I have found my stress levels much reduced since I just blocked any of my ‘friends’ who posted such bollocks.
I just stopped looking at Fb. Still on here though...
So what vaccine is everyone taking?
Moderna
Pfizer
Astra Zeneca
Nobody is taking anything yet. It’s most likely that the AZ/Oxford one will be offered here, it’s cheaper and easier to make and store, and using the double dose system with a half dose first means there’s twice as much to go round, allowing production to keep ramping up for the second full dose.
And as I’ve been having vaccinations all through my life, without anything worse than an achy arm, I’m not about to stop now! If my surgery messaged me to say that, because of my age, I could be included in the first round I’d be all over it!
Don’t fornicate your neighbour’s wife, I think it said. Or was it don’t fornicate with your neighbour’s cow? Everyone had a cow in those days. And if you didn’t, you probably wanted one, or at least to borrow one.
Coveting their ass?
I've now come to terms with the fact that we are dealing with people that have been radicalised. Simple as that.
If someone can get so indoctrinated online to go out to the middle east and pick up an AK47 you can rest assured that John or Kate down the road can start to believe that Covid doesn't exist or that the vaccine has nano chips in it. Ditto Trump, Brexit, you name it.
It's radicalisation, pure and simple and I can see it only getting worse and in ways we haven't even get discovered.
My mrs has a pal that’s totally gone off the deep end with this conspiracy stuff.
...
She bombards my mrs with non stop messages about this guff so she “knows what’s going on”. My mrs is getting quite upset with it all
Just sack her off. Life's too short to be putting up with nobbers out of some misguided sense of loyalty.
Eh, the pal, not the missus.
Read first post in thread.
Immediately decided not to respond, due to complete agreement and a resultant rise in blood pressure.
Dammit.
Tis the season to be jolly done with their shit.
You can give the gift of life to your anti-vax rellys this giving season.
https://market.unicef.org.uk/inspired-gifts/life-saving-vaccine-pack/VAC-KIT19/
Gift it in their name.
The gift that keeps on giving.
She bombards my mrs with non stop messages about this guff so she “knows what’s going on”.
That's like the one I know, her strapline with every post is something like 'please read this and try to understand', as if the rest of us were just a bit silly or stupid for not seeing that it's all a hoax. It's a sad tale really as she has a long history of mental illness.
On the Covid vaccine, I'll put my hand up to being uninformed. The Pfizer vaccine, being completely new in its application, gives me cause for concern. When it comes to the vaccine being dished out I'd hope I'm considerably better informed by then.
Tl:Dr - I'm ignorant but aware of the fact.
Being concerned about a new type of vaccine, no evidence or testing of long term side affects etc,. are all valid concerns to me. Being concerned that a chip will be part of the vaccine or it will intentionally do something else that the government are behind is more in the anti vaxxer category
Anti vaxxers are presumably just against vaccines for a whole range of BS reasons whereas I would review each vaccine on it's merits and risks. Unfortunately I would probably be labelled as an anti vaxxer for asking some simple questions about the Covid vaccines as that is how the world works now.
I find it a useful tool to find out who didn’t pay attention at school.
I didn’t pay attention at school, but luckily I’m not a gullible idiot who is easily led. Therefore I think conspiracy theorists are ridiculous and best ignored. Unless it’s a documentary about them on Netflix, then I’ll be fascinated by the madness of it all.
Saved that vax gift link to share with anti-vax peeps. Thanks.
My own cod psychology about these folk is that rarely do these beliefs arise in a vacuum. There's often a "sound" reason why they belief that vaccines are dangerous. Both the women I know who're are anti-vaxxers, both have children who're mildly on the spectrum. One of whom (a young teenage daughter) is currently in hospital with an eating disorder. Both women themselves have a history of cancer scares, and both are very much into "natural" and "alternative" remedies.
