I'm just simple (perhaps could call me a simpleton of sorts), but I prefer to live simply and not clutter my thoughts with all the extra steps everyone says I need in order to live a happy and fulfilled life.
Its interesting/funny how the same basic logic or disposition can lead different people to different actions/perspectives, your reasoning is roughly the same reasoning that led me to getting vaccinated without much hesitation. Its just the simplest thing to do, and I preferred not to overstress about the decision or devote the mental bandwidth to it.
It was the simplest reasonable approach (in my estimation), and the action recommended by the medical/public health officials that I trust and outsource medical expertise to. I wasn't interested in playing armchair epidemiologist/medical researcher with the Covid Vaccine anymore than I was with Tetanus or Diptheria or Hepatitis, partially because I am well aware that I am a not-qualified to do so, and partially because it just seemed like a lot of time & effort that could be more fruitfully directed to other things in my life. In my calculation, it just wasn't/isn't worth the time and effort for me personally to second guess the medical industry, even though emotionally I can understand many of the reasons that covid-vax-hesitant (not full on anti-vax) people are fearful/nervous about something that feels new and uncertain and unknown to them.
Public health officials the world over recommended vaccination, medical researchers the world over believe to the best of their knowledge that the vaccine is reasonably safe and represents the lesser risk. I could spend 100's of hours doing my own "research" or 1000's of hours of real research (beginning with the fundamentals of biology, medicine, epidemiology, and medical research before even approaching anything related to Covid), to try to become a pseudo-expert, but then that sounds like a lot of work, just to maybe get to the level of basic understanding/fluency in the field.
To me the simplest approach was to trust people I trust with my health in every other situation, doctors, nurses, public health officials, etc. Not trust them to never be wrong, not trust them to be all knowing about a new virus, not trust them to not make mistakes and missteps, not trust a profit driven healthcare system or pharmaceutical industry that I disliked before and dislike still, but trust that experts and public health officials
as a whole, medical researchers that have devoted their career/lives to this field, have a hell of a better chance of getting things right than I do, or you do, or some youtuber, or blogger, or Gwyneth Paltrow/Joe Rogan does, or even any one or two or three lone doctors or medical researchers.
I don't fault or judge anyone for wanting to be in control of their health, their wellness, their body, and I definitely don't judge anyone for a strategy of health that begins with living a healthy and active lifestyle that is the foundation of good health, or for wanting to be informed about what they put in their body, or about the decisions about their bodies. What I do judge people for is how unequally their 'skepticism' or rejection of expertise/experts is applied to this situation versus the thousands of other ways it touches their lives, and how vulnerable so many people seem to be to manipulation/misinformation from low quality sources (both receiving and spreading it), and how willing people seem to be to discount a whole field when it conflicts with their politics or worldview, but at the same time be willing to so uncritically believe and repeat random things they read/hear/watch on the internet with virtually no due-diligence/criticism and without applying anywhere
near the same bar of skepticism they would apply to something they disagree with, just because it supports their biases/worldview.
And I do definitely judge those who think of themselves as 'not a sheep' 'open-minded/critical thinkers/skeptics' when it comes to issues they
want to reject or are preconditioned to disagree with, without the recognition that they take hundreds of actions/make hundreds of decisions a day based on expert derived information that they accept uncritically without thought or question, and only become 'open minded' on topics that conflict with their worldview (climate science and vaccines are great illustrations of this). (these last few paragraph are not in any way intended to be directed at you, or anyone in particular by the way, just my thoughts messily tumbling out).
If I do die of a future variant of Covid, then I guess I'll see you on the other side bro... For now, happy trails ?
Depending on which other side we talking about, I'm not sure I'm allowed in
. From what I gather, lots of those other sides are members only clubs. I do fervently hope that some kind of reincarnation is a thing though, that sounds really cool! And I suppose I got pretty good at sneaking into places in my teenage years/20's so there is a chance I'll see ya there.