Should I get the Covid vaccine?

[David1701]

5 minutes ago, one.opinion said:

There is insufficient data to arrive at any other conclusion. Everything else is just conjecture.

There is insufficient data to arrive at any long-term conclusion yet; that is the point.  The concerns of serious medical professionals are being suppressed.  They could turn out to be unfounded, but they should be investigated properly and not dismissed.

[Thewhitedove]

I was in this exact situation a few months ago. I will talk you through my thought/prayer process.

I asked God to show me His will. I did lots and lots of research from a range of sources. However I still realised that there were so many layers of grey that I had to go to God and that I would never get a black and white answer from worldly sources.

Crucially, the vaccine wasn't going to cost my salvation so that was one major hurdle moved out of the way.

I asked God to guide me and promised Him that I would do whatever He willed me. I listened to worship music, read scripture and prayed constantly. I wrote God letters asking for His wisdom. 

One day, when I started thinking about it, I just felt peace going ahead with it. I started thinking about the Scripture 'no weapon formed against you will harm you' and I trusted, deep down, that God would protect me from any I'll effects.

Now, to be clear, I am not a vulnerable person health wise. I have a pretty decent immune system as a teacher of young kids and have never feared getting Covid in the way someone with other conditions might. I was thinking of trying for a baby and wanted to get it done before then, if I was going to do it. 

I decided that I would rather risk any potential side effects than go against the advice and end up getting it and being blamed for someone else getting sick, like my elderly parents for example.

I kept getting a sense of the word 'proceed' so I decided to book the vaccine and asked God to intervene if it wasn't His will. The night before the appointment I had a dream that there was a white snake in my living room and I was petrified. The more I looked at it, the more I realised it was strange and when I looked up close I realised that it was a plastic snake with painted-on eyes. Totally harmless. I woke up and knew that if I took the vaccine, it wouldn't harm me.

I will admit that I was nervous right up until the vaccinator had the needle up to my arm and in that second I looked up and poured my heart out out to Jesus, asking for Him to intervene if it wasn't His will and telling Him that I trusted Him and would do anything that He wanted. Suddenly it was over. I had no side effects, and went ahead with the second shot with confidence.

I turned to the Lord with all my heart and begged for his wisdom for weeks. I just cannot believe that He would turn His back on me and lead me astray in the face of my earnest pleas for help and guidance. I have full confidence that I did the right thing and I don't regret it. 

 

 

[one.opinion]

2 minutes ago, David1701 said:

There is insufficient data to arrive at any long-term conclusion yet

We have over 8 months of data showing that these are very safe. What would you prefer to have happened? Scientists develop a vaccine, finish all trials, then wait 5-10 years to make sure that nothing completely unforeseen took place?

[David1701]

2 minutes ago, Thewhitedove said:

I was in this exact situation a few months ago. I will talk you through my thought/prayer process.

I asked God to show me His will. I did lots and lots of research from a range of sources. However I still realised that there were so many layers of grey that I had to go to God and that I would never get a black and white answer from worldly sources.

Crucially, the vaccine wasn't going to cost my salvation so that was one major hurdle moved out of the way.

I asked God to guide me and promised Him that I would do whatever He willed me. I listened to worship music, read scripture and prayed constantly. I wrote God letters asking for His wisdom. 

One day, when I started thinking about it, I just felt peace going ahead with it. I started thinking about the Scripture 'no weapon formed against you will harm you' and I trusted, deep down, that God would protect me from any I'll effects.

Now, to be clear, I am not a vulnerable person health wise. I have a pretty decent immune system as a teacher of young kids and have never feared getting Covid in the way someone with other conditions might. I was thinking of trying for a baby and wanted to get it done before then, if I was going to do it. 

I decided that I would rather risk any potential side effects than go against the advice and end up getting it and being blamed for someone else getting sick, like my elderly parents for example.

I kept getting a sense of the word 'proceed' so I decided to book the vaccine and asked God to intervene if it wasn't His will. The night before the appointment I had a dream that there was a white snake in my living room and I was petrified. The more I looked at it, the more I realised it was strange and when I looked up close I realised that it was a plastic snake with painted-on eyes. Totally harmless. I woke up and knew that if I took the vaccine, it wouldn't harm me.

I will admit that I was nervous right up until the vaccinator had the needle up to my arm and in that second I looked up and poured my heart out out to Jesus, asking for Him to intervene if it wasn't His will and telling Him that I trusted Him and would do anything that He wanted. Suddenly it was over. I had no side effects, and went ahead with the second shot with confidence.

I turned to the Lord with all my heart and begged for his wisdom for weeks. I just cannot believe that He would turn His back on me and lead me astray in the face of my earnest pleas for help and guidance. I have full confidence that I did the right thing and I don't regret it. 