I think they're looking for a reason that they're unwell themselves, they both have non-specific symptoms which may or may not be real and TBF, modern medicine and doctors haven't helped either of them, and why their children aren't "normal". MMR certainly handily fills that gap for them and gives them something to blame and an online community that will support them without judgment. They're not interested in science or reason, Their own innate belief systems aren't weird that way. despite the fact that Andrew Wakefield has been dragged through the courts and proven to be a liar and fraud. It neatly fits their own need for there to be an outside source of all their woes and troubles
Neither of these folk is happy, their homes lives are a bit messed up, their children often have to bear the weight of their mothers beliefs. One of them is my son's mate, on a weekend visit to me, his mother texted him endlessly to "check-up" - he was 16 at the time, the weight issues of the other stem directly from the mother's belief that food is full of "shit" and restricted the whole families diets to a minimum, and is now fighting with the CAMHS team who're trying to get the daughter well again...It's a bit of a mess fo'shure.
On our local Facebook group, someone said of a Covid vaccine: “I’m not having a stranger inject some random, unknown liquid into me” 😆
As always I’m late to the party and don’t know how to quote but I just want to say it was won on page one with the forgot about Dre comment!
You couldn’t make it up… ask Tommy Robinson. He speaks the truth, I saw it on Fox and Friends.
Was he Gunther the barista? Don't recognise him without the white hair
My favourite are those that say they're not letting bill gates implant a microchip in them to track their movements, while completely ignoring the phone in their hand that literally tracks their every movement and sells that data to the highest bidder
Hebrews 13:8 (King James version)
As always I’m late to the party and don’t know how to quote but I just want to say it was won on page one with the forgot about Dre comment!
He's certainly a more qualified doctor than all the antivaxxers
Sadly the internet is the bane of our life in this respect, anyone with an opinion and a connection can get pretty much the same airtime as someone with a lifetime studying or researching these topics on FB, Twitter, etc.
GMTV just said the same about whether covid bubbles are a good or bad idea. Having to give equal airtime to a professor of epidemiology and a journalist because of 'balance'
(yes, I know not all epidemiologists agree too)
As I've said on other threads though, simply shouting 'you're an idiot' at them ever louder doesn't convince them, it just entrenches positions. Even if they are. I don't know how to win the argument though; logic doesn't hold sway - does the lack of trust in science also equate to a lack of understanding of how argument and counterargument works - barely a day goes by in my (science) workplace without your work being constructively criticised and evaluated to deepen the understanding.
“I’m not having a stranger inject some random, unknown liquid into me”
Not those exact words, but I'm pretty sure that's what women have been trying to tell me for years.
But seriously, we all beleive stuff stuff which has a variable relationship to fact. By that I mean some things that we belive have supporting facts that are capable of testing and some things not, but if you are a bit sketchy on the difference between belief and a testable fact then anti-vaxing, a flat earth, christianity and general relativity are all in the same bag.
I got it bit bored with watching Richard Dawkins mock the religious and then profess a belief in human rights. So I think these people are just demonstrating an extreme case of a very common pattern of behaviour for yer average human.
It could be that belief is a survival skill in moderation, after all it is impossible to know everything - some would argue anything - and therefore some level of belief is necessary for us to function, but risky when taken to extremes. Over time the anti-vaxers lack of critical think should remove them from the gene pool, we may be stuck with the flat earthers.
Cougar
Just sack her off. Life’s too short to be putting up with nobbers out of some misguided sense of loyalty.
Perhaps but that's how we end up with polarised echo chambers.
BoardingBob
My favourite are those that say they’re not letting bill gates implant a microchip in them to track their movements, while completely ignoring the phone in their hand that literally tracks their every movement and sells that data to the highest bidder
A good example ... the thing is though most of the various conspiracy theories are total bollox so is a large amount of the "official" (government) information.
It's pretty easy to catch outright lies ... randomly?? David Frost wrote a whole published report pre-brexit on how we could never get a better deal... then spent 4+ years denying it.
It's like the "my phone is listening" (when it really doesn't need to) ... just the flip side.
The more the phone companies deny it the more it's "true".... even when they search for stuff like "does my phone/alexa listen to my conversations" it doesn't occur to them why their YT is full of conspiracies, even though they exp-licitly searched for them.
For those a bit reluctant to take the vaccine, would you be more willing to take the AZ version, ie the one (to my limited understanding) using existing vaccine technology, rather than the other versions which are more likely to bring on the zombie apocalypse
I'm a bit conflicted, I'll take what I'm given, however whilst the Pfizer one is more effective, the az one is certainly more proven.
