Every single person I know has gotten the vaccine at least twice, some three times, and not a single person has had any persistent side effects.

I think the problem with saying the vaccine has all these side effects is that in placebo controlled trials a lot of people also get “side effects” from the placebo, either by random chance or they make it up. There really isn’t any evidence these vaccines (mRNA at least) have any serious level of side effects above background noise.

They might just not be telling you about it.

Of the people I know who have taken the vaccine, a lot have had persistent side effects. But I didn't start hearing about this for a couple of months, and even then, well, it's personal medical situations and scary ones at that. I think a lot of people are being told by doctors to just ignore it and hope it'll get better. As the months go by and things don't improve, people become more willing to speak up to friends. Of course, it's also possible me and my gf hear these stories because these people know we haven't taken it yet. If we were rah-rah pro vaccine I bet nobody would mention it because they wouldn't want to be criticized or start an argument.

Side effect reports heard about so far:

- Several menstrual problems, including completely stopped periods and suddenly near-daily bleeding, that lasts for (so far) months.

- Major fatigue including inability to perform sexually, again, months after the shot.

- Sickness for a day or so that's serious enough that the recipient can't work (heard this 4x now).

These are mostly "young" people (under 50). The virus is by itself not a serious illness for these people, some of them had it and it was a few days of feeling ill - nothing special and nothing they haven't experienced before. Given that being bedridden is a commonly reported side effect, and it seems to happen on each shot, and that COVID itself usually only lasts a few days for them, it only takes 3 shots before the vaccines have made them as sick as COVID itself. Which doesn't seem like a smart tradeoff. The goal is to not get sick.

Just because it's not persistent and not categorized as serious it doesn't mean that it's not unusual for young people and it's not a side effect.

As you get older you accept that sickness and pain is a sad part of life, but young people aren't used to even small amount of sickness.

Your thinking just emphasises not having empathy to people being afraid of even small amount of pain.

Also again you write mRNA and not emphatize with people who get AstraZeneca vaccine which has higher side effects. We have to acknowledge these things and be more open about having a tradeoff.

And what is the alternate reality where they don’t get the vaccine and also don’t ever get covid?

Some sickness and pain is going to happen, is a choice between minor, temporary side effects or gambling with a covid infection. The virus is not going anywhere.

There are more people vaccinated than infected generally, so what they see around them are young people in pain for maybe weeks from the vaccine, and the media not being transparent about those side effects, while the alternative media blowing up the side effects and negledging the real problems that COVID causes.

I had a side effect that lasted 5 months - persistent pain in the arm and is confirmed by doctors as caused by the vaccine.

This is much better than the ilness but is not something I would like to repeat.

I suggest you visit your doctor. It could have been Guillain Barre Syndrome a known rare, but possible, effect of COVID-19 vaccines.

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/guillain+barre+syndrome

"Although the cause is unknown, the underlying mechanism involves an autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the peripheral nerves and damages their myelin insulation.[2] Sometimes this immune dysfunction is triggered by an infection or, less commonly, by surgery, and rarely, by vaccination."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain%E2%80%93Barr%C3%A9_sy...

It is currently criminally under investigated by the CDC, who just "noticed" the 258 cases in the US reported in the VARS system. You can also get it after after different types of infections including getting Covid. So not related to the vaccine.

It happened after the second dose of the vacinne (started 3 days after and it is not related to the virus). It is completely gone now so not sure what doctors will find.

I also didn't have any paralysis at any moment, just pain.

There are two possible ways to diagnose it:

1) Blood tests. Some documented variants of Guillain-Barré are associated with an antibody called GQ1b. If it would be present, "could be" a diagnosis of the Miller- Fisher variant

2) Lumbar puncture. A special needle is placed into the area around the spinal cord in the lower back, and a small amount of fluid is removed. Naturally this second option is only chosen in more persistent cases.

Honestly just more transparency regarding them would be fine. Stigma and insults aren't very convincing, especially when the target has a strong community for support. Things like the refusal to shut down travel with China and the about-face on masks early on in the pandemic eroded a lot of people's trust in government. Politicizing the issue didn't help either. I recall reading a report during the early days of the pandemic where the volunteer being interviewed said they had much better receptivity to masks in conservative populations than others. This stopped about the time masks become mandated. Many members of my home community were also early adopters of the vaccine - their support dried up immediately following the series of mandates, with some of them participating in anti-mandate protests. At this point, further stigmatization of unvaxxed will only create more of a bunker mindset. Perhaps it's best for the future of the country we just accept a 100% acceptance rate is not going to happen.

Bringing up an interesting point. Not refuting anything you said :).

Conservatives in some countries like Germany, Scotland are the ones who want everyone to get vaccinated while the [harder?] left want vaccines to be a choice, etc.

This follows along my own hard left politics. Vaccination should be a choice.

However the hypocrisy or lack of self awareness of liberals and of the right has made all of this stuff so politicized and vitriolic now.

IE I would have an easier time taking the rights anti mask anti authority stuff seriously if pushing for Govt to stop abortions and CRT learning weren’t massively popular policies. So it’s not about principles then.

For liberals, the amount of authority seeking is problematic and goes against the apparent principles of caring about the disenfranchised and bullying authority.