Choosing not to get vaccine

[InnerDiscomfort]

Not looking to start a fight, but interested if you have made the decision not to get the vaccine and have no condition that you know of that would stop you, why not?

Family members abroad have decided not to get the vaccine (Pfizer I think). Vague concerns about it not being safe and/ or tested enough. They both work outside the home and have families. Fairly fit and healthy so unlikely to be seriously affected by COVID, under 50 years of age.

It's not something I agree with but up to them I guess. I'm also unlikely to get ill but had my first vaccine mainly to help stop the spread (and I'd like to go abroad!)

So if you haven't had it, I'm interested in your reasoning if you would care to share.

I don’t want a vaccine that is causing very severe side effects in many people. Most side effects aren’t reported. The true scale of the severity of these side effects isn’t being shared with the public

You even talk about side effects and a lot of people try to shut down that conversation. You see it on MN even. That’s not healthy.

I had covid in the first wave.
On Wednesday 31st March, I had my first AZ vaccine, I was was swept along in the euphoria of the vaccine distribution, I was delighted and relieved to receive it. Especially as I was returning to work the following week, and I work with the public.

My friend was vaccinated the same day, unfortunately she developed a blood clot which has been confirmed as vaccine related and tragically she passed away, leaving young children without a mum.

I am now petrified of getting second vaccine, and seriously considering not getting it.

Statistically you have a 1 in 500,000 chance of getting a clot with your first vaccine and a lesser chance with your second vaccine.
I have read that with your first AZ vaccine you are 64% covered, after your second vaccine it increases to 70% cover.
I don’t think I am willing to take that chance for only an increase of 6%.

• it spares the young and healthy, with very rare exceptions.

This is not true. Younger people and healthy people are getting very unwell and are particularly suffering with the debilitating effects of long covid. And even if it doesn't make you unwell, why aren't you concerned about protecting those who are at more risk?

I’m sadly surprised by the amount of younger people saying I’m fit and healthy so if I get it I’ll be ok.
Having the vaccine helps to prevent spreading the virus-by nearly 50%. Surly that’s a good reason?
Also, people who are afraid of needles-you’ll have many more fears of medical interventions if you end up in icu with covid. Two injections are nothing when compared to being ventilated!

But it's not about protecting you, it's about protecting the world. I really don't understand this 'I'm not at risk so I won't have the vaccine' reasoning. My teenagers aren't at risk but they want the vaccine because they have a social conscience and they love their grandparents and both their parents work with vulnerable people.

I've decided not to have a vaccination.
I'm young(ish) and have an autoimmune condition linked to a higher chance of the AZ blood clots. I don't want an alternative as I think the issues with AZ have shown that the vaccines aren't tested enough for us to have a full picture of the risks. Especially in people in my younger demographic.

I'm not ruling it out forever, I just won't be having it for a good while at least.
For the same reasons, I won't have my son vaccinated (if that becomes an option).

As PP have said, you probably know more people who have decided not to have it than you realise- I've not told anyone (other than DH) that I've decided not to have it.

I agree @FireworksAndSparklers

@FireworksAndSparklers

- it spares the young and healthy, with very rare exceptions.

This is not true. Younger people and healthy people are getting very unwell and are particularly suffering with the debilitating effects of long covid. And even if it doesn't make you unwell, why aren't you concerned about protecting those who are at more risk?

So you're saying young healthy people should take a drug they don't want or need which carries its own risks, to save the lives of others? That's a no from me. As a nurse, in any other situation if someone came in and requested a drug - admitted they did not want or need it, because they'd been guilted or coerced into it, we'd be investigating under safeguarding concerns. It is totally unethical what has been going on - "granny killers/selfish/ignorant", calling people anti vaxxers or claiming they are stupid. Dangling pubs and holidays in front of them to get them to make a medical choice about THEIR OWN BODIES. Disgraceful.

