Thank you for your posting, this hatched something I have been working on in my back brain.
I guess my perspective differs from that of the majority of the affected group. Estimated 80% of those who got an AZ jab early are medical personnel and care workers. (Because the elderly got Pfizer/BioNTech instead). So, when the health agency thinks about the affected group, they are thinking about 35 yo healthy nurses, doctors, carers and therapists, not about 50 yos with serious illness. So it is safety that's on top of their minds, not effectiveness.
But I feel that for me, personally, the risk of low effectiveness far outweighs a 1:100.000 safety risk. (I am jaded on this risk, having taken drugs with a much worse safety profile over the course of the last two years.)
My worry now is that the minority group I belong to might just get overlooked and I'll be stuck with Schrodinger's immunisation: I won't know if I am immune until a positive PCR test shows I wasn't. And I *so* do not need more FUD in my life. (AFAIK, AZ fades after 12 weeks if no second shot is given. I do not have this info for the mRNAs, health agency goes with "not known, but more than 6 weeks.")
I wish they would recommend that members of the affected group can chooses how they want to continue instead of just being told what will be done to them (unless they wiggle out by convincing their GP to go against top-level recommendation). OTOH, it's not as if there is much choice given to anyone, because, pandemic. On the third hand (I'm borrowing paws from the cat), "'mixed' is an experimental treatment, that needs special consent". And on the fourth hand, everyone is free *not* to get vaccinated, which does not help at all.
Well. The only uplifting thing about this whole rotten stupid miserable pandemic is that it's probably been the biggest boost to science since the race for the moon. There *will* be results. And as I do not assume that the people in charge are actively evil, recommendations will be updated according to results.
Sigh. I have spent 15 month in a state of suspended panic. I need to get off the panic train sometime.
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Date: 2021-04-10 10:15 pm (UTC)I guess my perspective differs from that of the majority of the affected group. Estimated 80% of those who got an AZ jab early are medical personnel and care workers. (Because the elderly got Pfizer/BioNTech instead). So, when the health agency thinks about the affected group, they are thinking about 35 yo healthy nurses, doctors, carers and therapists, not about 50 yos with serious illness. So it is safety that's on top of their minds, not effectiveness.
But I feel that for me, personally, the risk of low effectiveness far outweighs a 1:100.000 safety risk. (I am jaded on this risk, having taken drugs with a much worse safety profile over the course of the last two years.)
My worry now is that the minority group I belong to might just get overlooked and I'll be stuck with Schrodinger's immunisation: I won't know if I am immune until a positive PCR test shows I wasn't. And I *so* do not need more FUD in my life. (AFAIK, AZ fades after 12 weeks if no second shot is given. I do not have this info for the mRNAs, health agency goes with "not known, but more than 6 weeks.")
I wish they would recommend that members of the affected group can chooses how they want to continue instead of just being told what will be done to them (unless they wiggle out by convincing their GP to go against top-level recommendation). OTOH, it's not as if there is much choice given to anyone, because, pandemic. On the third hand (I'm borrowing paws from the cat), "'mixed' is an experimental treatment, that needs special consent". And on the fourth hand, everyone is free *not* to get vaccinated, which does not help at all.
Well. The only uplifting thing about this whole rotten stupid miserable pandemic is that it's probably been the biggest boost to science since the race for the moon. There *will* be results. And as I do not assume that the people in charge are actively evil, recommendations will be updated according to results.
Sigh. I have spent 15 month in a state of suspended panic. I need to get off the panic train sometime.