For those a bit reluctant to take the vaccine, would you be more willing to take the AZ version, ie the one (to my limited understanding) using existing vaccine technology, rather than the other versions which are more likely to bring on the zombie apocalypse
Absolutely.
Don't argue with anti-vaxxers.
Just tell them to ask their great granny how many of her friends died young, and why.
chap in my office told me yesterday, that one of the ingredients in this new vaccine is…..
a small amount of lung sample, from a 14 week foetus.
Which firstly is a horrible thought, but secondly, who knew these pharmaceutical company’s stocked such thing. Does a foetus even have lungs at 14 weeks?! I have no clue!
Needless to say I ripped the urine for a while, thankfully he realised what the internet told him might not be accurate.
Thing is with this one, like many such arguments, is that there is a warped grain of truth in it. Lots of vaccines are developed using foetal DNA - the fact that they've been using the same DNA since the 60s (from two elective abortions) kind of waters down the argument against it though.
Ugh I’ve just been arguing with a few on fb. An old colleague of mine (we met working for the NHS!) posted some more guff and I bit, of course all her mates chipped in too, it’s amazing how many know medical professionals who are against the vax!
Thing is she has serious medical problems that affect her immune system and is bame, so in a really high risk group. I only argued with her as I care about her. But apparently I’m the sheep for believing science.
I need more than a few deep breaths
Well I’ve had my first shot of vaccine last week. After reading this thread I’m worried Bill Gates is listening to my sparkling dinner conversation.
In all serious, if your offered it, take it. Please. I work in a sector where I thought it would be straightforward to get all my guys to sign up as soon as offered. But there is a low level resistance born of fear. Some justified (unknowns) some fomented by facebook arses.
I just thank them, means I'm likely to get access sooner. No vaccine for stupidity I'm afraid.
No vaccine for stupidity I’m afraid.
Wouldn't matter if there was they'd be too stupid to take it.
An old colleague of mine (we met working for the NHS!) posted some more guff and I bit, of course all her mates chipped in too, it’s amazing how many know medical professionals who are against the vax!
What specifically is their issue with the vaccine?
My mate Snakebite (of this parish) wrote a Facebook post "I'M 100% IN FAVOUR OF MANDATORY VACATIONS"
He got rather a lot of entertaining replies. Most along the lines of "I'm not having nobody stick that muck in me" and "What do you mean, read it again".
Confess I’ve been on pro-brexit fb sites pretending to be one of them to see how much shit they’ll swallow, can be funny and depressing in equal measure to see how many likes can be gained by spouting swivel eyed loon drivel!!!
Just tell them that having the jab is electronically linked to their passport and if they don't have it they won't be able to go to benidorm next year.
That confuses them for a while.
A couple of folks I know have got well into the "fake vaccinations" thing. This, you might have seen, is where there's been a public vaccine of staff or a public figure, where the poster maintains that the injection is fake. The syringe is the wrong syringe for the vaccine, or they didn't inject enough of it, or the vaccine is actually purple and that's clearly beige...
For example,
It's infuriating because there are a couple of photo shoots where they definitely didn't give the vaccine- it's all just stage managed to create a photo shoot rather than a real vaccination, so yes those are "fake" but just not what people are claiming. Khan and others are just selectively taking a misleading still- in that one, the picture is from before the injection so yes the cap is still on...
But it proves yet again how much you can make from so little and how desperately eager people are to find things that prove how clever they are.
Boss "are you getting the vaccine"
Me "Yeah why"
Boss "are you not worried about how quick its been done"
Me "no & what do you mean I think its quick amazing actually"
Boss "what if it causes cancer "
Me "I think its the 40 a day cigarettes you smoke you need to be more concerned about"
Made a flowchart I posted on reddit/medicine earlier about how to talk to anti vaxxers (from a doctor's POV) ;p
it’s amazing how many know medical professionals who are against the vax!
There's been NHS folk on here expressing doubts about the speed it's been pushed through and long term effects.