Surely if people in their 20s needed the flu vaccine then they'd be offered it? The reality is a healthy 20yo would be turned down for it if they asked for it. I've been turned down for it myself before now due to my asthma not being severe enough
You might not have qualified for getting it for free, but you can still pay to get it at Boots, Superdrug etc. I did that. I think people on benefits can get it free at any age

@PinkSparklyPussyCat I was thrown by it tbh. In the end I had to tell the person to stop contacting me as I was being told to look at'all these Lockdown sceptic/ conspiracy theory site.
Wow antihistamines are pretty innocuous.
One day these people will realise that vitamins and homeopathi remedies have their place but they are not enough.

@FireworksAndSparklers if vulnerable people are vaccinated the rest of us don’t need to be.

The flu vaccine isn’t rolled out to the general population every year. Only the vulnerable are vaccinated or those who are in professions that expose them to the public.

So I don’t see the argument that we all should be vaccinated. It literally doesn’t follow. Vaccinate those who need it, for those to whom coronavirus is a genuine risk to their health. But for the rest of us - it should be a free and non pressured choice.

If all of us non vulnerable people were not vaccinated, more vaccine would be available to vaccinate the vulnerable in the rest of the world. I actually see it as selfish to take up a vaccine I don’t need when that vaccine could be given to someone who does need it but who’s not going to get it because my country has selfishly decided that getting positive PR for a rapid vaccination programme is more important than saving the lives of the elderly and vulnerable in developing countries.

Yeah, the whole "if you don't want the jab you're a rabid anti-Vader" rhetoric is bugging me. It's not as black and white as that. I don't want AZ. I would take either of the other two, and have had all my childhood jabs as well as an annual flu jab (via work, pre-covid, I am not otherwise "eligible" ie don't have flu risk factors) as well as all sorts of travel jabs including rabies and Japanese encephalitis. Anti-vaxxer I am not.

Anti Vader = anti vaxxer. Dunno why I brought Darth Vader into this 😂😂😂

I agree the easy information has been presented to the public is disgraceful. But I disagree that one shouldn't do things for the greater good. And young people DO need protection from covid, as I have said. Some young people address suffering a huge amount of they catch it. As a nurse myself, who has nursed people of different ages and health status who have or who have had covid, I am sad that people are exhibiting such ignorance of the situation. And that is not their fault! If course some people are just selfish fuckers, but many are making decisions based on a flawed understanding of the risks. Including some nurses, it seems .

DP had his first one (AZ). two days later he had a seizure, (the last one he had was over 2 years ago). It was bad enough to land him in hospital for 3 days. It may have been a coincidence, but he will be refusing his 2nd vaccination and he deeply regrets having the 1st one.

@Sunglasses2

Surely if people in their 20s needed the flu vaccine then they'd be offered it? The reality is a healthy 20yo would be turned down for it if they asked for it. I've been turned down for it myself before now due to my asthma not being severe enough You might not have qualified for getting it for free, but you can still pay to get it at Boots, Superdrug etc. I did that. I think people on benefits can get it free at any age

They are offered it if they work somewhere where the risk of them catching it and spreading it are high. Again, not because flu is such a risk to them, but it's a huge risk to those who are vulnerable. If flu was as prevalent as covid, we would all be encouraged to have it.

@LondonWFuck

But it looks like you dont understand side effect profiles of drugs.
To be fair. If under 40 you won’t get AZ anyway.

@MissTrip82
I understand the argument you’ve made from the point of view of someone who witnesses the extremes of illnesses as opposed to the ‘recover at home type’. But as a health professional with an obvious understanding of medicines and pharmaceuticals, I’d really love to hear your take on natural, long lasting immunity.
I had symptomatic covid last October and felt under the weather for about 3 days. In honesty I felt like I had a 3 day hangover with a bit of general malaise and a headache but nothing much else and no lasting effects apart from my smell and taste taking a couple of weeks to return again. I cannot understand why someone like me would now NOT be immune from covid for the foreseeable based upon pretty much every other illness pattern out there. Just because they can only measure 6 months of antibody presence, surely doesn’t mean that’s all the immunity people will get? If that is to be the argument then how is covid so different in that respect to any other coronavirus?
Take Sars-Cov1 for example, 17 years immunity and counting. A year on from the emergence of that coronavirus, were health professionals predicting only a 6 month immunity?

