ya Luke. I second that completely. No vaccine for me.
Covid - 19 - Light on the Horizon
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I certainly won’t hesitate to get the vaccine.
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me Neither. Haven’t ever gotten any vaccine.
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Hi Luke, You have to get away from the idea that this is a hoax I can’t get over how this turned so political in the US. Look beyond your own borders. It’s a fact, it’s here and it’s killing people. Rest assured I’ll be having the vaccine when I am invited. My whole life I have taken vaccines, For Poliio, TB, Tetinis, Yellow Fever, Malaria. and have had the annual Flu jab since I turned 60 I am now 73.
I am not worried about dying, I just want to get the maximum time out of my Lifetime Gold Pick Membership 
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Let’s not start this whole vax/anti-vax issue again! If you don’t want the vaccine, stand aside for the people that do and let’s not try to change anyone’s mind with incessant back and forth comments about whether it is a hoax or not.
However, anti-vaxers may find themselves excluded from concerts, sporting events, employment opportunities, and even commercial air travel. It is a decision everyone makes for themselves and that person can live with the repercussions. I’d be surprised if @Shaky_loves_banjo truly has never been vaccinated, the polio vaccine is pretty widespread. It sure would be tough playing the banjo in an iron lung.
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But here lies the mischief! In what way people who are not vaccinated could be a threat to people who are vaccinated to be of concern to be excluded from concerts, sporting events, employment etc.??
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I ask myself that same question every time someone wearing a mask asks me to put one on.
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In the mask (muzzle) department, the argument they lay is for to work the other way. It is primarily to prevent the spread to others (to a non-immune person, I mean before vaccine (B.V)), from your cough/sneeze etc., they say/argue, so you are forced to give up your right under the circumstance and are ordered to wear a mask. But they are not very smart! 
They forgot the fact that the same logic when extended after vaccine (A.V) era would become a blunder! Now they have to go to the drawing board and come up with new one! But you know what, they will fall short guaranteed every time! 
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I do not believe it is a hoax, I do believe the seriousness has been overstated. I do not believe the mortality rates are as claimed. The whole thing has been politicized. Look at the rate of Covid19 deaths. Now, look at the death rate for heart disease, cancer and other terminal illnesses since the inception of Covid19. I say this because in June, I was Covid19 positive, It was 23 days before I received a negative test result. Symptoms for about 6 days. Never went to the doctor, never took medication, even over-the-counter medication. We have had several others here at work that were positive as well. All in the same situation, no Dr. no meds, no problem. I realize some have different reactions to it. In fact, My wife and I had it out about her going to work (RCP). I told her that she better do what she needs to do at that hospital to leave the Covid there. With me being a Type 1 diabetic, everything I had heard was that I was going to die if I got it.
So, to sum it up, I really don’t think we have the necessary information to make an informed statement on the mortality, or the seriousness of this disease.
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Just trying to clear things up… Luke didn’t say that the virus was a hoax; rather, he said that he would choose not to take a vaccine. I agree with @Grinnin on the overstatement by the media, etc. It really seems random as to how bad of a case you’ll get.
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I don’t want to get in to a debate about vax/anti-vax. I will just say that I have yet to meet an anti-vaxxer that made their decision lightly. Every one of them can cite studies, show irregularities in data, and show concerns with current law to support why they believe what they believe.
The days of shaming them back underground are long gone. I believe there’s a reason the movement is growing.
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Thanks @Michael_Mark I realise that Luke didn’t say it was a hoax, but the US media and certain high officials in the US government have used that term throughout the pandemic and I have to say many folks over there buy in to this theory. I have heard them state this on Fox News.
Here in Europe all but a handful of people have taken the pandemic serious right from the outset. People wear masks, respect social distancing, use hand sanitizer.
Where I live we are currently on tier 4 lockdown due to be lifted on Friday as we move to tier 3. I have hardly seen my youngest daughter (whose husband has underling medical conditions) and all my grandchildren since this pandemic kicked off.
My eldest granddaughter is currently in Spain on a student teacher placement where restrictions are far more strict than they are here in Scotland she needs a government pass to move out of her district, there are police/government checkpoints throughout the area to restrict movement and the spread of the virus.
She has her temperature checked on arrival and throughout the school day. She returns home next week but will be in self isolation - quarantine till after Christmas. She had planned to return to Spain after the holiday but her University has made other arrangements to enable her to continue her degree studies. She was due to move to France in the fall of next year to complete her year abroad study period but the situation is worse in France than it is in Spain.
The point I was trying to make earlier is Covid isn’t just a problem in America it’s a world wide pandemic. It effects us just as much as it effects you guy’s. We are hurting too. We ALL need to work to get this virus under control.
Currently 1,565,246 people have died world wide because of it. America currently has the highest number of cases 15,594,534 but it won’t be too long before India which currently has 9,735,975 cases overtakes the US.
India currently has a rapidly rising population of over 1,386,080,506 compared to the US which currently has a meagre population of around 331,866,728 so as you can see the US is small beer by comparison. India also doesn’t have the same level of high quality medical care that is available in the US.
It’s fair to say that a mask and social distancing won’t totally save you from catching Covid, but if it can help stop - slow the spread then surely we should ALL try to do our bit and follow the guidelines not just for ourselves but for the sake of our families, friends and our community. Those in denial are far more at risk than those who take precautions.
