinion has definitely changed. A very wise man once asked the question “is it ever wrong or to late to do the right thing?”. I am now trying to do the right thing.  

Scotty...I'll add my condolences as well. 

Although your "poem" at the end of your signature tells me that you still don't get it. I'm not sure if it's a joke or not but that ahole is the leader of the anti-mask troop. I would think you would hold him a little responsible, no?

The dude would have been terminated for job abandonment by now if he worked in our world. 

It is not just Trump who did not lead.  There were many dems who ignored their own dictates and traveled only to be outed by the public.  The mayor of Denver was one.  I am sure there were many republicans who also were doing that.  When the public sees our "leaders" being stupid, that only causes people to also do stupid things.  

You won't find one liberal defending the fact that some liberal leader said to do one thing and then did something else. 

I don’t care which party someone belongs to; if they flout their own recommendations, they are wrong. 

I *do* care when someone with a bully pulpit chooses not to speak out and advocate for safety, and instead actively pretends things are magically well and that all the actually knowledgeable people, professionals, are wrong.  

The mayor of Chicago being a hypocrite is an ENTIRELY separate issue. It does not at all counteract or outweigh failures of leadership on behalf of those professing that the virus will magically vanish, or that summer will kill it off, etc. It does not excuse the colossal failure of leadership at the top. 

Don’t get sucked into whataboutism. 

QDude

nolaegghead said:

While the virus-hoax, anti-mask movement is synonymous with a certain political paradigm that is nearly impossible to ignore given its impact on public health and the economy, we all know that.  Contemporaneous stories are apparently the only convincing means of convincing some people they have been buying into a dangerously false narrative and conspiracy theory. 

That said, going back to the OP, try to keep the more venomous politics out of this so the thread will persist to do good rather than be buffaloed by a mercurial moderator. 

I totally agree.  When people are radicalized on both sides of the political  equation, their ability to look objectively at issues is impossible.  It is embarrassing to see what the wack-job conspiracy people are spouting.