Are you going to take the vaccine?

[Relax]

I'm 58 - my father is 98, and he was vaccinated with Pfizer (and the follow up booster) in February (this year).

He had no side effects, feels well, and continues to do his normal everyday activities.
Other than (already) weakening eyesight, he's in the same excellent health he's been for years.

He'll be 99 in a few weeks. He's happy and healthy. He prays, laughs, he's focussed and positive. Given my mother died early last year (not covid related) - he has a great attitude and a lot of bravery given Mum's passing meant his marriage ended after 61 years.

Dad survived action in WW2, he survived rheumatic fever and tuberculosis as a child (which permanently damaged his heart) and being born in 1922 (!) he saw illness take beloved family members, before vaccinations were available.

This thread is full of repeated attempts to manipulate people. It advocates metaphysical disempowerment, paranoia and is 'fear-porn'.
NB: all the links I've checked out lead to "information" that can be de-bunked through online research and cross referenced data.

I'm having my vaccination this coming week and given our stupid, bumbling, self serving prime minister didn't order enough vaccinations for our population - I feel very blessed to be able to get this protection.

I've been researching 'long-covid' and would rather have a vaccination than contract covid or long covid ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.

Also, I don't have a science degree or a medical degree. Therefore I will never infringe on others with unsolicited medical advice.

(Fearmongering and direct infringement of peoples right to determine their own medical decisions is a very selfish, manipulative, dominating activity.)

This thread has examples of several "cognitive biases":

"Dunning- Kruger" "Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence", - that much incorrect self-assessment of competence derives from the person's ignorance of a given activity's standards of performance.

Dunning described the Dunning–Kruger effect as
"... people with substantial, measurable deficits in their knowledge or expertise lack the ability to recognize those deficits and, therefore, despite potentially making error after error, tend to think they are performing competently when they are not

In other words - don't speak with authority about things thousands of scientists are analysing - when you don't have a science degree.

(I  don't say this to be rude - but to point out that we can't speak as if we have broad scientific learning across many years of daily study and examinations, then years of practical experience in the field - WHEN WE DON'T.

If you're going to speak to the science of vaccinations, governments, etc - only do so if you have the level of expertise to.
Otherwise at least acknowledge that you're trusting people online - strangers - who you're allowing to do your thinking for you.
And keep an open mind - scrupulously cross reference/research your sources.

(An example of this is that the link to the 'video' of the pre and post covid blood cells is promoted by a person who alleges she is a medical doctor - but I tracked her qualifications down and she has a Doctorate in Psychology.

Why should I believe someone that is lying from the outset?

I shouldn't and don't.
I check the links provided but don't waste my time rebutting them here - because the cognitive dissonance in certain members is so strong the true details will be denied as they don't fit the already decided belief.

The Confirmation Bias

The confirmation bias is the tendency to listen more often to information that confirms our existing beliefs. Through this bias, people tend to favor information that reinforces the things they already think or believe.

Examples include:

   Only paying attention to information that confirms your beliefs about issues
   Only following people on social media who share your viewpoints
   Choosing news sources that present stories that support your views
   Refusing to listen to the opposing side
   Not considering all of the facts in a logical and rational manner

There are a few reasons why this happens. One is that only seeking to confirm existing opinions helps limit mental resources we need to use to make decisions. It also helps protect self-esteem by making people feel that their beliefs are accurate.

People on two sides of an issue can listen to the same story and walk away with different interpretations that they feel validates their existing point of view. This is often indicative that the confirmation bias is working to "bias" their opinions.

The problem with this is that it can lead to poor choices, an inability to listen to opposing views, or even contribute to othering people who hold different opinions.

The Availability Heuristic

The availability heuristic is the tendency to estimate the probability of something happening based on how many examples readily come to mind. Some examples of this:

   After seeing several news reports of car thefts in your neighborhood, you might start to believe that such crimes are more common than they are.
   You might believe that plane crashes are more common than they really are because you can easily think of several examples.

It is essentially a mental shortcut designed to save us time when we are trying to determine risk. The problem with relying on this way of thinking is that it often leads to poor estimates and bad decisions.

Smokers who have never known someone to die of a smoking-related illness, for example, might underestimate the health risks of smoking. In contrast, if you have two sisters and five neighbors who have had breast cancer, you might believe it is even more common than statistics suggest.

one last (sad) example is those who rejected the vaccine and then contract covid and die from it... from the combination of conspiracy ideologies, some of the above biases and:

The Optimism Bias

The optimism bias is a tendency to overestimate the likelihood that good things will happen to us while underestimating the probability that negative events will impact our lives. Essentially, we tend to be too optimistic for our own good.

For example, we may assume that negative events won't affect us such as:

   Divorce
   Job loss
   Illness
   Death

The optimism bias has roots in the availability heuristic. Because you can probably think of examples of bad things happening to other people it seems more likely that others will be affected by negative events.

This bias can lead people to take health risks like smoking, eating poorly, or not wearing a seat belt. The bad news is that research has found that this optimism bias is incredibly difficult to reduce.

There've been so many Americans reusing to be vaccinated (or even believe Covid is an actual disease) - then contract it and die.

NB: I do think there's truth to some conspiracy theories so I'm not closed minded to these theories. That's why I check things out by looking deeper.

In closing, I'm aware this will be either ignored or rebutted vociferously - so - for the record- won't be replying to any responses.

Posting this as my father said to say hello - and that he hopes you don't lose your life, or any friends or family - to a preventable health threat.
He said he trusts scientists, trusts his guts - having faced Nazi's in WW2 and helping liberate Bergen Belsen concentration camp at the end of the war, says he's no fool in knowing the type of people who commit atrocities against their fellow man - and who doesn't. He says scientists in their thousands upon thousands wouldn't allow what you're alleging.

But you'd need to be a scientist, in the worldwide scientific community - to know that.

Once fear takes hold - all discernment goes out the window. That's how fear increases itself. That's how fear works.

Scrutinise - double check your 'information' sources 'the' - because I look into many of them and they're full of provable disinfo.

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” was a phrase made popular by Carl Sagan who reworded Laplace's principle, which says that “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”