For as long as I can remember doctors and nurses have worn masks & personal protective clothing in hospitals here in the UK and in the US since before the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918 (and probably long before that) in order to prevent the spread of any kind of infection. If the medical profession has held this belief for over 100 years it seems somewhat bizarre something as simple as a face covering has become a political symbol. But you folks know your rights, I am just looking at this from a practical and common sense point of view. I have no political views or agenda on this whatsoever.
Most people in Scotland have by in large followed the guidelines. Scotland currently has 101,000 cases with 3,950 deaths Whether or not you believe that the wearing of masks help to slow the spread is up to you. All I would say is if folks here in Scotland had not followed the guidelines our population would be close to being wiped out by now.
I started this thread just to say that my Diabetic Nurse Practitioner would be amongst the first in Scotland to receive the Covid Vaccine. and invited us all to pray 
that this will help bring a swift end to this international pandemic. I wasn’t seeking POV’s on the wearing of masks or indeed whether folks plan to take the opportunity to be vaccinated.
Whatever your views are I respect your rights to express them. I hope you respect my rights to express mine.
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I agree with most of your sentiment, Archie, but I have to ask… how would a virus with an overall 99.97% recovery rate wipe out an entire population?
Here in the US, the claim is that COVID has killed over 200,000 people, but we’ve seen a reduction in the number of deaths from other things like the flu and pneumonia, which have similar symptoms.
We know for sure that hospitals here are financially incentivized to diagnose patients as having covid. We also know that there have been many “covid” cases that were never tested.
We also know that an overwhelming majority of those that died had comorbidities. It’s likely most of them would have died soon from their other health problems.
So is that number really 200,000? We don’t know, and we’ll never know. What we do know is that deaths from other causes like suicide are on the rise. Lock downs aren’t without consequences… and we’ve seen all over the world that they really don’t make that much difference. Sweden was far more free while the rest of the world locked down, yet they recovered at least as quickly.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m tired of living in fear. My family and I have gone back to living our lives. If a virus that only kills .03% of its victims keeps me stuck at home (and could possibly cause me to lose my home) then I’ve already died.
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Hi @Peg_E
I guess you haven’t heard about the Covid mink cull in Denmark.
Reported by the BBC and other European Media
There was shock last week when Denmark decided to cull all its mink - up to 17 million animals - because of the spread of coronavirus. That national cull has turned into a political outcry, now that the prime minister has admitted the plan was rushed and had no legal basis.
Danish authorities worry that a mutated form of coronavirus found in mink could potentially hamper the effectiveness of a future vaccine.
As the politicians argue, mass graves have appeared in the Danish countryside filled with the slaughtered animals.
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Wow.
People live long lives, happy lives managing things such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. I’m sure those who have lost loved ones don’t just shrug their shoulders and say “they might’ve died soon anyway.”
I didn’t come to this forum for this sort of debate. I’ll check back in a few months and see if there is some pickin discussion happening.
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That’s fair comment Mark, but we really don’t know what the outcome of this pandemic will be in the long term the 99.97% recovery rate doesn’t mean folks will be immune for life or indeed are no longer carriers of the virus. We don’t know what the long term outcome of the vaccines will be. The same it true for Penicillin hailed as a wonder treatment- It has cured a lot of people but not everyone and I get it people are fearful of new drugs.
Peggy raises an important point in her comment
Peggy is right, Covid is with us now for a lifetime or more. Allowed to go unchecked we just don’t know how the virus will behave, it could wipe out the world population. We can look back in history and see how some populations have died out.
My point about the population of Scotland being wiped out is not as daft as you might think. We are a small country by that I mean the amount of land mass, most of that land is unpopulated. We currently have a population of around 5.46 million, a high percentage of the population is centred in and around our towns and cities. We are very much a close knit society. We are all interconnected in some way or another but mostly through family connections or ties with each other.
I get it that you want to live your life, we all want that for sure. But if wearing a mask and following some basic guidelines allows you some form of protection why would folks not want to do that, that’s what I can’t understand. One thing is clear, we see things a whole lot differently this side of the big pond.
I am no expert but I have witnessed a lot of great medical breakthrough’s in my lifetime. I hope and pray these vaccines are a part of that scientific solution.
Hi @Scot Andrew
I share your view, but life is life and despite what you might feel about this conversation. We are all friends here. We care about each other and we want you to be a part of this community. There are other threads on the forum that deal with pickin and playing music where we will be happy to answer any queries you may have.
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Scot, there are plenty of other threads full of picking discussions here to enjoy. Nothing I said in my post is my own words. According to the CDC, those with comorbidities not only make up the vast majority of COVID deaths (94%) they are also nearly as susceptible to death from other seasonal diseases.
“…‘comorbidities increase your risk of dying from COVID-19—is not a surprise at all,’ Lessler says. ‘This would be true for the flu or cancer or chicken pox. Really almost any disease you can name, your risks for death increase if you have other diseases and other conditions that make you sick.’”
I’m 48, and I don’t remember the entire nation ever shutting down and preventing people from earning a living over the flu, or even the original SARS, swine flu, avian flu, or any number of potential pandemics I’ve seen in my lifetime.
Is COVID more deadly? Evidence says yes, but there are confounding factors that I’ve already mentioned. To me, it seems at least as equally heartless to demand that a family stop earning a living as it does to want people to get on with life and risk getting COVID. Just Google food bank lines to see the economic impact these shutdowns are having. For the first time in decades, the world’s average poverty level is increasing. I find that at least as serious as COVID.
I don’t come to this forum to debate, so this will be my last post on this topic. I’ll continue to check in. I appreciate everyone keeping things civil.
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Let’s close this one please, thanks!
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