Comment by xkbarkar | Hacker News Reader

Comment by xkbarkar | Hacker News Reader

> Months ago he was insisting that the people who had contracted COVID-19 and who had antibodies in their system may not need the vaccine. Now, we have a number of studies coming out to support that. But months ago that was "anti-vax" (employing the slanderous use of the term).

I live in Iceland. Recovery from cov-sars-2 infection is considered as valid as a vaccine here. The same goes for Norway and ( to the best of my knowledge) Sweden, Denmark and Finland. They all recognize recovery from covid-19 as sufficcient protection.

Looking at US and Canada, along with a slew of terrifying commenters in this thread, the entire Nordic region consist of misinformed anti-vaxxers that have fallen prey to fake news by this definition.

We have also never put masks on our 24 month old toddlers. US and Canda WTF is wrong with you? We have a very high vaccination rate here in Iceland but that did not stop hospitalisations, or deaths. But definetly decreased them. Our high vaccination rate has had 0 effect on the spread of infections though. Even if hospitalizations have reaped the benefits because of it. If anything we got the highest wave of infections we have ever encountered this summer. But with a clear decrease in hospital load. We went back to mandates after only a very brief 4 week reopening because our high vaccination rate did absolutely nothing to stop the spread.

When this fact hit us in Iceland, when the summer wave hit, we as a country went into a state of mild shock. As so many nations we declared victory way, way too soon.

No one mentions this in the news though. Crickets. We might not even exist for all CNN, Times, all the Posts and vox cares.

I am not in any high risk group. Got moderna 2 shots, I still have PTSD from the side effects of the second shot. I sincerely thought I took the vaccine to help prevent the spread. But I most likely went through one of the worst nights of my life for no good fucking reason whatsoever. I statistically never needed the extra protection, I can still very much catch cov-sars-2 and still very much infect and kill another fully vaccinated vulnerable human being.

I guess I am now a misinformed anti-vaxxer

While I'm sure some people would dismiss this entire comment as anecdotal I thank you for writing it.

> I can still very much catch cov-sars-2 and still very much infect and kill another fully vaccinated vulnerable human being.

You just admitted that vaccinations decreased hospitalizations, which means that vaccinations decreased the severity of infections, which means that vaccinations decreased the chances of someone who is vaccinated from dying after getting infected

Yes, he also explicitly admitted that in his comment. So not much of a gotcha.

> We have a very high vaccination rate here in Iceland but that did not stop hospitalisations, or deaths

Let's fact check this. Here's Reuters COVID data from Iceland: https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-m...

Iceland has had a grand total of 33 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. There have been 3 deaths total since May 2021, which is remarkable on it's own, but especially since Iceland's infections during the pandemic peaked in early August 2021. So, no, vaccines didn't totally stop the deaths. But vaccines dramatically reduced them and prevented what likely would have been a spike in deaths in August.

Here's more from the Washington Post, which actually seems to remember that Iceland exists: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/iceland-covid-su...

> Many of the country’s recent infections have occurred among vaccinated people, but they’ve been overwhelmingly mild.

> Iceland’s rates of covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths have remained low. Of the 1,300 people currently infected, just 2 percent are in the hospital.

> The country hasn’t recorded a virus death since late May. [The article was written in early August before those 3 additional deaths].

No comment on whether you're an anti-vaxxer, but you are misinformed.

> No comment on whether you're an anti-vaxxer, but you are misinformed.

No they are not. Your fact check confirmed their statements. "We have a very high vaccination rate here in Iceland but that did not stop hospitalisations, or deaths. But definetly decreased them. Our high vaccination rate has had 0 effect on the spread of infections though."

I don't understand how can call the OP misinformed when you are stating identical statements. The only difference in your posts is the narrative (spin) surrounding the facts.

> which actually seems to remember that Iceland exists:

OP is from Iceland! Slow down and think about how condescending your post reads.

The tone of the original comment suggests that Iceland is in some dire situation with respect to covid, that the vaccine's effectiveness is questionable, and that the vaccine specifically hasn't prevented deaths. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Yes, tone matters. Tone that sends the message that vaccines aren't effective, as the original poster's tone suggests, is misinformation.

No, that was not the tone. No where in the comment was anything like "vaccine specifically hasn't prevented deaths."

That interpretation was created by you. Somehow you stretched "doesn't stop the spread" (a fact) to "hasn't prevented deaths / hospitalizations" which is in direct opposition to "But definetly[sic] decreased them."

You strawmanned an Icelander, then pivoted to tone policing. Please stop and apologize to the OP. Please reflect and understand that by invalidating people's real lived experiences you are creating more division, more animosity, more "anti vaxxers"! If you can simply reply to misinformation with good information (without strawmanning or tone policing), you will make actual progress on what I hope is your true goal; making people more informed about covid vaccines. If your true motivation is to feel morally superior to random people on the internet, then by all means, continue to debate me.

>our high vaccination rate did absolutely nothing to stop the spread.

It was never going to. People have been asking for decades, "Why don't we have a vaccine for the common cold?" And the answer is because it's a type of virus that evolves too quickly. So we just can't. Not really. It's just not remotely as effective as say a smallpox vaccine. And SARS COV-2 is the same type of virus. A coronavirus.

It's just an opportunist money grab by big pharma, and an authoritarian power grab by those in power "for your own good".

It was always going to kill a large number (but small percentage) of people. The "vaccine" didn't stop that one bit. But you can't prove this because we can't go back in time and run to separate Earths, one with the "vaccine"s and one without. So they'll pretend it helped without it being possible to know if it did or not.

Seems like you owned yourself. By your own statement "But you can't prove this because we can't go back in time and run to separate Earths". Right now in the US, we don't have an answer to either question because of people that are unable to interpret the facts.

AstraZeneca is selling their vaccine at cost. Plenty of vaccines have been required for activities in the past, I had to provide proof of vaccination for both public school and college for my children. The real power/money grab is by all the folks blasting out this misinformation. I didn't pay a dime for my vaccine, it was provided at cost by Moderna to the organization, who distributed it for free to the public.

You realize don't you that Tucker Carlson and all the Youtubers get paid based on how much they get viewed, right? That's the money grab you're looking for...

Have you actually compared Iceland with its high vaccination rate and places without? Iceland is kicking ass. We know vaccinations reduce transmission as well as hospitalizations and deaths.

Also, PTSD? What happened to you??

Thank you for telling the truth.

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