Before I had my BCG I had the ‘6 stamp’ immunity test and 5 out of the 6 stamp sites became raised. As a result I was deemed to already have immunity and didn’t need the BCG vaccine. Aside from the fact I know my own body will handle covid fine on its own, why do I need a vaccine to give me immunity?

I am genuinely interested not picking a fight.

[quote EnidSpyton]@FireworksAndSparklers if vulnerable people are vaccinated the rest of us don’t need to be.

The flu vaccine isn’t rolled out to the general population every year. Only the vulnerable are vaccinated or those who are in professions that expose them to the public.

So I don’t see the argument that we all should be vaccinated. It literally doesn’t follow. Vaccinate those who need it, for those to whom coronavirus is a genuine risk to their health. But for the rest of us - it should be a free and non pressured choice.

If all of us non vulnerable people were not vaccinated, more vaccine would be available to vaccinate the vulnerable in the rest of the world. I actually see it as selfish to take up a vaccine I don’t need when that vaccine could be given to someone who does need it but who’s not going to get it because my country has selfishly decided that getting positive PR for a rapid vaccination programme is more important than saving the lives of the elderly and vulnerable in developing countries.[/quote]
But the vaccines are not 100% effective, so your argument doesn't follow. And young people are vulnerable too, particularly to the variants, as happened with the Spanish flu epidemic.

[quote Justa47]@LondonWFuck

But it looks like you dont understand side effect profiles of drugs.
To be fair. If under 40 you won’t get AZ anyway.[/quote]
I've read a lot about it, thanks. I am also 40, therefore just a few months too old to be offered a choice.

I work at a GP surgery and am the only one who has refused the vaccine. I'm not anti-vaxx in the slightest. Me and DS have had all vaccines including my flu jab every year.

Covid-19 vaccine is yet to be a licensed vaccine, it has been given under a special pandemic ruling. This will be the case until 2023. God forbid anything happens heathwise because of the vaccine, no one is liable. Unable to take legal action.

If in 5/10 years it because licensed and everyone is healthy then I'll consider it but I'll not be a guinea pig for a government I do not trust.

Each to their own - just to add I am relatively young and have no health issues.

But @FireworksAndSparklers, it’s not ignorance to make an informed choice about what is right for your body.

I know coronavirus is real and that it kills people. I’m not an idiot.

But I also know the vaccine is not the straightforward choice it’s being made out to be.

Me personally not getting the vaccine isn’t going to have an effect on anyone else. I am not going to accept responsibility for ‘giving’ anyone coronavirus. This whole rhetoric that we individually are responsible for making other people ill or ‘killing’ them due to the behaviour of an inanimate virus is disgusting. Honestly the way people’s thinking has been distorted by this pandemic is so utterly disturbing to me. All humans are now being seen as nothing but potential vessels of a virus. It’s madness.

@UsedUpUsername

That is utter utter rubbish.
They was an update about side effects this week.

What you mean is you don’t keep up to date and are looking for an emotional reason to make others do it and you not.

It really beggars belief you post stuff like this and not know what you are talking about.

As the rates drop and new data out that’s what drive the below 40 change this week which would not have changed unless the rates were down.

All rush benefit analysis as with any drug.

But to say the data on This is hidden is beneath you and spreading such utter rubbish is shameful.

Sorry if this stings but it’s true.

@Londonmummy00 did you not hear about the q6 year old who died of COVID with no pre existing conditions?
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/16-year-old-no-underlying-19881184

16 year old.