Anonymous
By Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP, Health Officer County of Santa Barbara, Department of Public Health
1) Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 will keep you from getting sick. The available vaccines are very effective in preventing infection and illness from COVID-19. In very rare cases where one does catch the virus, the vaccine will prevent you from becoming seriously ill or needing to be hospitalized.
2) Those who choose to be vaccinated can enjoy more activities. According to the CDPH, can:
- Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
- Visit with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single other household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
- Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel
- Refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel (unless required by the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the United States
- Refrain from testing following a known exposure, if asymptomatic, with some exceptions for specific settings
- Refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic
- Refrain from routine screening testing if asymptomatic and feasible
3) Getting vaccinated helps our entire community. Returning to a more fully opened lifestyle will require herd immunity, which most experts estimate will happen when between 75%-85% of the United States population is vaccinated. We all need to do our part to achieve herd immunity by getting vaccinated.
4) Protecting yourself by getting vaccinated also protects those around you, including those at increased risk of severe illness from the virus, or those who can’t get vaccinated such as infants or people with weakened immune systems from things such as chemotherapy for cancer.
5) COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. The effectiveness of our available vaccines in preventing infection, severe illness and death from COVID-19 is remarkably high. The safety of the vaccines are a top priority and we have procedures in place to ensure the safety of any vaccine that is authorized or approved for use.
For more information about the COVID-19 guidance and the local response, please visit https://publichealthsbc.org. For those that need assistance in making vaccination appointments, please call 2-1-1 option 4 in Santa Barbara County.
I think they primarily used the Chinese vaccine. I sure hope the vaccines we are using work better.
Everybody please argue and re-litigate the positions you’ve held and bloviated on for the past year in 3…2…1
Oh Chip beat me to it.
A poll from NPR, PBS and Marist found about 47 percent of Trump voters and 41 percent of Republicans said they would not get the vaccine compared to 10 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of those who voted for President Joe Biden. This is due to the fact that Republican voters are more likely to believe low information conspiracy theories that comfort their own short-sighted, ill-informed, massively uneducated world views.
There are a lot of unknowns about the vaccines being distributed under emergency use authorizations. How effective are they, particularly against new variants? How long does “immunity” last? Are there any
Long term side effects? The answer is we don’t know yet. As far as the risk vs benefits calculation goes, it varies for different people. For young children, the fda had not yet judged the benefits of vaccination to outweigh the risks and has not issued an EUA allowing the vaccination of children. This makes sense because Covid poses a very low risk to children. The vaccines also have risks. See this example of a young woman who would have been a lot better off unvaccinated. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-03/victims-of-rare-vaccine-injury-wait-to-see-if-u-s-fund-will-pay?sref=i4qXzk6d This is why taking a vaccine should be an individual choice made with informed consent. I would also caution that although the makers of the vaccine are exempt from liability, other entities are not. Any person or organization who coerces people to get vaccinated is liable for any harm caused by the vaccine. Note the medical bills for the young woman in the article are already over 1/2 million, and it is not clear what the long term implications of her injuries will be or what level of care she will require for the rest of her life.
“you can’t legislate morality”.
Then prostitution should be 100% legal. And many other things….
“you can’t legislate morality”.
And then there should be no laws stopping abortion as well.
No Chip – liberals have plenty of tolerance for other opinions – but when those opinions are harmful, racist, misogynistic, or disproven by science or historical fact – then the snowflake conservatives get uppity for being called out on it.
VOR – none of that made any sense. I was being sarcastic about bastions of LGBQT rights because you proclaimed Trump as some sort of savior due to one appointment. Anyway……if conservatives are truly all about “your right to do whatever you want to do,” then why all the resistance to LGBQT friendly legislation? How about censorship of music lyrics? Gay wedding cakes? Trans medical procedures? Family benefits for domestic partners? Why do you ignore all my examples and just proclaim conservatives will stand up for “whatever you want to do?” How about abortion? Are conservatives really “each his/her own?” No way. I think you’re confusing conservatives with Libertarians. Either that, you’re your joking.
VOR trying to argue that conservatives are anti-corporate – now that is rich. Thanks for the laugh 🙂
Conservatives are the queens of cancel culture. Yet they spin that in the media to say the other side are cancellers….. You guys are still undermining a legitimate election. Conservatives have cancelled the Lakers for Lebron James – cancelled the NBA for allowing BLM signage on court last year, cancelled any team where a member kneels for the anthem, they cancelled Nike over Kaepernick, cancelled Saturday Night Live, cancelled Beyonce, boycotted Target for allowing transgender bathroom arrangements, cancelled NASCAR for banning the confederate flag. Conservatives invented cancel culture – and Trump turned it into a political grenade. Conservatives ditched Taylor Swift for being a democrat (remember the Dixie Chicks in 03?). To name just a few.
GeneralTree: I agree with you in part, but how does one explain that nearly 70% of those who have died from COVID are not conservatives or Republicans? It’s interesting that those who are conservative/Republican are not the folks who are dying from this virus. Go figure.
Babysnakes ” It’s interesting that those who are conservative/Republican are not the folks who are dying from this virus.” Conservatives aren’t dying from the virus? The decline of deaths in Democratic districts has outpaced the national average, decreasing from an average of more than seven new deaths per day in mid-April to about four new deaths per day in the second half of May.
