I don’t really do Twitter much… but I recently got cyber jumped on …which is part of the Twitter thang I suppose…. by the thumb brigade. Don’t worry, I made it out! I kept my digits to myself for the most part after I had tweeted a response to this:
Ahh, this is better. My own little Zen space for my brain to share my thoughts. I shall now do that. Thank you WordPress.
For the remainder of this exercise, this symbol * shall denote the following:
* Yes, you should get vaccinated. Fully vaccinated. No, I am not an anti vaxxer. Yes, I believe in science. Yes, nuance is missing. No, I’m not an alarmist.
Ok, let’s start with *
Good. That was easy.
What I’ve noticed lately, with more concern for each passing day, is the amount of friends and acquaintances who’ve had “breakthrough” cases…testing positive for Covid after being fully vaccinated. It’s all anecdotal, obviously*. Mostly because there have either been no studies or just very recent studies tracking it.
The hype, including this Twitter post I responded to, is a singular narrative… vaccines work. Get vaccinated. You’ll be just fine if you’re infected*.
This morning, on CNN, that message included …” you won’t even know you have it. Ok, you may just get the sniffles”.
The term “breakthrough” is not by any stretch an apt term to describe what is increasing by the day. Maybe we should say “despites”. Despite being vaccinated, many people are testing positive for Covid-19.
Yesterday, a study was published that said…
”But the vaccines’ effectiveness against infection dropped sharply in July, when the Delta variant’s prevalence in Minnesota had risen to over 70%.”
Moderna was 76% effective against infection, and Pfizer was only 42% effective.
That’s concerning to me.
*
I’ve had more friends than I’d like describe their experiences with Covid… it’s brutal for many. I have friends* who have long haul damage. I know a few who have died.
So, while the crazy anti -vaxxers are screaming at school board officials in parking lots, the purity test on the Left(the party of empathy) mostly at this point seems to me a mixture of denial, minimizing infection, and dismissing the little blank people in the graph above.
If you’re home and sick, after getting fully vaccinated, that is still a very difficult experience that can impact your life. I’ve had friends describe it. One said he was in bed for a week. I read another account of a 4 day hospitalization. Yes, it’s very probably less severe. But, the worry that comes with it sucks butt.
The either/or of being admitted to a hospital.. either it’s just a little admission or you’re on a ventilator…which this graph and nearly every graph and talking head sends out to the universe …. seems to me a way to protect yourself from the scary as shit scenario of being admitted to a hospital in the first place. Oh…c’mon those fully vaccinated people admitted with Covid* are gonna be fine. They’re probably old. Or immunocompromised. They’re not on a ventilator, silly.
To that I say, as someone who’s been admitted to hospitals more than I will admit publicly… Well, I can only say fuck you to that. When you are in a hospital bed, for a day or a week or a month…you are in the land of the sick. It’s hard to get out.
The spin on both sides is getting tiresome. The deadly deSantis bullshit. And a graph that shows… or doesn’t… hospitalized vaccinated people as literally blank, in addition to a misleading group of ICU and intubated non vaccinated patients as 2 subset groups. You are in critical condition in an ICU. It’s all about the marketing.
Does anybody think that’s gonna sway anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated yet? I don’t.
I would love a fuller, honest approach that doesn’t use blank people.
I say, get out there and live your life. Wear a mask. Still*. Personally, I have scaled back going out to restaurants and stores and I don’t see attending any crowded indoor events.. or outdoor really.. for a while.
But, there is certainly a “then what” that’s been added to the get vaccinated thing.
It seems most people just don’t want to think about that.
People with brains, I hope, can weigh what is now a part of our daily lives with a bit more complexity and nuance.
*
Robert DuSold 
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