Anonymous post from a user with between 25 and 100 karma (range wide enough to be anonymizing):
“A few COVID vaccine data points for you, from the people in my close circle that I know about.
Me, M, early 40s. One dose of Pfizer. No side effects. Mother, late 60s, F. Two doses of Pfizer. No side effects. Father, early 70s, M. Two doses Astrazeneca. No side effects. Brother, early 40s, M. One dose Astrazeneca. Reported side effects. Thinks it may have made him react to a spice in a meal he made. Colleague, mid 40s, F. One dose Astrazeneca (I’m unsure on that). No major sure effects. Reported feeling grotty / wiped out for a day or two.
There are several other people in my circle who have had vaccine doses by now where I think it’s quite likely I’d have heard of they’d had adverse reactions, but I’ve not had specific conversations with them about it. So I’d assume most of them have had no significant reactions.”
Universally, accepted medical ethics according to which our system runs suggests that biases in the direction of finding side-effects of medications is generally good. Doctors don’t report about every patient to VAERS but about those that are worth reporting about.
I do think that for people with signifanct side-effects describing them is no unnecessary burden and those descriptions is what I’m looking for.
A pure poll would better be done on mechanical turk, survey monkey a similar service that actually give you a representative sample. If someone wants to run such a poll I’m would be happy to see the results.
A general LessWrong survey in the form of our previous survey that includes the standard questions of previous surveys while also including questions both about COVID-19 infection and side-effects while also including questions about vaccine’s and side-effects would be another worthwhile project. It’s a while since we had a survey and a survey that includes risks of both COVID-19 infection while also includes possible risks of vaccine would be very helpful for making useful decisions.
Anonymous post from a user with between 25 and 100 karma (range wide enough to be anonymizing):
“A few COVID vaccine data points for you, from the people in my close circle that I know about.
Me, M, early 40s. One dose of Pfizer. No side effects. Mother, late 60s, F. Two doses of Pfizer. No side effects. Father, early 70s, M. Two doses Astrazeneca. No side effects. Brother, early 40s, M. One dose Astrazeneca. Reported side effects. Thinks it may have made him react to a spice in a meal he made. Colleague, mid 40s, F. One dose Astrazeneca (I’m unsure on that). No major sure effects. Reported feeling grotty / wiped out for a day or two.
There are several other people in my circle who have had vaccine doses by now where I think it’s quite likely I’d have heard of they’d had adverse reactions, but I’ve not had specific conversations with them about it. So I’d assume most of them have had no significant reactions.”
Surely a poll would be better—easier for people to answer, less risky of bias.
Universally, accepted medical ethics according to which our system runs suggests that biases in the direction of finding side-effects of medications is generally good. Doctors don’t report about every patient to VAERS but about those that are worth reporting about.
I do think that for people with signifanct side-effects describing them is no unnecessary burden and those descriptions is what I’m looking for.
A pure poll would better be done on mechanical turk, survey monkey a similar service that actually give you a representative sample. If someone wants to run such a poll I’m would be happy to see the results.
A general LessWrong survey in the form of our previous survey that includes the standard questions of previous surveys while also including questions both about COVID-19 infection and side-effects while also including questions about vaccine’s and side-effects would be another worthwhile project. It’s a while since we had a survey and a survey that includes risks of both COVID-19 infection while also includes possible risks of vaccine would be very helpful for making useful decisions.