Some thoughts on the Covid vaccine - Updated

 "Know you not, that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of doing it right?" - Epictetus

Let me start off by saying that I'm not an anti-vaxxer.  I'm fine with tried-and-true vaccines that have been properly manufactured and tested.  I don't do the annual flu shot, but that's mainly because I detest paperwork and the time it takes.  Other than that, I'm fully immunized - including recent tetanus and whooping cough boosters.  Ditto my entire family.  Not an anti-vaxxer.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable about the biology surrounding the various Covid-19 vaccines that are currently in production.  However, I am a student of human nature, and will use that knowledge to explain why I'm extremely skeptical about the Pfizer mRNA vaccine that is being rushed out the door to be injected into a wary public.

Firstly, it's not a given that we should trust the medical experts at this point.  A few examples:

• Covid: On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a "pandemic", meaning that it was spreading globally.   Guess what though!  On Feb 5, a full five weeks earlier, 24,554 cases of Covid had been confirmed.  The virus had already spread to 24 countries on multiple continents.  Many infectious disease experts were already acknowledging it was a pandemic disease.
• Covid: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the "nation's top disease expert", says he doesn't regret telling Americans not to wear masks early in the outbreak.
• Opiods: The FDA approved opiods, Pharmaceutical companies manufactured them (at great profit), and physicians dispensed them.  They have been such a blight on the US, that they have caused a drop in life expectancy.  Bear in mind, these drugs are not smuggled in by low-lifes.  They are prescribed and manufactured and approved right here by "medical experts"!!!
  
• Bumbling Doctors: Johns Hopkins conducted a study stating that the third leading cause of death in the US may very well be medical errors.
• Vaccine: Everyone in the Manufacture, Distribution, Dispensing, or "Planning" (ie forcing employees to take the vaccine) is immune from legal liability.  If you are a student of human nature, you should understand how huge the unintended consequences of this measure could be.
• Vaccine: The rushed nature of vaccine development, alongside the legal immunity very likely will make for an inferior, if not dangerous vaccine.   There is a meme with two mice.  The first asks the second if he intends to take the vaccine.  The second mouse says, "Are you crazy?  They haven't completed human trials yet!"  Pretty much says it all...
• Vaccine: We have no way of knowing whether there will be any long-term effects from this.
• Vaccine: Every vaccine has a limited effectiveness.  What is the length of time required before a booster shot is needed?  Nobody in authority is addressing this.
  
• Vaccine: Will it be effective against mutations?  Nobody in authority is addressing this.
  
• Vaccine:  The Covid-19 test protocols are designed to succeed.  They make the vaccines look more effective than they probably are.  Apparently the FDA is granting approval anyway.
• Anyone voicing skepticism toward this (experimental?) vaccine is labeled an "anti-vaxxer".  This is ludicrous.   These people should be addressing the issues being raised, not attacking the person!
  

 Should we trust the "medical experts" at this juncture?  If you read all the bullet points above, followed  the links, and still trust these guys, well that's on you.  I wouldn't trust them to take out my garbage, let alone trust them with my health.  The dogs aren't eating the dog food, and authorities are well aware that they have an issue with this.  Read the link - it's a great article about the difficulties of bribing people to take risks with their health.

Beyond the well-deserved issue of trust with "medical experts", there are some other things to ponder:

This is an airborne and airway-based pathogen.  The Covid vaccine is supposed to keep you from becoming ill if you inhale the virus and it takes up occupancy in your airway.  My question is this:  If your immune system prevents the virus from making you sick, can you still be a vector for spreading it, a "carrier", so to speak, like a rodent that doesn't get sick from a virus but can spread it?

There is a hypothesis that I can't prove, but suspect is correct:  The contradictory and deceptive actions authorities have taken - they are all to protect the medical infrastructure from collapse.

We have a few clues about actions that appear insane on the surface, but make sense if you look at it from the perspective of protecting hospitals from being overwhelmed:

• "Masks don't work, don't bother with them." They surely do work, because surgeons wear them.
  
• Later on we hear, "You *must* wear a mask, think of your fellow citizens" I suspect this means that hospitals now have enough masks, so you should go ahead and wear one.
• The March/April "Lock-Down".  Nobody but "essential workers" were supposed to go to work - and this was when there were far fewer cases than right now!  The lock-down ended and the virus has since spread to hundreds of thousands of people.  Was this step simply to buy time for hospitals to obtain PPE?  Maybe we should lock down RIGHT NOW, because hospitals are being swamped with Covid patients.
  

 I don't have answers to many of these questions.  There are smart people who know the answers, but you can't trust them to tell you anything resembling the truth.  Because of this well-earned distrust of "medical experts", and a few rational misgivings, I'm far less concerned about the virus than I am of the vaccine.  Your mileage may vary.

EDIT 17 December 2020:

It appears that there have already been some side effects associated with the Pfizer vaccine that has just been rolled out.  Four individuals that were given the Pfizer vaccine in a clinical trial in Britain developed Bell's Palsy, while none in the placebo group did.  USA Today (very first Google search result. LOL.) does a "fact check" and says with a straight face that the Bell's Palsy is "likely unrelated to the vaccine."  I would guess it's likely 100% related to the vaccine, since it didn't happen to *any* individual in the placebo group.  I don't get paid by government agencies to spread their bullshit, and USA Today's "fact check" doesn't pass my bullshit smell test. 

So you know, Bell's Palsy (wiki link) is a one-sided facial paralysis, and I've seen it exactly once in my 60 years.  The cause is unknown, but it is thought to be caused by the activation of dormant viruses.  Diabetes and upper respiratory tract infections are risk factors.  Apparently so too is the Pfizer Covid vaccine.

We also have two Alaska health-care workers who rapidly developed side-effects within minutes of receiving the vaccine.  One of the cases was a serious anaphylactic reaction in an otherwise healthy and non-allergenic individual required hospitalization and an IV drip of epinephrine.  The other, milder case was far less life threatening.

I have a grim feeling that I'll need to update this again and again in the coming days and weeks.  On the bright side - standard operating procedure, nobody will be held accountable for anything that goes wrong.