 

 

Certainly God can protect you from harm (whether harm from a virus, vaccine, or anything else).  For your peace of mind, he could also lead you to take the vaccine, whilst promising that you will be safe.  I have no problem with this at all; but, that does not mean that God will lead everyone else to do the same thing.

[Thewhitedove]

4 minutes ago, David1701 said:

Certainly God can protect you from harm (whether harm from a virus, vaccine, or anything else).  For your peace of mind, he could also lead you to take the vaccine, whilst promising that you will be safe.  I have no problem with this at all; but, that does not mean that God will lead everyone else to do the same thing.

I know, it's a very personal thing. Was just sharing my journey towards that point.

[David1701]

2 minutes ago, one.opinion said:

We have over 8 months of data showing that these are very safe. What would you prefer to have happened? Scientists develop a vaccine, finish all trials, then wait 5-10 years to make sure that nothing completely unforeseen took place?

Most vaccinations take 5-10 years to develop and test properly.  As far as I know, the fastest previous vaccine was developed in 4 years (the Ebola vaccine) but Ebola has a death rate in the region of 80%, if I recall correctly; whereas, Covid has a death rate, for those under 60, of about 0.5%.

It is widely recognised that it is important to wait for some time (not just a few months) to see if there are any serious, long-term effects from vaccines (after all, you can't undo them and a huge percentage of the population gets them).

[Alive]

Each side of this debate insists that the other isn't being reasonable in looking at available information and both for similar reasons. Its almost comical.

The fact remains, regardless of rhetoric and protestation---these vaccines have simply not been tested as prior ones have. All of science and medicine have agreed for many decades in the required protocols for all medicine development.

This simply can't be refuted and yet it is.

Past that simple fact that we should all be able to agree with---there are the actual mathamatics being reported the world over. Math related to both the danger of the virus and the dangers of the jabs, while at the same time some therapeutics are being suppressed.

And much more...shouldn't we all be able to face these things squarely?

And then agree to say to one another---that there are things we don't know yet and that there are reasons to be suspect of motives?

This seems so plain to me---its like there is some sort of veil over minds.

[one.opinion]

7 minutes ago, Alive said:

Each side of this debate insists that the other isn't being reasonable in looking at available information and both for similar reasons. Its almost comical.

When it comes to the debate regarding vaccine efficacy and safety, there is a single side that is based on evidence.

[Sparks]

5 hours ago, Deborah_ said:

My advice would be that, unless you have some personal medical contra-indication, you SHOULD have the vaccine. 

That's not "giving in to what everyone else wants". It's common sense.

Not to have the vaccine would be "giving in" - giving in to fear induced by reading too many online articles. It's much too easy to find the handful of "immunology experts" giving frantic warnings about this or that complication, which gives an entirely false impression. In fact, the vast majority of doctors and immunologists in the world think the vaccine is a good thing - don't their opinions count for anything?

I'm a doctor myself. I've had the vaccine, as has virtually everyone else I know. We're all alive and well, months later. The vaccine is not totally without risk (no vaccine or medicine is), but the risks are MUCH LESS than the risks of catching the virus itself - and yes, I also know people who have died or have long-term ill-effects from the virus.

This is exactly what I was mentioning in my prior post about asking how people who have taken the experimental vaccine arrived at their decision to take it.  With all due respect to poster, all I see here is a few appeals to authority, and the claim that 'we have taken the shot and we are not dead yet' as the reasoning.  But no research.

[Deborah_]

20 minutes ago, Sparks said:

This is exactly what I was mentioning in my prior post about asking how people who have taken the experimental vaccine arrived at their decision to take it.  With all due respect to poster, all I see here is a few appeals to authority, and the claim that 'we have taken the shot and we are not dead yet' as the reasoning.  But no research.

And here is the problem: second-class research and poor quality data (such as the VAERS data, which is often misused by anti-vaccination campaigners) is easy to find on the Internet. The good stuff is hidden away in academic journals behind subscription walls. A few months ago, on another forum, I was asked to come up with some evidence to support my position that was (a) freely available and (b) understandable by the average lay person. I tried. In the (relatively short) time available, I failed. Now that I'm retired, I don't have academic access any more. But during my career I've learned who I can trust. I'm trusting them now - that's why I've had the vaccine. 

The proof of the pudding is always in the eating. The vaccine isn't perfect, I know - it doesn't prevent all infections - but we didn't have time to wait for a perfect one. Over time, the evidence we want is coming in, and it's becoming ever clearer that it's better to have the vaccine than not to have it. 

It's understandable that many people were reluctant to be vaccinated at the beginning of the year, when the vaccine really was new. But we know a lot more about the vaccines now - and the personal experience of the millions of happily vaccinated people is surely as deserving of consideration as the negative experiences of the unfortunate few who have had serious problems with it.