I am an intelligent, college-educated, retired military officer and successful businessman throughout my life, and I am not irrational or risk adverse. Like I said, you are too full of yourself and think you know everything. You don't.
I know that my odds are better if I stay away from something everyone else is clamoring to get. It's too new. Not tested long enough or been in use long enough to mess with. It's still in Beta mode as far as I'm concerned.
And what does the vaccine do anyway? It doesn't make you immune from the virus. Fauci says you still have to wear a stupid mask after getting the vaccine. It doesn't prevent you from getting the virus again. So what's the point? I know that if it ain't broke, there is not reason to fix it.
So I don't plan on getting the vaccine because there doesn't seem to be any reason to except the government and the politicians are telling us to. To me, that's a good enough reason NOT to get the vaccine.
".... (although wearing masks voluntarily is a good idea and does help to slow the spread of the virus to some degree)...."
If you were a real scientist, then you should know that the virus is a dead particle that doesn't "spread" or go anywhere. It's not a bug. It's here to stay. It is so small, it can't be seen under a microsope. An electron microscope is necessary to see it. So small, in fact, that the virus particles can move freely in and out of the weave of the material masks are made of.
And that brings me to my last point. As a former hospital administrator, I was responsible for procurment of the masks for the medical personnel in the hospital. Anybody who works in a hospital knows that masks are used to prevent the spread of germs and bacteria but not viruses. Bacteria are alive and much larger in size.
The touted N95 masks are medical grade for surgical suites and are only used for short periods of time before being disposed of in biohazard containers. They are not intended to be worn all of the time and do not stop the submicroscopic particles like viruses.
So what I am saying is that wearing masks are worthless in stopping the spread of this virus. It only makes the wearer feel good about themselves. That's why I've never worn a mask during this pandemic. They don't work to stop the corona virus. It is used as a crutch and an excuse for government experts to pit people against each other and as a weapon to control them.
And the same goes for this vaccine. It is claimed to be a cure all for the covid. A panacea. It is neither. Businesses, employers, schools, airlines, governments, etc. will be duped into using it to hold over people's heads to force them to get the vaccine, to be able to participate in what used to be a free society. We have been conned about how bad this virus is when it is hardly any more dangerous than the common cold.
Fair enough. Don’t take the vaccine then. Just don’t pretend that it’s safer to risk infection than it is to get the vaccine. It is demonstrably not safer.
As for masks, certainly they aren’t anywhere near 100% effective. I never claimed they were. And, yes, I am quite aware of the size of viruses and the fact that masks won’t stop a virus. However the primary means of the transmission of THIS virus is through droplets created when people cough of sneeze. Masks CAN stop these droplets from reaching nearby people. The mask is not to protect you; it’s to prevent you from unwittingly spewing out virus-containing droplets. It isn’t totally effective, but wearing a mask certainly isn’t harming anyone. (Those with medical conditions that preclude mask use excepted, of course). I’m not supporting a mask mandate, just smart behavior.
And please reread what I’ve posted. I have never called YOU irrational. If anything I’ve posted implied otherwise, I apologize. I called the decision to refuse a vaccine based on the notion that it’s too risky irrational. The risk of vaccination is lower than the risk of non-vaccination. I tried to make it come out otherwise by assuming various inflation factors in the Covid death counts, but no reasonable assumptions lead to the vaccine being riskier. I have heard true fatality rates from Covid quoted as low as 0.01%. The data for the vaccine shows about 300 deaths out of 20 million vaccinated people, which even if we assume 100% are vaccine caused deaths is a rate of only 0.0016%. It is irrational to state that you are passing up a chance to decrease your risk of death from 0.01% to 0.0016% because it’s too risky to do so.
If that’s your decision, again no problem. Don’t try to tell me it’s a rational decision based on actual data. It is not. It’s a decision based on irrational fear of an unknown vaccine. That doesn’t make you irrational or unintelligent. Most otherwise rational people make irrational decisions in certain circumstances, myself included. For example, I don’t like to fly because I don’t feel safe; I’d rather drive long distances. That’s still the case even though it is demonstrably much safer to fly. What I won’t do is try to tell others that they’re crazy for flying because it’s unsafe. I won’t post “see I told you so” type articles any time a plane crashes. I would just ask those like you who are afraid of taking the vaccine to do likewise. Reports of people dying after vaccination do not constitute proof or evidence that the vaccine is less safe than Covid any more than a plane crashing proves air travel is less safe than driving.