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Would I Take a COVID Vaccine?

2020-11-20 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: timely hook, heavy topic

After promising phase 3 results from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and others, Hank says he would absolutely take a COVID-19 vaccine, for three reasons: vaccine safety testing was not changed or rushed by politicians, preventing infection protects others and keeps hospital beds free, and it helps frontline health-care workers.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Yes, he would take a COVID vaccine: a list of absurd things he would do for one; the trial news

  • ★★★ Hank says yes, he would take a COVID vaccine. — 00:00:00 · vaccine, COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★ Hank lists absurd things he would do for a COVID vaccine, from spending 15 hours in a Target to eating a blenderized Happy Meal. (playful) — 00:00:00 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★★ Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and others have had really promising results in their phase three COVID vaccine trials. — 00:00:00 · vaccine, COVID-19 pandemic

00:00:29 — Why the vaccine news is so good, and what is still unknown

  • ★★★ Hank says people don't get how good this news is: it is the best news of 2020. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ It was possible the first vaccines wouldn't work, that no vaccine would, or that infection gave no lasting immunity, as with many other coronaviruses. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ It looks like we are getting lucky: infection confers some lasting immunity, and vaccines exposing the immune system to non-infectious bits of the virus do too. (hedged) — 00:00:29 · vaccine
  • ★★ It is unknown whether or how much the vaccine prevents spreading the disease; it probably does substantially, since vaccinated people test negative. (hedged) — 00:01:01 · vaccine
  • ★★ It is unknown how long the vaccines last, and that won't be known for a pretty long time. — 00:01:01 · vaccine
  • ★★ Hank will line up immediately to get the vaccine whenever he is allowed. — 00:01:01 · vaccine

00:01:30 — Three reasons: unchanged safety rules, protecting others, helping health-care workers

  • ★★★ Politicians don't develop vaccines, and the rules for testing vaccine safety did not change at all in the last year: scientists deliberately changed nothing. — 00:01:30 · Donald Trump, vaccine
  • ★★ Hank wants the vaccine because he knows it will be safe, and certainly much safer than getting COVID. — 00:01:59 · vaccine, COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★★ Avoiding COVID protects others, since every infected person becomes a vector; masks, distancing and vaccines keep hospital beds free for everyone. — 00:01:59 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ If we only imagine the direct impacts on ourselves, there will be more death and suffering; Hank wants to live without worrying he is causing others' suffering. — 00:02:28
  • ★ Given his track record, Hank says the person needing a free hospital bed may well be him. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:28
  • ★★★ Everyone needs to help frontline health-care workers, who are having a year unlike any before. — 00:02:28
  • ★★ Health-care workers have shown Hank tremendous kindness every time he went to the hospital, with a broken bone or for his ulcerative colitis. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ How we act during the pandemic is how we give back to health-care workers for their past, present and future care. — 00:02:58

00:03:27 — Wariness is understandable; Hank is lucky in his perspective; sign-off

  • ★★ It is understandable to be wary of new and important things like a vaccine for a deadly pandemic. — 00:03:27 · vaccine
  • ★★ Hank feels lucky to have health-care workers, elderly people and scientists around him, so the vaccine feels like something he wants to do for himself and others, not something done to him. — 00:03:27

In the description and comments

  • ★★★ The description says that with vaccines to be distributed within 30 days (by 20 December 2020), staying home and wearing masks is even more valuable: we are now buying time for a visible goal. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: COVID-19 pandemic · vaccine

Also: People: Donald Trump · Joe Biden

Organizations: AstraZeneca · Moderna · Pfizer · Target Corporation

Concepts: ulcerative colitis (concept)

Characters: Ruby Rhod

Products: Clif Bar · Happy Meal

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