I’m concerned but I don’t know what I can do about that other than make sure my whole family is vaccinated.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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That's all you can do, really. Should give you a bit of satisfaction, too, knowing you did something incredibly simple that could prevent a ton of hardship.
This will make you see red. My nephew cannot get vaccinated for legitimate health reasons. His parents were always pro-vax until it came time for the Covid vaccine. Then they became all “mRNA is a new technology, we don’t have enough research.” We basically stopped talking to them after my husband yelled at his brother (nephew’s dad) that he is risking killing his own son if he gets Covid. So fucking stupid. Yes, they are conservative although they claim not to support Trump.
we have a domestic cult that doesn't listen to anything outside of the cult. for the people not in the cult, most are not against medicine and other modern things. some of us are actual scientists and feel like we just live here.
Because, in spite (or perhaps because of) the 'rough individualist' propaganda, most Americans have a strong sense of powerlessness and that all they can do is keep their head down and hope for the best. It veers into some really absurdist fatalism at times.
t. leftist American from a conservative area who still keeps tabs on family
who still keeps tabs on family
Oof.
Luckily, the family member I'm closest to, my mother, is religiously fundamentalist and nationalist in a way that vaccinated her against MAGA, bizarrely. So talking to her is like having a 10+ year window into the past.
But yeah, for the rest, oof.
Because, quite frankly, Americans are idiots. They would rather scarf down misinformation given by their news anchors than open a book and/or think for themselves.
Amen. A country of trash.
For a disease to be prevented from spreading, you need a certain percentage of people to be immune. It's different from disease to disease and also depends on the vaccine itself. Some diseases like Covid can still be spread to people who are vaccinated (though obviously the worst of the symptoms are mitigated).
For the sake of example, let's say you need 90% immunity for a disease to not spread. Maybe 5% of the population cannot be vaccinated due to immune conditions, being too young, etc. That gives 5% of wiggle room.
Then there are acolytes of the fraudster, Andrew Wakefield, who faked data to get a flashy headline to get published in a prestigious journal. That includes RFK jr., Jenny Mccarthy, mayim bialik, etc. Clinging to their views for so long makes them unable to change them even if you show them proof that they are wrong. That might be another 1% of people.
There are a very small percentage of people who shun vaccines for lets say "true" religious reasons. Most of the people who try to claim religious reasoning for refusing vaccines are members of religions that are completely fine with vaccines. They are usually just really stupid people who are scared of needles and/or don't think it's that big of a deal with modern medicine. That's probably another 1% of people.
Then there are people that are homeless or otherwise outside of the system. Vaccines are one of the most cost effective methods to improve health of a country, so despite the nightmare that is our healthcare system, you typically should never have to pay for a vaccine. It may be a bit more work than someone who is homeless and/or has substance abuse or mental health problems can prioritize. That might be another 1%.
All together, that would put us at 92%, above the threshold for a widespread epidemic, but all of those categories of people who don't get vaccinated tend to be in communities, and so we can have outbreaks in those communities.
People only care about narratives, and a side effect of having a scientific/naturalistic worldview is that things like disease become narratively inert.
People used to care a lot more about diseases when they could be given narrative causes like witchcraft or demons.
How Not To Die in only 17 minutes
How Not To Die from Heart Disease, the leading killer of Americans
The leading causes of death of Americans are all preventable, and none of them are viral infections. (Though COVID might have moved the numbers somewhat.)
d e s p e r a t i o n
What is there to live for? Collective pain and misery. Be a mensch and let go.
Questions like this seem stupid, or they just need to be phrased in a more reasonable way.