So..
My parents both just recovered from covid. My father fell, an ambulance was called and they later discovered he and my mother had covid. My father is very weak, but he was basically asymptomatic besides a mild cough. My mother is just fine, thanks for asking. My uncle - my father's brother - passed with covid last year. It seems like the reason my father survived is the vaccine.
Sorry for your uncle, and I hope your parents get fully well soon.
So I question the intellectual foothold of anti-vaxers. A year ago it was acceptable to be sceptical, but now it's time to be practical. You need to revaluate your stance in light of new information. Intellectuals - people who's opinions have value - change their minds by definition.
I understand your view and mostly agree, but I don't think drawing lines and rushing judgments on how people come to their conclusions helps.
I think COVID-19 vaccines prevent deaths and hospitalizations. I'm not very sure how much or for how long they do prevent transmission. And I think they have side effects that are not trivial, but given the alternatives and risks, worth taking.
This is not advice. I'm not telling anyone to vaccinate or not vaccinate. Ask a doctor you trust.
I also think there's overreliance on vaccines and lack of other prevention. People and governments treat them as if they were miraculous and almost burn the infidel.
I try instead to learn from people who come to different conclusions, because they seem to be able to offer me more new arguments and information that those that come the same conclusion as I. Maybe they have less information than me, or maybe they use
logic wrong. But maybe they know something I don't or have thought of sillogisms I have missed.
There is also a practical element. You go along with a joint initiative for the benefit of those around you (aka society). My assumption here is that we all consider avoidable* deaths and illness to be bad.
I try not to assume that others hold different positions because they want society to suffer or people to die. I don't think that's a way to have anyone listen to you.
So at this point, if you are still anti-vax, you are almost certainly:
- out of touch with society. you are inadequately loving (and loved?).
nonsequitur. No vaccine will get you love, society is diverse, unwise people have feelings too.
- counterinellectual. you are stubborn, dogmatic and ignore evidence.
In some cases they may be so. But in many cases I find the government directives and media quite dogmatic and hiding evidence. I understand leaders must react in emergencies and it's not always easy to divulge complex messages, but I'm afraid most policy are more short term economically motivated than public health motivated.
- We are not getting our act together to vaccinate worldwide but we are pressing/forcing/threatening unvaccinated nationals.
- We are relying too much in vaccines to stop pandemic and allowing dangerous mass gatherings, travel and nonesssential activity
- We are ignoring fundamental freedoms because we're afraid of a real pandemic
- We are oversimplifying complex issues
- We are not listening. We're so much into an "us vs them" mentality that we don't stop to get feedback and adapt to others. For example, this
article about the chinese "coronavac", the most widely deployed vaccine worldwide that requested authorisation in the UE in May and is still waiting for a response, because the EU bought more Pfizer than we can possibly use. Some survey gives about 56% of people who aren't vaccinated would take a "traditional" (inactivated virus) vaccine, like Coronavac, instead of mRNA or vectorvirus. They may be wrong, but then I'd like an explanation (possibly by EMA in an authorization refusal, I fear it's not so much about the product itself but about who controls the production line QA). If that's not available, well, why not let them take that vaccine? or why not count those who did take it (abroad) ?
Part of the opposition to COVID-19 vaccines may be from misinformation, dogma or irrationality, but part may be from a quite philosophically sound stance against a society that evolves to a mass conforming flow where people lose self agency and need to accept things they don't agree with. That's not exactly a dictature, although it's compatible with it and it might feel close somehow, it's more like an ant colony society or herd culture. Russia has their owns vaccines that are more refused in Russia than in some places abroad, because citizens distrust their government. It's not really about the effects of the vaccine or the coronavirus. It's that informing peopel is no longer useful once they distrust the informer.
But really, I don't think putting people in groups, blaming or forcing things helps at all. It just breaks society and erodes the confidence we'll need for the next round. And it's just as irresponsible as spreading falsehoods on vaccines.
