Comment by joecot | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joecot | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah, there are likely 3 categories of people currently waiting on the vaccine.

1. People who watched how chaotic it was to get a vaccine at first, and tuned out. They might not know how easy it is to get one now in most of the US, so some campaigning might be able to reach them.

2. People who want to "wait and see", who have concerns that there are longer term effects from the vaccines and want to wait to see if it's fine for other people they know. This might not necessarily just be people who are paranoid. Lots of folks with conditions that suppress their immune system are leery of the vaccine too, seeing how it's laid out some people with no immune system issues for days.

3. People who believe a wild conspiracy theory about getting microchipped, 5g, plannedemics, etc.

A lottery might get some of group #1 to check back in, but so would just better engagement. How much door to door canvassing would $5 million get?

It will have the exact opposite effect on groups 2 and 3, making them even more paranoid. If this is so great and doesn't have real drawbacks, why offer millions of dollars to get it?

I'm sort of a 4th category then. I've already had the virus twice. The first time I only lost sense of smell for a single day and had a very mild fever for three days, and the second time was only caught because I was lazy and didn't get good sleep the night before, so I called out "sick" from work, and they made me get tested before coming back and I tested positive while being asymptomatic. Had I not called out, wouldn't have known at all that I even had it a second time. Nobody else I came into contact with for days prior tested positive either, I do always wear a mask around others, and even while in my car while in a drive-thru.

Based on my experience of contracting the virus and being largely unaffected by it, I felt there was no urgent priority for me over others to receive the vaccine, since it's not beneficial to myself, so I waited until long after it became available to me before getting it, just self classifying as "lowest priority".

I understand the concept "getting vaccinated protects others" but at the time I contracted it a second time, the vaccine was not available to me, so having just had it for a second time, it was significantly less likely for me to contract a third time within the following few months. I did just get vaccinated on Monday with the Janssen one and so far have had no side effects at all from it.

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