I was speaking for myself and that should have been obvious from my post.
For me the FR alone was more than enough to decide I would never get a vax for covid.
I considered it absurd then and I still do.
It is indeed an individual choice, and I’m not going to argue against that, but I worked in an industry greatly effected by people getting infected with COVID and having very serious illnesses (some still very will years later) and dying. Never had something like that happen before or since - nor had I ever seen so many people I know dying and losing close friends and relatives in such a short period of time - ever. Also had a close friend who was young, athletic and healthy become deathly ill twice with several months - the initial round and then when Delta was spreading - it was very scary for him and his family. I don’t think I would have survived the COVID strains going on at the start of the pandemic given some of the health issues I have that put you at greater risk, hence I did get a vaccine when it was available. I elected not to get boosters (just like I would not get last year’s flu vaccine this year). Maybe I would have survived but that’s not an experiment I would go back and try to see. All that combined does not make it “absurd” to suggest COVID was serious and that some would consider getting a vaccine for it. It was based entirely on a terrible reality that was indeed occurring.
Much of what I learned was also from FR postings and many more people were dying and did die in 2020/2021 from the data in the US than on average due to COVID.
Amazingly, many people still claimed that things like heart attacks, strokes, myocarditis, etc. weren’t ever talked about prior to the vaccines, but of course they were - and plastered all over the place here, and it is very difficult to believe those people would not have seen it. It isn’t like COVID wasn’t a major topic of discussion during that period of time. Some people just live in alternate realities and still do. Now they take data from the *current* effectiveness of getting vaccines and apply it retroactively to what was occurring during the worst part of the pandemic after the vaccines were available to say “see, we were right all along!” Totally absurd logic.