I am in cohort #1. I don't want to continue to increase the chances of breakthrough mutations and I do not want others to do so.
I do not want a substantial number of people getting sick and having to use collective resources to heal them at the expense of others because of a collectively bad choice. I do not want to substitute, work overtime, or have reduced productivity due to this.
While vaccinated people are fairly safe, even with us all being vaccinated we are adding to the background risk of hospitalization the equivalent of several hard flu seasons. I've had a really bad flu where I felt I was dying, twice in my life. I do not look forward to having my body bearing that brunt every couple of years for the rest of my life.
That ship has sailed? Covid is not going away, ever. It's politically impossible to mandate 100% vaccination, and even if you could, there's still animal reserves. The best case scenario is that covid becomes like the common cold, and you can mostly avoid it with occasional booster shots.
I wish everyone would get vaccinated too, but let's be realistic. How many years do you think you can keep up rules like "must show vaccination card to enter"? At what point does everyone, including vaccinated people, start ignoring them? Personally I think it's going to fail out of the gate, and I'm on team vax.
> That ship has sailed? Covid is not going away, ever.
Why not? We managed to eradicate smallpox. There was political will all over the world to vaccinate almost everyone, and it worked. What's so different about Covid?
It's not nearly deadly enough, unlike smallpox. From Wikipedia:
The risk of death after contracting the disease was about 30%, with higher rates among babies.[6][12] Often those who survived had extensive scarring of their skin, and some were left blind.
> I am in cohort #1. I don't want to continue to increase the chances of breakthrough mutations and I do not want others to do so.
Mutations can happen anywhere in the world. To reduce the odds of mutations, we need to vaccinate as many people as we can globally. Our efforts would be much better spent getting vaccines in the hands of people in other countries that are very willing to take it.
> I am in cohort #1. I don't want to continue to increase the chances of breakthrough mutations and I do not want others to do so.
I'm very much with you, but I think that ship sailed between the lack of international coordination, the lack of vaccination mandates or other measures to improve rates even in the well-supplied-with-vaccine US, and the rush to remove other measures like closures and mask mandates way before it made any sense to.
Instead, we're running an active program to train COVID to overcome the "miracle" vaccine we're so proud of. Should be... interesting.
> I do not want a substantial number of people getting sick and having to use collective resources to heal them at the expense of others because of a collectively bad choice
Why are you ok with using this argument for covid, but not smoking / obesity / football / etc.? The principle is sound, but the selective application is not.
Who says they aren’t? I think there are some very good arguments to be made about how society could collectively benefit by not subsidizing activities like these through insured healthcare.
I do not want a substantial number of people getting sick and having to use collective resources to heal them at the expense of others because of a collectively bad choice. I do not want to substitute, work overtime, or have reduced productivity due to this.
While vaccinated people are fairly safe, even with us all being vaccinated we are adding to the background risk of hospitalization the equivalent of several hard flu seasons. I've had a really bad flu where I felt I was dying, twice in my life. I do not look forward to having my body bearing that brunt every couple of years for the rest of my life.