Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
It appears to me that for many people anything less than dying is all good. Considering how many co-workers of mine were out two weeks sick as a dog, I would think people would WANT to avoid that. I quite stand corrected.
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You don't seem to understand that it's possible to factor in the possibility of getting sick into the equation and still decide that the shot is not worth it, regardless of your chance of dying. If you react poorly to shots and always get flu-like symptoms for a few days after getting one, then it becomes a question of whether you want to take a 100% chance of being somewhat sick vs. an unknown chance of being really sick.
Plug 10% into that unknown chance, and it starts looking like a bad bet. Plug 60% in, and it starts looking good. Either one *could* end up accurate across the entire population, but taking a considered risk to get the ultimate payoff of not getting sick AT ALL is perfectly rational behaviour. Only the fanatic believe otherwise - it is NOT always the smart thing to minimize risk, risk simply should be proportionate to reward.
As far as crowd immunity goes, the miniscule decrease in effectiveness of the vaccine over the whole population by one person deciding not to get it is not even quantifiable. It might be an argument against trying to convince other people not to get the shot and to proselytize that message, but as far as affecting what an individual might do, it is irrelevant.