It was extremely easy to change peoples minds though. You simply have to make them pay to get tested. Then suddenly the vaccine was preferable.
I’m not American, I don’t share your sentiments about letting people be people. A society is you and me and everyone else in it, working together. If you chose to work against the wider us for no good reason, then you’re no longer part of our society. Being anti-science is not a good enough reason for anyone to defend you around here.
I'm not American either, but I'm intrigued about what could make you think that I was.
Working together implies listening to the other side, even if you disagree and in the end choose to ignore it.
And being reluctant to the vaccine is not "anti-science" : it is after all a relatively new technology (mRNA vaccines have been experimented for more or less 10 years), that is being made widely mandatory, and it would not be the first time a new medicine is discovered to have fatal side effects after some time (the Mediator case comes to mind : https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210329-mediator-trial-f...).
To me, the cost-benefit analysis makes me overwhelmingly pro-vaccine, and I've debated as such multiple time, but what mainly disturbs me is that I find a lot of people from my side debating with ad-hominems (you're anti-science, stupid people, you're with us or against us, etc...) instead of trying to debate actual points and fears.
There are people debating in bad faith on the other side as well, that's for sure, but to me the best is not to engage them at all, and most of all not to debate in bad faith yourself either, as it is not a much better place to be a parrot of government propaganda than it is to be a parrot of conspirationist propaganda.
> I'm not American either, but I'm intrigued about what could make you think that I was.
Not parent, but the thing that made me think you were from the USA was this line:
> From my circles, the vaccine/mask defiance is mostly about what is perceived (wrongly in my opinion, but still) as an overreach from the state, and as a risky bet that they might not want to take.
... and the rest of your post declined / forgot to mention where you were, or what kind of circles you were in.
Typically that's a trait of people that live in the USA.
> And being reluctant to the vaccine is not "anti-science" :
It really is.
Unless you're claiming statistics (epidemiology) is not a valid branch of science, in which case, okay, you really are more likely to die / suffer massive long term health nastiness from COVID19 than from any of the vaccines.
You refer to 'sides' being a bad way to describe things, but seem to rely heavily on the us / them dichotomy to try to make your points.
The media definitely had a field year with the smelly feces they call "news", but the alarm is real.
If the virus mutated to be like the Spanish flu antivaxxers would be singing a different tune. But nothing as bad happened.
And these panicky people saying "we're in the middle of a pandemic" are funny, like they haven't been outside for years - go out, the majority, vaccinated or not, doesn't give a fuck about Covid anymore.
Lives are pretty much back to normal, minus international travel and half-arsed safety in stores.
You seem to be extrapolating an n=1 scenario to the population as a whole ("I" --> "All"). Are you then implying anyone who does know somebody sick or hospitalized has warranted fear?
> Are you then implying anyone who does know somebody sick or hospitalized has warranted fear?
I'm not talking about whether it is warranted or not, but if you know somebody sick or hospitalized, the fear you experience from that is likely to be very impactful, and you will be more inclined to get a vaccine based on that.
Unfortunately, I think the U.S. may have laws that complicate this issue. For example, I believe laws make sure the test is administered for free by health insurance and I think there is precedent from the Americans Disabilities Act that employers pay for any testing for those employees do not have insurance.
While I think your idea of a nudge may work, it may not be feasible in the U.S.
I’m not American, I don’t share your sentiments about letting people be people. A society is you and me and everyone else in it, working together. If you chose to work against the wider us for no good reason, then you’re no longer part of our society. Being anti-science is not a good enough reason for anyone to defend you around here.