Lot of good all that familiarity with studies did those people in the ER. They still came to the conclusion that NOT getting vaccinated was a safer measure than getting vaccinated. Apparently they were wrong.
No. Wrong by YOUR STANDARD (that "getting COVID" is the only risk worth measuring). There's a big difference.
What other risk is greater than one's health?
Given the HEALTH risk and statistical probabilities of contracting COVID vs the HEALTH risk and statistical probabilities of experiencing side effects of the vaccine, I simply can't wrap my head around the mindset that it's safer to not get vaccinated.
Given how many people end up hospitalized from COVID, vs hospitalized from the vaccine (whether because of it, or still contracting COVID), the data seems to support that - at a macro level - it is not a safer HEALTH option to not be vaccinated. And fwiw, from all that I've read and watched, the actual number of people that are allergic to the vaccine, or compromised to the extent that it is medically unsafe to take it is a minuscule fraction of a percent of the population.
Depends on what you value and what you fear. My own health might be number one, but it might also be second to the well-being of my family, for example. But even if you're right, and one's health is the standard, that's the point: "getting COVID" isn't the ONLY way that standard is not met. It's really depressing to keep reading these posts that just ASSUME that these people have the same mindset, outlook and risk tolerance as you (collective). I just don't assume that people that forego the vaccine that then get the virus are automatically "Wow, DTF was right; should have got the shot!"
And while I'm not personally advocating not getting the vaccine (I've got mine), the numbers are a bit... not misleading, but targeted. You ARE more likely to get sick and get sicker if you are unvaccinated, but here in the States, there are still 150 million unvaccinated, and only about 43 million cases, many of whom were sick either before vaccines or are break-through cases. Pick number: 43M? 30M? 20M? cases that occurred AFTER vaccines were widely available, and are in the unvaccinated. At 43M (not possible, since we know there are breakthrough cases), that's only a quarter of unvaccinated will ever get sick. At 20M (possible, but not likely), only about 13% will get sick (again, assuming that ALL the future sick are unvaccinated).
This is more stark globally.
230M cases, roughly, out of a population of 7.4B. Your chances of getting this, vaccinated or not, is something like 3%. IF you're skeptical about the long term effects of a vaccine, which is not an unreasonable position, even if there is no evidence NOW of any long term effects, then these numbers don't necessarily seem to imply "no vaccine" = "death sentence", expect in very specific demographics.
We had about 1.8M cases and 20k deaths in the last 14 days. Assuming they are all unvaccinated (they're not) that's 1% and 0.01% respectively of the unvaccinated. Assuming you're scared of the vaccine, is "0.01%" enough to sway you? Maybe, maybe not, but it's certainly not "bat-shit crazy" to think it might not.