During this same period, the number of new deaths in districts controlled by Republicans has remained relatively steady (an average of just under two deaths per day in GOP districts).
Ahchoo, but if you’re vaccinated and your mom is vaccinated it shouldn’t matter if you came across an unvaccinated person. If you follow the science that is, if you follow the psychology then sure continue to live in fear.
Lightning (note spelling) doesn’t breed virus variants the way unvaxxed people will.
There is a bit more to it than that generaltree. Republicans, or so called “conservatives” believe strongly in individuality and personal choice. They are accepting of other people who are different. In the case of vaccines, this explains the near 50-50 split you describe. Some choose to vaccinate, some choose not to, and they respect each other’s choice. There are even cases of married couples where on spouse chooses to vaccinate and the other chooses not to. For “conservatives” differences are respected and it’s not a big deal. For democrats or so called “liberals” there is no tolerance for people who are different. They believe there is only one acceptable path in life and demand that everyone follow it. So called “liberals” have strict codes of conduct for what people are allowed to say and how people are allowed to act. Anyone who differs is attacked and coerced until they conform. This is why nearly all “liberals” are getting vaccinated. It is not enlightened personal choice, but rather pressure to conform and a fear of being different.
How’s this working out for anti-ex-president Trump Republican politicians?
We can all go back and forth on this subject all day. Let’s just understand it’s a personal choice and try not to divide our country anymore on this subject. It’s so sad to me to see family and friends fighting and actually avoiding each other over this.m
Come on, everyone! Get vaccinated! It’ll be fun!
I think you summed it up rather accurately (and without any name calling or insults which is hard from many here to manage when discussing anything other than their preferred party). It’s like the parties have completely flip flopped the past 10-20 years. Remember when UC schools were bastions of free speech and personal expression and liberals fought against big businesses / corporate America while conservatives where trying to ban violent video games and bad language in music? Now the left is the one silencing speech they don’t agree with, are in bed Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Wall Street, while the right has become / is becoming the party of the working class.
Chip of SB , this is true, what your stating, I have encountered this myself. I have to change the subject now, or be chastised because I have a different opinion. So who’s really making this political? Are the asking what’s your political choice when you get vaccinated? Or having your own view and choice not allowed anymore, by democrats? Seems to be.
CHIP- I could not have said it better. I feel great pressure to vaccinate from “liberal” friends and family who speak of “Science”, a science that remains unproven from both efficacy and safety perspectives. This is not about antivax folks, it is about these particular unproven, experimental vaccines. It will takes years to intelligently assess both efficacy and safety. All else is desperate straw grasping in a world that is changing most profoundly and distressingly.
Chip- I could not have…is a comment from CHANNELFOG don’t know why it came up annon.
Chip of SB says “For “conservatives” differences are respected and it’s not a big deal.”
I think Liz Cheney begs to differ.
I consider myself liberal, but not the nutty, intolerant kind that Chip speaks of. I find it interesting that Chip claims that “conservatives” respect differences, when that is often far from the truth. Any of these broad generalizations don’t hold up when analyzed. Also, liberal or conservative, the ones getting vaccinated are doing so because they believe what various scientists say and have seen the benefit of vaccines throughout history. It is absolutely not due to pressure to conform, at least not for any of the many liberals I know.
Those that don’t want to get vaccinated are ok by me. If they decide to risk getting the virus and giving it to loved ones and people they work and socialize with, also okay by me. The rest of us will get vaccinated and feel sad for their ignorance, but it is impossible to legislate social responsibility or socially responsible behavior.
Chip, I find it hard to believe conservatives respect differences. For example, being gay. If conservatives respected that difference, gay people would have been able to marry a long time ago.
That may have been conservatives position decades ago when it was more rooted in Christianity but these day there all about to each his own. Do remember that Trump appointed the first openly gay person to a cabinet position.
I dunno VOR. It seems to me like most conservatives I’ve met are pretty homophobic but if like you say its changing then that’s good.
The big risk, obviously, is that allowing them to give it to others means that those people can give it to even more people, and some innocent people down the road will die.
Also, the more spread there is, the more chance of variants. The more variants, the more likely they evade the vaccines.
Basically, like the nursing home in Kentucky, where people died.
When was the last time you met a conservative and how did you know they were “pretty homophobic”?
VOR – which states, Republican or Democrat, have actively resisted LGBQT rights? Examples: gay weddings, family leave and other benefits for domestic partners, trans bathrooms, trans medical procedures, etc etc etc….
Also, Trump appointing an openly gay person doesn’t make the conservatives bastions of LGBQT rights. Lol….come on now.
Sac, a majority of california voters passed prop 8 which outlawed gay marriage. Also, Hado, I know and have met a lot of people who would be identified as “conservative” and I have never encountered the type of prejudice you describe. I would urge some caution in judging conservatives, because they do not abide by speech codes the same way liberals do. I think the film grand Torino provides a good example of a character who is a bit rough around the edges and uses some coarse language that doesn’t fit with liberal speech codes yet still has a heart of gold. It’s easy to misjudge people, liberal and conservative, if you don’t get to know them a little bit.