[newacct583]

You're genuinely more uncomfortable with the idea of unfair liability protection than you are with the persistence of a pandemic that has already taken millions of lives? I mean, I think it's possible to agree that maybe the liability waiver is too broad (or that Pfizer's net revenue is too high) and... still view this as the most important single medicine released over the past few decades.

I mean, come on. Literally billions of people have taken this drug. What "complicationss" are you expecting that we wouldn't already have data for? It's... a vaccine. We've all had dozens of them. Did you freak out about your measles jab?

[trollied]

Imagine if this pandemic was actually Smallpox? Pretty sure there'd be none of the anti-vaxxing stuff etc. Visible, horrible symptoms.

[nicoburns]

I rather suspect there still would be. Perhaps less. But a lot of the conspiracy theorists actually believe that governments (or their authority of choice) have manufactured the disease. There are also reports of people not believing the disease is real while they're dying in hospital.

[newacct583]

Yeah. I've made this point to friends too. In some sense covid sits at exactly the pessimal spot. Any less severe, and we'd have just let it roll over us without the societal breakdown. Any more severe and the mitigation strategy couldn't have become a political issue.

Maybe there's a side-channel attack where we can convince the conspiracy folks that this actually is a Chinese bioweapon designed to destroy the political cohesion of the west, so they should get on board and get their shots. Think it'd work?

[mrtesthah]

Ironically, many of them already believe that. Conspiracy-theory beliefs (i.e., evidence-free conclusions) are a symptom of underlying mental illness, which inhibits critical thinking skills. As such, they have no problem holding completely contradictory viewpoints.

[threatofrain]

Also, liability protection doesn't mean that citizens cannot receive compensation for treatment-related harms. The federal government has opted to take on the liability, and has created a compensation fund which will pay your legal feels if you win, and is easier to win than a civil suit.

[ryathal]

Persistence of this pandemic is FUD. If you get vaccinated it's over. Covid was never going to be eradicated, at best it will fade into the endemic background as a weird cold/flu. In countries with on demand access to the vaccines, the pandemic is over.