Originally posted by Tony Bandiera Jr
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In a bad year, in the US, about 64.000 people die directly or indirectly from a flu-related infection. In a good year, it's about 24.000. Most flu deaths are also linked to "previous conditions", as it is very rare for a 100% healthy person with a good functioning immune system to succumb to the flu. We accept this as "collateral damage". There are countless other viruses that kill people, that are equally transmitted by close contact, but it's hard to find any definite numbers about them, unless I add them all up individually.
COVID-19 may be not as deadly as e.g. Ebola, but that's part of the reason why it was so successful in spreading itself. Yet, in the past 18 or so months, about 670K people have died from COVID-19-related infections in the U.S. alone. That's far more than even the worst flu would do. Right now, numbers are back up again, but most of the people that are dying, are unvaccinated people.
Originally posted by Tony Bandiera Jr
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But for all the others, who don't have a valid reason, but easy access to a vaccine, I think they should simply be "out of luck" when shit hits the fan for them. We can't keep everything closed for a bunch of people that have decided for themselves that they're smarter than the combined force of scientists out there. This also means that once you get hit with a serious case, you're in the proverbial standby-line if you need help with your infection. I'm certainly not in favor of vax mandates, as everybody has to be free to choose for him or herselves, but if you neglect to get yourself vaccinated, because you subscribe to some conspiratorial belief and you get in trouble, there should be no special points for this.
Once the vaccination rate starts to hit 70% or higher, I think it's time to quit all the COVID measures in place. This may suck for those who couldn't get vaccinated and they should be supported as much as possible to get through this difficult period. Those who refuse to get vaccinated because their TV told them so, should know that they're the ones not allowing those who can't get vaccinated to return to a normal life.
As for those checks for "covid certificates", I personally find those things very intrusive. They're also a potential treasure trove of very sensitive information for our governments, who have proven not to be able to keep their fingers of this kind of data when it does exist. Showing your "hall pass" every time I want to eat something in a restaurant and every time I want to go visit a movie sounds very repressive and dictatorial to me.
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