I have never known anyone who has died from the flu, but I had 2 family members die, one who was not a lot older than me and previously healthy. Also had my friend's grandma die and 2 of my mom's friends. The latter were all over 65, but still, like I said I've never known anyone to die from the flu, although I am well aware many people have and do every year. Covid is certainly a far cry from a super deadly disease, it's no polio or smallpox, but it is still something to take seriously, it's not just the flu. Also a lot of people experience "long covid" including neurological problems and lung damage. We really don't understand much about it. people are worried about the long term side effects of the vaccines, which is sensible, but I worry about the long term side effects of covid more. Since I already had it, I guess I'll see whether it's something to worry about. I wish I would have gotten vaccinated early enough to avoid catching it, though. For all we know, covid will show back up 5 years later with a whole host of different symptoms like some other viruses do. I'm not and have never been terrified of the virus, but I think we should be trying to do whatever we can to minimize the amount of people getting it. It's really ramping up again now because of the delta variant. Some areas are running low on hospital beds again already, and are canceling elective procedures, which really sucks for those people.
I am most worried that it will mutate again into something worse than delta. That's my biggest active concern about the whole thing. Not the covid I already got, and not the vaccine I also got in order to give myself the best immunity possible. It sucked pretty bad when I got it, I don't fancy getting it again.
For these reasons, I really wish a lot more people hadn't become so fearful of the vaccines, but I do believe it should be everyone's own choice still, because of personal freedom. We even have a traditional vaccine (Johnson and Johnson) that isn't the new mRNA technology, which I would think should make some people less nervous, especially those who have had all the standard vaccinations throughout their lives that use the same technology. I get being nervous about a new technology that doesn't have a track record of human usage. But those are not the only option. It would be awesome if we could avoid 10 million more people needlessly dying worldwide. But it seems like we won't.
I'm curious what people who are against the vaccine think about the fact that they caught a Russian group the other day operating a massive vaccine disinformation campaign? Does that say anything to you about this whole thing? Maybe they're just trying to get everyone to want their vaccine? Or else spreading societal discord.