I know about the damage covid-19 can cause and I'm definitely worried about that, without a doubt. There is a possibility that I will get infected one day because nobody can keep up the vigilance and the corona safety measurements forever. I will probably make a mistake one day with a possible bad outcome but with the virus I still have a choice >> try not to get infected. With the vaccine I don't have a choice. Once vaccinated you can't get un-vaccinated. I don't want to live with the fear for many years if I'm vaccinated thinking what is going to happen with my body, with my health.
I went to the pub (indoors) for the first time in a year tonight, and my first dinner with friends in a pub in 18 months.
I completely share your worries on getting COVID, and have done my utmost to avoid infection too... but as you say yourself, it is probably not going to be feasible to avoid it forever.
My hope is that COVID will become less of a risk as new treatments are found, but the same logic applies to treatments as to vaccines... they're not going to be 100% effective and they will remain "experimental" for years to come - indeed, considerably more so than vaccines that have already been established to be both very safe and very effective. (It's both amazing and alarming how people decry vaccines as 'dangerous' but also believe in the ability of a veterinary pharmaceutical commonly used to treat worm infestations in horses as if it is some kind of miracle drug...)
The question then becomes: how much of your life are you willing to forego in order to avoid infection, knowing that for every year you take this evasive action, you become more susceptible to more severe illness if/when you do catch it?
Don't get me wrong, I don't wish to belittle genuine fears over the possible long-term effects of the vaccines, but they have to be weighed against both the
known risks of the virus itself
and the costs of spending an indefinite amount of time trying to avoid getting the virus.
I personally wouldn't be surprised if I hadn't already had been infected but never knew it... there are millions of people in the UK alone who have already been infected but never tested positive or had any symptoms. But... the trouble is that you don't know what will happen if/when you get infected, except for the only proven defence available right now (and possibly ever) which is to get vaccinated.
Yes, the vaccines are not 100% effective and are also not 100% guaranteed not to cause adverse reactions, but there's a mountain of evidence already available that shows that infection with the virus is many, many times more likely to make you ill than the vaccine, and that the cost of the 'avoidance' strategy (which I wholly supported prior to vaccines being available) also needs to be taken into account too. Indeed, the evidence of the negative effects of 'lockdown' (whether voluntary or otherwise) is all too clear, and hence we really need to be doing everything within our power to avoid future lockdowns - and vaccination is an absolutely fundamental part of that strategy.
In terms of who to listen to on this, I'd say that you need to be really careful but no-one can or ever will force you either way... ultimately it's up to you, but I personally have no time for so-called experts who rely on their own websites and social media to 'publish' their own 'unfunded' or 'independent' "research", which, quite frankly, anyone can do.
