Bill Collier- According to reports, the Covid-19 vaccines are losing 6% efficacy every 2 months, albeit only against mild infections, while the efficacy of the vaccines against death is reportedly at near 100% and very effective against serious illness. But if the vaccines are so quickly, at 6% per month, losing efficacy against mild illness, will it remain effective against serious illness or death a year from injection?
Hesitancy and doubt about the vaccines versus faith in the vaccines and fear the unvaccinated are only making this worse for everyone else is dividing society. The heart of the issue here is not that disinformation is out there and some of it is ridiculous, the core problem is a strong distrust of leading institutions. The faith of the public in lending institutions, from the White House and the CDC to the Press, is waning and all these institutions have earned that distrust.
The more brute force and authoritarian the response to the unvaccinated gets, the more people suspect and fear the vaccine is somehow either dangerous or ineffective. It doesn’t take a leap of logic to see that if the vaccines are losing efficacy against a minor level of infection that eventually they will lose efficacy against serious levels.
Arguments against vaccines range from weird theories of microchips to allegations the vaccine is “leaky” and actually leading to new varients and that these varients may not be protected against by the vaccines over the next year. Arguments for mass vaccination focus on how the unvaccinated may spread the virus and keep it alive, the basic idea being that if everyone is vaccinated at once then the virus will quickly dissipate. But this isn’t the case with influenza, the flu, which requires an annual shot.
It all comes back to trust. People who refuse the vaccine do not trust the officials and institutions pushing the vaccine. The retort that one has to believe everyone involved is deliberately lying in some conspiracy doesn’t mollify anyone’s fears. Accusing people of conspiracy theory thinking and denigrating them doesn’t tend to convince them.
Do I think, as the Publisher of The Freedomist, that the vaccines are somehow going to make everyone sick eventually and/or become useless? No. My own hesitancy is related to a practical need to ensure that I am able to take care of my wife, who has an illness that requires constant personal care.
Me being incapacitated is not good for her and people getting the vaccine have become very sick for up to a few weeks. For the risk to the unvaccinated this is actually seen as worth it, and I totally get that, but the consequences to my wife if I become incapacitated can be just as bad. Moreover, if she gets quite sick, with her underlying illness, it could cause her to take a turn for the worse.
But many have deeper fears and concerns, they do not have faith the vaccines will remain effective and, worse, they fear it will actually cause health issues in the long term. The draconian lockdown on information, deplatforming people who dare question the vaccine, has backfired in its intended effect: the feeling is “they” are hiding something.
Those who start or spread misinformation are insidious, but those who may be concealing information about problems with the virus are also insidious. Sorting out who is either spreading misinformation or concealing information is virtually impossible as one cannot trust sources and authorities these days.
My own instinct is, frankly, not to trust the skeptics and their claims, like that the vaccines alter your DA or that the entire system is geared toward some depopulation scheme. I strongly doubt that all the people involved in the vaccines are part of some conspiracy to make the population sick or make them infertile in order to reduce the human population. That’s insane and bizarre.
On the other hand, the government and the CDC have proven to be liars and to cover up the worse, grossest crimes. The list of “conspiracies” actually conducted and eventually exposed is too long to mention. We all know about how the “intelligence community” has lied over and over for political reasons and how all these endless wars have only made the defense industry rich at the expense of American and innocent foreign lives.
The idea anyone is knowingly pushing a vaccine that makes people infertile or eventually makes them sick doesn’t pass the test of logic. But the idea a rushed vaccine with waning efficacy is being pushed by desperate politicians who need a big win to prevail in elections is quite plausible. The use by both sides of this issue for political gain is also problematic: the anti-mask and pro-mask crowds are basically split between Republicans and Democrats, both sides insisting the other side is using bunk science.
The waning efficacy of the vaccines for minor illnesses and its inability to prevent the vaccinated from carrying the virus is a fact acknowledged by the vaccine companies themselves. The logical next step feared by many is that this waning efficacy is that people who are vaccinated will begin to get very ill or die. I personally know a number of people who were vaccinated who became quite ill, although this is anecdotal and, in the main, the statistics show the vaccinated are most unlikely to get seriously ill or to die.
My own concerns are twofold:
I certainly fear the consequences of getting this virus. I have been exposed to it three times and thankfully did not get sick.
On the other hand, I sincerely fear the vaccine may make me sick enough to struggle to properly care for my wife, I fear that she will take a turn for the worse if she has a bad reaction to the vaccine, and I fear the vaccine will lose its efficacy and give a false sense of security.
I don’t have a strong reason to trust the authoritarians who are demanding everyone get vaccinated and I certainly don’t buy into the wild claims against the vaccine, which have a political motivation. If I had no concern about the consequences if I have a bad reaction to the vaccine, in light of my caregiving duty, I would be vaccinated. If my wife had no underlying illness that could be seriously impacted by a bad reaction to the vaccine, I would urge her to get it. As it stands, she has substantial concerns.
The waning efficacy of the vaccines will continue to make it difficult to get people to get the vaccine and the authoritarian and insulting response to these people will only make it worse.
