Incidentally, only half of people or less even in affluent countries get the annual flu shot. It is frequently believed to be relevant only for the elderly and at-risk demographics.
Had the situation been reversed, you'd have had to get Yellow Fever vaccinations a lot more often if you were travelling into those regions, and the COVID situation would be one-and-done. It just happens that this is the way it worked out, instead. There's nothing dystopian about this.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fat...
I know the IFR is lower in developing countries, I never meant to imply otherwise.
You are right as far as about half getting it, at least for the United States. Quite a few people who are not elderly or at risk get it. Here are the age breakdowns.
About 60% of the people under 18 get it [1]. Under 18 is about 25% of the population.
About 34% of 18-49 year olds get it. They make up about 42% of the population.
That makes under 18s who get flu vaccine about 15% of the population, and 18-49s who get flu vaccine about 14% of the population. If only 50% of the population get the flu vaccine, that would mean that 58% of the people getting flu vaccine are under 50.
Even if nasal sprays bought from a corner pharmacy are on the horizon, they would probably only reach developing countries years from now – and merely buying a product from a pharmacy in most countries might not get you an internationally recognized certificate of vaccination.
The only way that changes is if some new and extremely deadly variant is out there, but again past vaccinations are likely still helpful. Thus, regular vaccination deployment would be a pure win for travelers.
This was never the case. If you didn't understand that COVID is here to stay indefinitely, like flu, after April 2020 I'm sorry but you aren't paying attention. Not to mention, if we follow perfect vaccination around the world, we can eradicate COVID like we eradicated smallpox etc, although this will be a lot harder.
So, I still don't see your point. Yes people need to take yearly vaccines not to die of horrible diseases. That has been the case for the last few hundred years.
> Yes people need to take yearly vaccines not to die of horrible diseases. That has been the case for the last few hundred years.
No, it hasn’t. The only common annual vaccination is for influenza, it was introduced only in recent decades, and, as I mentioned, only half the population or less take it annually.
You only take flu annually but there are other vaccines you need to take periodically. E.g. tetanus booster every 10 years etc. For example, I'm supposed to take my last HPV vaccine this summer and this is the 3rd shot. I'm 25 and I took approx. one vaccine every year for the last few years. I'm not saying strictly one every 12 months, it's just that it doesn't make sense to be outraged about COVID vax since regular vax is already part of our lives.
This isn't even remotely true. There's a set of vaccines taken in childhood, a few later. And that's it generally.
Who is we? I don't consume caffeine or THC, don't eat much sugar or drink much alcohol, and don't remember taking painkillers at all in 2020 or 2021 so far. I don't use social media like FB or IG. I don't remember getting a flu shot ever, maybe in childhood and I forgot.
Despite telling the other commenter to chill, your comment is bafflingly aggressive. It's possible to live without drugs and social media and we should encourage that, not take for granted that everyone should be forced to use drugs just to socialize or eat sugar.
I do not. I have never had a flu shot in my life.
You do not have to feel that you cannot live without pharmaceuticals. The value of a tetanus shot is obvious, but it can be something you choose, not something which you are burdened to bear as the price of birth. Depressive disorders are wholly a disease of our malignant society. I would encourage you to examine the work of Stephen Ildari, for it has helped me greatly. I encourage you to see what happens to you and your gf when you eat plants instead of processed <product>.
You can be more than a tax cattle, or someone else's paycheck, or the reflection of the vision and will of powerful strangers. You are still very young. Take control of who and what you are.
We should be celebrating science, the discovery and advancement of vaccines, and their ability to give immunity or strong protection against diseases that have previously debilitated individuals or worse.
The fact that I have never known anyone with Polio is because of the strong global efforts to irradiate the disease from the face of the planet. Tragically the anti-science and anti-vaccine messaging has made that not possible for covid... something that's already resulted in near equal death of WWII in just over a year and will only continue.
Are you saying that every covid vaccine has 100 % efficacy? ("everyone", "a vaccine"). AFAIK this is not true for any extant vaccine.
One specific thing I do find freeing about the vaccines is that I don't really need to worry about being asymptomatically infected and passing the disease onto others who are more vulnerable. I guess I could simply say "fuck those people", as many have done, but I guess for me, responsibility is a counterpart to freedom.
FWIW, Stephen Ilardi appears to support vaccination, so you may want to dig a little deeper into his thoughts around them.
Meanwhile those who do choose to take it will hopefully be able to live a life largely free of these annoyances and dangers.
We're already half-human half-chemical half-cyborgs. We drink coffee which includes caffeine, we use alcohol and THC regularly to "socialize", we take ibuprofen et al when feel pain, we eat sugar because we're fucking addicted. We use internet almost all the time except when sleeping and taking a shower. We check reddit, twitter, HN, facebook, instagram as if our lives depend on it. We're on track to build virtual reality googles that'll entertain us in an entire different simulated reality that we can only experience via our eyes. Not to mention most people look at monitors most of their lives anyway.
We regularly vaccinate against tetanus, HPV, chicken pox, flu etc. Do you not get the flu shot every year? I vaccinate my cat against rabies and distemper every year. I take antidepressants (anxiety) and antihistemics (allergy) every day, because I kinda need them to live normally. My girlfriend has to take pain medicine once a month due to her basic biology.
And the problem is we'll add COVID and cold to our annual flu shots, and that somehow makes our world any more dystopic. Makes absolutely no fucking sense. There are trillions of shit to be outraged about, this ain't one of those. Just chill.