Did you take the vaccine? Why or why not?

Yes, I got the vaccine, as soon as I could.

All reports are that it is safe and effective. You mention blood clots -- remember that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was paused after six reported cases of blood clotting. Six. Compare this to the 4,000,000+ reported deaths from Covid-19 (worldwide), the ~1,000,000 traffic fatalities, or the ~2,000 people killed by lightning strikes. And this is comparing deaths to cases of blood clots.

Although more cases of blood clotting have been reported, the risk is still within a rounding error of zero.

The idea that the vaccine has been rushed seems a bit strange to me; millions have died of the virus, millions of more have suffered debilitating side effects, and the virus has had a crippling effect on the economy. Under such circumstances, shouldn't we want a vaccine absolutely as soon as possible? The FDA still hasn't given full approval yet; my impression is that they are being extremely cautious.

If you wanted to "wait and see", then I get that, but at this point 4,540,000,000 vaccine doses have been administered. That's four and a half billion pieces of evidence that serious side effects are very rare.

The final reason to get the vaccine is that it's common to have the virus with no symptoms and still spread it. Even if you're willing to bear the risks of infection yourself, are you willing to make this choice for others? (Or else self-quarantine?) With "breakthrough cases" becoming more common, the vaccinated can't be assured of safety unless everyone else gets the vaccine too.

Please get the vaccine. It is the fastest way for all of us to emerge from this hell.

Yes I got it, but not because I'm particularly worried about getting covid. I got it because it seems to be the only avenue back to normal life. The risks with taking the vaccine are nominal (way less dangerous than the virus), but the potential benefit of things going back to normal is very high. In my opinion, unless you have a strong medical case for not getting it, there is no reason not to get it.

On a side note, please share sources on "Number of reports said it’s harmful for women of childbearing age" and "Many people reported blood clots"

I am living in Thailand and it is first now the vaccines is starting to become available. I have registered with the department of health but has not yet received a date for the appointment or a time frame. We first had to wait for all the rich countries up north to stop buying up all the doses before it became available to us (That claim is how it look like from my perspective). This is first happening around now or the past few months.

No, I'll wait and see. I think probably the virus is more dangerous than the vaccine (official figures certainly claim this). The virus is, however, not particularly dangerous.

When there is extreme pressure for a certain course of action, I think there is a lot of motivation for manipulation of data. I smell propaganda for vaccines all over the media.

I have a robust constitution and am in an age group where the risk of death is, in my eyes, low.

I know about 2 dozen people who've had it: colleagues, pupils, parents of pupils and my son: Zero hospitalisations, zero deaths, zero complaints about long term effects.

I believe that action against the virus (lockdowns, businesses destroyed, masks, social distancing and now vaccines being pushed on people) overall is far more harmful than the virus itself.

We should have used all our resources to protect high risk groups: The very old and people with comorbidities.

I think Sweden had the right approach except they did nothing to particularly protect people in care homes, so the virus blazed through those institutions (which to some extent explains their relatively high death rates compared to Denmark or Norway).

I am in no way against vaccinations in general, but I don't think vaccines are a good strategy against something like a coronavirus which is spread all over the world and which has a relatively low IFR. I think (and it's just my opinion, derived from my understanding of evolution), that widespread vaccination will create selection pressure for more infective variants.

I don't want to die an unpleasant death drowning in my own fluids, but it's at least relatively quick, compared to lung cancer (for example). If I'm unlucky and catch it, and unlucky again and it hits me hard ...

Well, we've all got to go sometime, and who knows, it might save me from a long, humiliating old age ;)

If you have questions or concerns about getting the vaccines, talk to your primary care physician about them instead of asking random people on the internet who usually don't have any training or expertise in biology, immunology, epidemiology, or evaluating risk.

No and for various reasons.

1. Fertility: I am a woman of child bearing age (early 30s) and actively trying to conceive this summer. There has been thousands of reports that the vaccine affected women's menstrual cycle short term and so I did not want to take that chance. If I stopped having babies or didn't want any, I may have considered it. It also took CDC half a year to finally look at these reports (why so long?). https://qz.com/2045518/does-the-covid-19-vaccine-affect-wome...

2. Trust: When experts in the same fields disagree with each other on how the pandemic has and is being handled (Dr Pierre Kory, Bret Weinstine, Dr Robert Malone, Bryam Bridle, Martin Kulldorff, so many more) it's a cause of concern for me to research and see why. Even if they're wrong, if a conclusion is so blatantly obvious then you would either have real genuine consensus or a respectful debate amongst them (respectful is key). Seeing (social) media platforms silencing or condescendingly "fact checking" has not given me the trust that I need in public health. A vaccine is not and should not be the only way out of this pandemic. We know that those vaccinated can also transmit the disease (sure, maybe reduced chances) but they still can so if you want to be protected individually, get the shot. Also why is there a continuous push to mandate vaccine, even on those that's been infected with covid already? It seems like that's the only metric they are measuring for success but I do not agree that is what success looks like.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lasting...

"Sir Andrew said the next thing might be "a variant which is even better at transmitting in vaccinated populations", adding: "So, that's even more of a reason not to be making a vaccine programme around herd immunity.""

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-herd-immunity-not-a-poss...

You may not agree with me but if you can understand the sentiment of "if North Korea asks you to take this drug that they have deemed to cure cancer, with all these data provided, would you?" Sure comparing the US Government to North Korea may be a stretch but the feeling is similar.

3. Personal Responsibility and risk profile. I am not currently vaccinated so therefore I am going to reduce my risks by not going to concerts, pubs, crowded places, etc. I work from home and I have a healthy diet with vitamins (C, D, Zinc) sleep well, exercise and keep within my bubble. Most importantly, I am working on not having this virus or the social fear affect me. Stress and anxiety is one way to bring down your immune system!

And if other people decide to take it, that's great for them.