The comedian Jim jefferies does a sketch about the whole of the world is on a train, the front carrige contains all the scientists engineers Doctors etc, the next few carriges has all the sensible folks, all the many following carriges have the antivax/mask conspiracy theory Qanon gun toting god bothering folks.
Jim thinks we should pull the pin on all those many following carriges.
My only response to any of the anti brigade is "crack on its your life"
So what vaccine is everyone taking?
Whatever vaccine is being distributed to local health authorities; in the U.K., I believe it’s the Phizer/BioNTech vaccine, because it’s the first one ready and authorised for emergency use.
When my local surgery contacts me to say that it’s my turn, I’ll be there fast enough to blue-shift, regardless of which one it is, I’m old enough to be in one of the more vulnerable groups, especially with this new variant.
On the Covid vaccine, I’ll put my hand up to being uninformed. The Pfizer vaccine, being completely new in its application, gives me cause for concern.
But it’s not completely new. The couple behind BioNTech, or at least the woman started working on the mRNA technology back in the 70’s, but kept coming up against technical issues, and because she wouldn’t give up the research her position was demoted and funding removed, but she kept at it, then got backing and found a way around the issues. They have done successful work on Ebola, and the MERS and SARS viruses, both COVID, what is going around now is SARS-COVID-2, so as they had the technology already sorted out, it was only necessary to get the genome for the spike protein to get started on a vaccine for this new virus, and we’re world leaders in genome sequencing, which is how we found the new strain before anyone else.
This is a very rough outline, I’ve read a number of more detailed articles, and I’m not a scientist, so not clear on some aspects, but don’t have them to hand.
Found one of them:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-pfizer-biontech
Here’s another:
https://www.salon.com/2020/12/05/mrna-history-vaccines-coronavirus-moderna-immunology-lipid-nanoparticles/
Just found this article as well, it seems to offer an easier way for people to protect themselves in the future...
https://www.firstpost.com/health/us-scientists-develop-nasal-spray-to-prevent-covid-19-effective-for-six-months-9073321.html
I live in Qatar and they've just announced that 70% of the population will be vaccinated by April and the rest shortly after.
Cue anti-vaxxer nonsense. Even amongst colleagues (UK qualified teachers) there's a big proportion, I'd say 25%+, who are against it.
I was involved in a conversation with two of them, both friends, at work and they were shocked to learn that:
1) They wouldn't be welcome at school without a vaccination after a certain date and would be replaced. The same goes for all their other vaccinations and always has done.
2) They wouldn't be welcome in my house and others in the conversation.
3) Companies and people are allowed here to discriminate against those not vaccinated.
4) You have to show an app on your phone with a live clock and green QR code to get in ANYWHERE. Any shop, compound, office anywhere. This would be a different colour for those vaccinated vs not, ergo they couldn't lead a normal life.
I didn't have to argue science. The above motivated them to research themselves!
Muppets. It's not our job to educate them but they also don't get to be ignorant and have the same privelges as the sensible part of the population.
There’s been NHS folk on here expressing doubts about the speed it’s been pushed through and long term effects.
Long term I can see the concern but the data available covers thousands of patient years, something would have shown.
The speed thing is down to it being a variant on work all ready carried out and the fact that there was no need to scrape around for funding. If the researcher needed money, the wallets were opened and funds were provided. Funding is usually the thing that delays new drugs getting to market.
The thing about being Anti Vax is it gives a nonentity the chance to be someone special, the Patient Zero.
Imagine how proud the person who first brought CoVid into the UK feels.
At 65,000+ deaths he/she has eclipsed serial killers like Fred West's meagre total, and what's more has got away with it. They have made ISIS look like amateurs.
Dumb sick bastards.
In general I am cautious about vaccines and think that in some ways we may overvaccinate. However on any sane analysis the risk of this vaccine while possibly higher remains very low indeed and the risks to both me as an individual and to society at large from the virus so high that I will take it immediately when offered.
I would make it a condition of accessing services that you were vaccinated
Some friends,in their 50's,have categorically stated they won't be having the vaccine.
They believe the vaccine,and lockdown rules,are just unnecessary state control.
Abiding to mixing , wearing a mask and travel restrictions are being ignored by them and they have said they are not concerned if they contract the virus. It is impossible to reason with them.
