[JulianMorrison]

A big part of the problem is things moving so fast that a lot of stuff doesn't have a long run. Covid and its vaccines being an example. In the end the reason to trust them was a mix of "if not this, then what?" and "it doesn't seem to be killing people".

[fabian2k]

We have a lot of really good evidence that the vaccines are preventing a lot of deaths.

[fithisux]

We have excellent evidence that the amyloid hypothesis is valid. Otherwise you get no grant (enter the clothing shop).

This is sarcasm of course.

[ncmncm]

It has been unfortunately necessary to downplay cases of debilitation and, even, death apparently traceable to vaccination. If vaccination saves the lives of a hundred times as many people as it harms, in the "trolley" sense, that should be good enough, but in popular imagination it is not.

Rational treatment might enable identifying individuals particularly at risk and not vaccinating those, but that option is closed to us. Instead, a random, suspicious fraction of the population pays particular attention to negative outcomes and avoids vaccination, to its detriment, and most of those at risk for problems get vaccinated anyway.

[ta8645]

> It has been unfortunately necessary to downplay cases of debilitation

I don't think it was necessary at all, and instead is very counterproductive. Many people know they're not being dealt with honestly by the government and media, resulting in more distrust and resistance to vaccination, than there otherwise would be.

[ncmncm]

The number of deaths would objectively be larger if people had access to accurate numbers, because even more would avoid vaccination and then die of the infection vaccinated against.

It is a tragic calculus. "Trolley Problems" are very far from theoretical in public health management. We are forced by distrust to sub-optimal choices that themselves promote distrust. Managing risk of a better population would be easier, but you battle pandemic in the population you have, not the population you want.

[jtbayly]

You state confidently that deaths would be higher, but you gave no evidence for that. I believe you are wrong. The lies confirm to all that we should not trust you. Assuming you have any ability to recommend things that will actually save lives, in the long term proving yourself a liar will only lead to fewer people believing you and taking your advice.

So tell the truth, build trust, and let people decide for themselves. That will save lives in the long run.

[ncmncm]

What you mean is, tell the truth and be blasted for lying anyway.

I have plenty of complaints about how public health measures are prioritized in the US. I am not worried about official dishonesty. Public officials are just as good at fooling themselves as everybody else, so they can be wrong without lying, and will be at times. Expecting somebody, anybody to be right all the time is a recipe for disappointment.

[Dylan16807]

Downplaying isn't lying, and categorizing people into those that tell the truth and those that don't tell the truth is a stupid way of assessing anything important.

[ncmncm]

Excuse me, where did I lie? I have no role in collecting or reporting on adverse reactions. I don't even know for sure that adverse reaction numbers are as large as I suspect.

I do empathize with the people trying to minimize deaths from a raging pandemic in an atmosphere of politically-motivated disinformation that is actively contemptuous toward public safety. People with your attitude make their work that much harder, and cost more unnecessary deaths.

[pawsforthought]

Perhaps public health officials need to pay more attention to the iterated trolley problem. Difficult, for sure, when dealing with the pandemic in front of you, and not the next one that comes, but our encroachment on animal viral reservoirs and insistence on conducting hazardous gain-of-function research all but guarantees the next one will come sooner or later.

[ncmncm]

Gain-of-function research, conducted carefully enough, might expose risks ahead of time that could be vaccinated against. You would generally prefer that it be in pathogens not already adapted to humans, or in places those are handled.

We are guaranteed pandemics regardless, just by how much international travel we do. What matters is the response. We are lucky monkeypox (actually a rodent illness) is rarely fatal.

[upwardbound]

Could someone in this thread please cite the alluded to cases of disability or death caused by one of the COVID vaccines? It would be helpful if people can be specific. I'd like to understand (1) whether this really happened or is a myth (2) which vaccine and (3) what's the biological mechanism of damage.

[pawsforthought]

I can’t do as you ask, except to say that vaccine skeptics will point to any and every health problem in a vaccine recipient they know as having been caused by the vaccine. (I’ve found that) it’s very difficult to counter that anecdata.

[ncmncm]

Anytime you inject biochemically active stuff into billions of people, there will necessarily be some actual bad reactions mixed into a large number of events that would have happened regardless, or that anyway had nothing to do with the stuff injected.

And, some people will get in car accidents on the way home from the clinic, that would not have happened if they didn't go. People who get in line are exposed to random pathogens others in line are distributing, and to any pathogens injected via insect bites in that place.

People who do not get vaccinated are subject to similar risks, but are not counted.

Playing up these numbers does nobody honest any good.