Right. I don’t disagree with you.
Everyone should have compared the risks for themselves.
Did some people get vaccinated without understanding the risk to reward? Absolutely.
Did some people skip getting vaccinated because they understood the risk to reward? Absolutely.
Did some people who were at risk of severe illness from Covid skip getting vaccinated because they did not understand the risk to reward? Absolutely.
You and I can have a rational discussion here, even though we won’t agree on everything.
Others here, not so much.
And this is where the government agencies and leaders should have weighed in with messaging that would have better educated the masses, rather being authoritarian and creating contention. I think we agree that mandates were wrong as it took the decision of risk/benefit out of the hands of the individual.
The FDA not being infallible does not mean that every study on this topic from all around the world is lying to us as gohall is suggesting.
Never said that. We have the best healthcare system in the world and best oversight, but there have been many examples where those agencies have failed (both in the U.S. and abroad).
Nothing is certain, but at what point do you start to believe the data is relatively accurate? We’re 3 years out now from a gigantic vaccinated population with real world data. The typical safety review period for a vaccine does not last that long and would have hundreds of people as opposed to the billions that we have vaccinated. At some point, a reasonable person would look at a study from today compared to one three years ago having similar results as a sign that yes, there are risks, but the risk profile is likely fairly accurate and adverse events are very rare.
2-3 years in surveillance date is a very short period of time in drug discovery. Clinical trials typically take 7-8 years before a drug is approved and even after, there are post-marketing studies that monitor that drug use over time. Once again, there are numerous examples of where the FDA has imposed a "Black Box" warning on a drug decades after launch. One that comes to mind were the COX-2 inhibitors (like Merck's Celebrex) which was found to have severe side effects many years after launch.
Although I have worked in healthcare for my entire career, I tend to avoid taking medications if possible and surgical intervention (don't get me started on cosmetic surgery). People that live in Blue Zone's are a good guidepost. In addition, unless I have no choice, I'm not going to take a medication until it's been launched for over five years.
