Hi Reece,
It's a very good question and I; like many (even without diabetes), have probably been asking the same question over the past few months.
I'm in favour of vaccines as they can offer a lot of protection against many very dangerous diseases. However, these new mRNA "vaccines" had never been allowed to be tested on humans until now (for a good reason i'd suppose).
It's for each of us to weigh up our own risk vs benefit. The risks of catching the virus are low, and the risk of anything serious happening is very low if one is under the age of 70. To me, for the the majority of us, the risk of dying or being very ill from covid19 is so small that it “would normally be deemed an acceptable part of life”.
There are also many unanswered questions about the new vaccines, which one also has to also weigh up if undecided about going ahead.
I've been hearing this "anyone can catch it" and "anyone can pass it on" almost every day (including today) since the very beginning of the campaign, but if it that is true, it doesn't say much for the vaccines does it?
I've got lots of questions yet to be answered, before I could even be in an informed position to be able to make a decision about these novel mRNA vaccines.
These are my questions so far:
1. If vaccines are fully tested and safe, why are governments indemnifying them and if the new vaccines are not safe and not fully tested why are governments indemnifying them?
2. Why is it that vaccine companies are not liable (when things go wrong) for their vaccines, but the public are being held liable if they don't get the vaccine because they are being told that they "may infect others" if they pass on the virus? Hardly seems logical or fair to put pressure/coercian (lockdowns etc) on to the public to take a vaccine when the vaccine manufacturers themselves aren't liable for their own vaccines.
3. I keep hearing covid19 can affect anyone, but surely if one has had a full vaccination, this won't be the case or would it?
If a vaccine doesn't prevent transmission of covid19, is it a vaccine? if not, what is it? Isn't that what vaccines have always done....prevent infection and prevent transmission?
If a vaccine doesn't stop infection, is it a vaccine? if not, what is it? Isn't that what vaccines have always done....prevent infection and prevent transmission?
4. What about pathogenic priming...has this been looked into with the new vaccines?
5. What percentage of adverse reactions aren't being reported? 1/10? 9/10?
6. How long do the vaccines give immunity for?
7. Do vaccines give longer immunity than naturally aquired immunity (proven to be at least be 6 months after 6 months of study)
8. Are the mRNA vaccines safe for pregnant women? (unborn babies)
9. What is known about interaction with all other prescribed drugs?
10. What is the relative risk reduction after having the vaccine compared to not having the vaccine?
11. What are the risks/effects of mixing 2 different vaccines?
12. If the vaccines only reduce the symptoms, for the vast majority, wouldn't that only mean more taste in their food and a bit less coughing as most people don't even know they have it?
13. Will the vaccines bring life back to pre-covid19 days, life as we all know it? If not, why not?
Here goes...
1. Even if a vaccine was 100% safe, drug companies are vulnerable to incurring huge legal costs if a group of people who think their symptoms (which may be unrelated) came about from having the vaccine decide to bring a class action to sue.
2. The U.K. government decided to carry the risk. The EU didn't, so the vaccine companies are liable in some countries, depending on what was negotiated. Where the vaccine companies are bearing the risk, they will be charging a higher price for the vaccines.
3. Even the best vaccine only professes a 90-95% cover rate, which amounts to quite a few people when you are talking about millions of vaccines, and you don’t know who the 5-10% for whom the vaccine didn’t 'take' are. So anyone could be vulnerable and we don’t know who.
Vaccines don’t stop infection surely? You get infected, and the vaccine has taught your body to recognise and mount an attack against it. It is theoretically possible to shed the virus while your body is fighting it.
4. Don’t know what this means.
5-11. The answers to these all basically boil down to the fact that you can’t say anything long term about a vaccine that has only been used for 6 months. Scientists won’t speculate. If someone still has immunity after 6 months, the chances are they’ll continue, but scientists won’t say that because it hasn’t been measured. Similarly, it was unethical to trial it on pregnant women, so we just don’t know.
11. Unknown, and we don’t know if it’s going to happen yet. They have started a trial, but the results won’t be known til the end of it.
12.Yes. For the mild cases. But there are a lot of severe cases, and it’s not possible to predict who will get it seriously. Reference one of our members who reported this morning that their friend died at 50 with no preexisting conditions.
13. No. At least not til we get to a point where we know who needs an annual booster, the virus isn’t circulating much any more because of the vaccine programme, and because some people now have natural immunity. But things might be a bit more relaxed as we know more.
Phew! Sorry if I’ve missed anything. For me, it boils down to the fact that if I waited til all the trials had been done, (possibly over a period of years), and all questions could be answered, I’d probably have caught it or died of old age.
Hope this helps, I’m going for a coffee! (And I’m going for my vaccination as soon as I’m called!)