You really think that this article is trying to exaggerate the dangers of the covid vaccine? Even when the headline starts with “In rare cases”
An excerpt from the article:
Probing possible side effects presents a dilemma to researchers: They risk fomenting rejection of vaccines that are generally safe, effective, and crucial to saving lives. “You have to be very careful” before tying COVID-19 vaccines to complications, Nath cautions. “You can make the wrong conclusion. … The implications are huge.”
Even when the article explicitly qualifies it claims and actively encourages the reader to not exaggerate the claims?
I don’t think OP is “feigning confusion” but rather that people have a knee jerk reaction to anything to do with the risks of the covid vaccine.
If anything, it is the community and moderation teams responsibility to ensure toxic comments are downvoted or removed.
If you decide to never allow anything “controversial” on HN, it is an easy backdoor for bad actors to get articles they don’t like flagged. All they have to do is make comments inciting controversy or astroturf the comments from both sides.
There might also be some kind of fatigue wrt. pandemic news.
If your way of life is changed in a way you disagree with, e.g. forced vaccine or Use of Corona passport, then discussion can get heated and the respect is lost.
In this article i find it unprofessional to flag it, i would sincerely hope that Hacker News is better than that.
It should be the merit of the article and not politics that decide if something gets flagged or not.
The state of things is that highly vaccinated countries like mine are experiencing the biggest baddest infection and death rate yet. This isn't the outcome projected when they were nagging, blackmailing, and propagandizing us every day for 2 years about reaching "80% vaccination".
The public did what they were told, and more. We're now above 90% vaccination, but apparently that isn't enough. We need blunt, symbolic tactics now, such as kicking unvaccinated athletes out of the country to "send a message" about vaccination. Desperate measures including mass-behavioral manipulation and psychological tactics dripping in political spin.
> a very strong anti-vaccine narrative chomping at the bit
You're kidding yourself if you think narratives and "chomping at the bit" is exclusively the domain of the anti-vaxxer, and not exercised by those pushing and enforcing mandates.
Fighting one form of propaganda with another form, is not a game I'd ever participate in. Why would anyone? Surely we want practical measures that suit the changing conditions of a pandemic, rather than broad immovable "rules are rules" policies.
> hospitalizations and deaths are down
Depending on how you look at it. End of the day where I live...(Jan 18, 2022):
> "Victoria has declared an unprecedented system-wide ‘code brown’ emergency across all its Melbourne hospitals and six in the regions as it buckles under COVID-19 pressures."
> "Mr Merlino said hospitalisations in NSW, where the Omicron outbreak is a couple of weeks ahead of Victoria, continue to increase by about 100 people per day."
> "The number of people in ICU also decreased, by two to 127, although 43 people are now on ventilation, an increase of five."
https://www.aap.com.au/news/victoria-declares-hospital-covid...
It's not a binary argument. The vaccine prevents serious illness for many people. I thought that was a given by now. Elderly people who weren't vaccinated previously, are now vaccinated.
Any drop in hospital admission rates would also be from the less severe Omicron variant; vaccination of elderly and vulnerable; and more people managing their illness from home. At the beginning, many were panicking and rushing to hospital with a headache. They were still reported as covid hospitalisations, even though their hospital admission consisted of basic monitoring then discharged soon after.
As for the vaccine preventing deaths and hospitalizations, i hope most can agree that is a fact.
When that is said, then we have always had the flu which also causes many deaths and hospitalizations. With Omicron the flu and Corona are now equals regarding deaths and hospitalizations.
Where i come from that is what you can learn from the data.
So when the flu doesn't cause restrictions and is now similar to Corona, then restrictions should be dropped. That is my viewpoint.
This is both uncharitable and against HN guidelines
A good answer