you know, i was just gunna ignore this, and let you be a ignorant on this, but since I’m a frontline healthcare worker, it’s going to bug me if i don’t tell you exactly how incorrect this statement is.
1. Yes, being vaccinated adds a great layer of protection against covid. The vaccines, overall, are extremely effective, in that they allow for 90-95% protection against some of the primary covid strains. Meaning that for many people who are vaccinated, they don’t have to necessarily put their full trust in others to also be vaccinated.
2. I cannot emphasize this enough, but BEING VACCINATED IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING 100% FULLY PROTECTED, ESPECIALLY NOT FROM COVID VARIANTS. Being vaccinated is not a bullet-proof shield against covid. You CAN still catch the virus, even if you’re fully vaccinated, and while for many people, vaccination will prevent them from experiencing severe symptoms if they catch, you can absolutely still get infected (even without symptoms) and still spread the illness to others.
3. The covid vaccines, while effective, do not protect against many of the variant covid strains we are currently dealing with, and while the vaccine does offer protection against some of those variant strains, it doesn’t protect you as efficiently from them. My coordinator is a prime example. She is fully vaccinated, and has been since they first became available to frontline healthcare workers like us. However, she caught a variant strain of covid and experienced a horrific, month-long illness that she is still trying to recover from (months later) and that she will likely suffer with for years to come. Every classic covid symptom, she had it. Every symptom that persists past covid’s resolution (like brain fog, shortness of breath, etc…) she’s still experiencing. Upon antibody testing, they found she did develop full antibodies to the vaccine like she was supposed to; but they also found that after she caught the strain, she developed antibodies from that particular strain that were different than the vaccine antibodies she’d already developed.
Just because you are vaccinated, even fully, does not mean you are 100% safe, especially if other people around you aren’t fully vaccinated, or if they’re jackasses and are lying about their vaccination status just to take their masks off. You can absolutely still catch covid and its variants if you’re vaccinated; you can absolutely suffer the full extent of that illness even if the chances are reduced; and you can absolutely still asymptomatically carry the virus and/or its variants, and transmit it to others.
The vaccine is extra protection, and I’m so happy we have it. I’m thrilled to be vaccinated. I do feel safer; but I’m not letting that feeling of safety lure me into being careless. Being vaccinated is not a green light to ignore proper safety or to trust that others have your safety in mind. Despite what y’all want to think, this pandemic is still happening. People are still catching covid and its variants, and they’re dying from it. I’ve seen it in my hospital to this day.
Think of the vaccine like the seat belt in your car. That seat belt is critical and it has saved countless lives. But it’s not a guaranteed safety measure, and it doesn’t give you the freedom to drive like a maniac just cause you’re wearing it. Your seat belt also doesn’t guarantee that others aren’t going to hit your car in a way that’s so damaging your seat belt can’t help you. Having the seat belt on will absolutely make you safer!!! But it doesn’t mean you’re 100% protected from the dangers of a crash.
So no, even if you’re vaccinated, if you want to take your mask off, you’re still having to place your trust in others that they are vaccinated too. If you’re vaccinated and don’t want to wear a mask, you still have to trust that other people aren’t just being lying assholes and potentially still exposing you to covid and/or its variants, and thus enabling you to potentially carry and/or transmit it.
So don’t be stupid. Don’t blindly trust that every fucker out there without a mask is following proper CDC guidelines and is fully vaccinated and that you’re totally safe. You’re safer, if you’re vaccinated, for sure. Just like you’re safer in your car if you wear a seat belt. But that doesn’t mean you get full reign to be careless. We are not yet to a point of effective herd immunity for covid. Wear your mask. Wear your seat belt.
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