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You won't catch me letting the government inject me with an unproven, untested cocktail of chemicals they have concocted. I am not critical of anyone who feels otherwise, and I will appreciate it if you will allow me to have my opinion with shaming me.

Evelyn, that is sooooo funny.... :)

Great updates - love these notes, thanks for all the help in 2020. Wild year, good year though.

Hm. Those are some interesting claims, Evelyn.

I don't think it's accurate to claim the vaccine is unproven. The efficacy rate has been shown in widespread clinical trials to be about 95% effective, which is amazing and far higher than experts were initially hoping for. For the Moderna vaccine, whose trial consisted of 30,000 people, 185 people in the placebo cohort were symptomatic versus only 11 people in the vaccine cohort. As well, 30 people in the placebo cohort developed severe symptoms, and there was one death. In the vaccine group, there were zero severe cases and zero deaths. That's one of the clearest datasets showing proven efficacy imaginable. (This amusing webcomic illustrates just how clear the data is: https://xkcd.com/2400/.) Pfizer was similar and had an even larger trial of 42,000 participants.)

Is it accurate to say it's untested? 11 months start to finish sounds fast compared to other vaccines, but the groundwork for this vaccine has been laid for over a decade (see https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-07/years-of-research-laid-groundwork-for-speedy-covid-19-shots). In fact, the actual mRNA code for the vaccine was developed within a week or two of the genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 virus being sequenced back in January, and the rest of the time since then has been spent on testing and trials to ensure the vaccine is safe. In other words, we actually had safe, functional vaccines at the very beginning of the pandemic (before it even really started to spread in the US); the entire reason for the delay was to test and test and test the vaccine to make sure it actually _is_ safe. No corners were cut in that testing; the reason it was shorter than most other trials is because the Trump administration removed some of the red tape and allowed the manufacturers to run trials simultaneously instead of sequentially.

Is it a cocktail of chemicals? Well, everything on this earth is a cocktail of chemicals. A glass of orange juice you squeeze yourself from a fresh orange picked off of a Florida citrus tree is a cocktail of chemicals. Heck, even the purest distilled jug of water is a chemical. But what about the ingredients of these vaccines? "Nothing too surprising there," according to a Tucson hospitalist (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/12/12/pfizer-covid-vaccine-ingredient-list-nothing-too-surprising-there/6520511002/). The ingredients consist of 30 micrograms of mRNA (messenger RNA, a code of proteins that is not living/active itself but stimulates your immune system to recognize the spike protein that makes the SARS-CoV-2 virus so potent so that it can fight it when you're exposed to the real virus), fats to encapsulate and protect the mRNA, salts, and sugar. The whole thing is mixed in a saline solution (just like the saline solution in a hospital IV) for delivery. That's it. Nothing toxic or dangerous or anything. (Check out https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/09/1013538/what-are-the-ingredients-of-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine/ for a deeper look at the ingredients.)

Did the government concoct the vaccine? These vaccines were developed by private pharmaceutical companies. Some companies took funding from the US federal government in exchange for the government sharing its expertise and having a say in pricing/availability/distribution, but the government did not dictate the vaccine's contents. If you're worried about government influence, choose the Pfizer vaccine, as they did not take any federal funding and developed the vaccine privately. Or maybe choose the AstraZenica vaccine, which was developed in the UK by a British-Swedish company, which would be pretty immune (no pun intended) from US government conspiracies or whatever. (Also, it seems to me that if a US-developed vaccine were dangerous, a foreign company like AstraZenica would be taking full advantage and advertising that prominently and loudly in order to sell people on its vaccine instead...but I digress.)

Is the government injecting you? So far, every indication is that the vaccine will be offered and administered optionally and privately, just like you go to your local Walmart or doctor's office for your annual flu vaccine.

In any case, I've done tons of research on this and have talked to a number of friends who are physicians, pharmacists, virologists, and other (private, impartial, non-government-employed) experts who are all universally and overwhelmingly in favor of vaccination ASAP (several have already gotten theirs), and since they aren't showing any hestitancy whatsoever, I'll be putting my money where my mouth is and will be first in line to get the vaccine when it's offered to my demographic.