Government lost the trust of an entire generation of people by trying to force them to do something against their will. What is best for the individual you is not often what is general greater good. It would be for the greater good if you went out and shared a bedroom with the next homeless person you see. It would probably be a terrible decision for you as the risk/reward ratio is probably pretty terrible.
Part of what makes the US great, is the fundamental principal that people are given the freedom to act in their own best interest, and that, on balance will produce the greater good for society as a whole.
Did people miscalculate the risk/reward by not taking the vaccine? For anyone under 40 the benefits are statistically insignificant for anyone without serious health problems to begin with. And this is why most people stopped at two shots, with time the obvious became apparent to even the ones that were scared and guilted into taking it.
> Government lost the trust of an entire generation of people by trying to force them to do something against their will.
81% of the US has had at least one dose of a covid vaccine. Governments lost (but probably never had) the trust of about 1/5 of americans, 1/10 of canadians, etc.
I have no regrets for taking the vaccine. The reduced risk of infecting the people around me (especially loved ones) who are at-risk was worth a sore arm for a half a day. I’m acting in the best interests of not just myself but the people i love and my community in general. You’re deeply over-stating how widespread the sentiment you describe is.
Did the vaccine stop the transmission, when almost everyone contracted covid
anyway at this point. There's plenty of evidence that natural immunity is the superior immunity. Which would mean that the vaccinated were more likely to contract COVID multiple times, and thus more likely to spread over the last two years.
“Natural” immunity would have to be much much better than vaccine immunity to outweigh all the first cases prevented by the vaccine in terms of total amount of virus shed into the world. When studies find a difference between”natural” and vaccine immunity (if they find a difference) it’s very small - so i don’t think this idea holds up.
