The Explanation for Seemingly Irrational Covid Behavior

bloomberg.com

3 points·temp8964··4 comments

I would love to think that those not getting vaccinated are thoughtful enough to be thinking about intertemporal substitution. But honestly, I just don't see it.

I think some of it is believing misinformation, and the rest is just plain stubbornness (excluding those with medical reasons not to, of course).

Something doesn't add up though.

1) virus is highly contagious 2) unvaxxed run around without care

So how has it not propagated through everyone after months (of delta), at least in those areas with lower vaxxed rates? I'm thinking there is some form of at least social distancing preventing this.

I'm not vaccinated. I have been exposed to people infected with coronavirus at least about 2 dozen times over the last year and a half through my job (close contact, under a meter) and family (same). I suspect I might have had it already early on before testing was easy. It just doesn't scare me. I think the measures taken against it were not justified and I won't contribute to Big Pharma by getting the vaccine.

Edit: The only "irrational covid behaviour" is the mass hysteria around it.

I think allowing the federal government to insert itself so intimately in our careers with such strange specificity is a precedent set today (in an emergency) that we will come to regret. Its not just the rights taken away today of those you disagree with its the long term decrease in burden to take away anybodies rights. Even apart from the intertemporal concerns, some of these decisions seem immediately negative: Does it really make sense for instance to introduce mandates which cripple businesses on which we directly depend to get through this crisis? What is the long term outcome? How can we model our situation and chart a course. Is vaccination the only hammer?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com