COVID Just is not Scary

I was recently surprised. I personally know three people who are against taking the COVID-19 vaccine and against vaccine mandates.

The first guy did not surprise me. He hates Justin Trudeau so it was inevitable that having his government urge Canadians to take the vaccine would elicit a desire to defy such advice. This guy might catch the virus and kill himself, his wife and/or his two teenaged daughters but in his mind he is owning Justin Trudeau and the Liberals so it is worth it.

The second person surprised me a bit but then again I do not know him well. We met a few times before the pandemic hit and he seemed reasonable. It turns out I am wrong. He has bought into the QAnon conspiracy about the vaccines completely. I guess he is just smarter than the rest of us, or at least he believe he is.

The third person surprised me completely. I have known this person for over 20 years. They are educated, intelligent and well traveled. If anybody would have told me at the beginning of the pandemic that this person would be against the vaccine I would have said "No way". However, this person truly believes that the risk of death from the vaccine is higher than the risk of death from contracting COVID. They are wrong of course and all of the data demonstrates that but there is no reasoning with this person.

This has lead me to question the reason why there has been resistance to vaccines and for those who resist hold a very ardent position against them. There really is no reasoning with them.

Part of it is politics but except for the first person I mentioned none of these three are overly political. And even with the first person his politics only extends to hating Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. There is nothing else to his politics.

One guess is the nature of the COVID virus is a big part of the reason why so many people are against taking the vaccine. It really is not that scary. Although the virus is easily contracted only 10% of people who contract it become seriously ill, meaning they need hospitalization, and only 3% of people die from it. That is extremely low for a virus. It is significantly higher for influenza and all of us are familiar with it so COVID is not that big of a concern. In short, may antivaxxers firmly believe that if they contract the virus they will be fine. 

I would imagine things would be different if COVID was scarier. Imagine if it had been discovered early on that men, who contracted the virus and even showed mild systems, had a 50/50 chance of suffering permanent and irreversible erectile dysfunction. I am certain that would have profoundly changed the dynamic of the last two years. Men may risk death but they will not risk Willy.

Then again, if the virus would have been a little more dangerous things would also be different. Say the virus makes 50% of the people who contract it seriously ill and it kills 10%. Further all of those who survive the virus are hideously scarred and at least half of those are also crippled and/or blinded. Of course, I just described Small Pox, which was eradicated because everybody was REQUIRED to receive a Small Pox vaccine without exception. At the time no one protested because Small Pox was and is a very scary virus.

That does not describe COVID so the antivaxxers can avoid receiving the vaccine and they have a high probability that they will not suffer serious consequences for their stupidity. Not as high as those of us who are fully vaccinated but still worth the risk in their minds. 

Of course, viruses mutate. COVID could mutate itself out of existence or it could mutate itself into something much more dangerous and the longer this pandemic goes on the greater the odds of either outcome. It could go either way but just imagine a virus with the illness and death rates of Small Pox and the ease of transmission of COVID. A truly scary prospect and if it comes to pass those antivaxxers will probably change their tune but it would be much too late for many of them.