Nanny state a side effect of vaccines

Below is a response to all the facts outlined by the Pitkin County Health Authority regarding vaccines (“Pitkin County health officials: Don’t believe vaccine myths,” April 11, The Aspen Times).

As of this writing (April 14), one vaccine has stopped distribution after 6 women developed deadly blood clots. For perspective, this is 6 out of 6.8 million doses given, so the likelihood of dying from the Covid vaccine is .0008%. Most people who received the vaccine have experienced mild or no side effects.

For comparison, young people with no pre-existing conditions have a .01% chance of dying from Covid.

Essentially people should be free to make the following choice: 1) do nothing, contract Covid and risk a .01% chance of death or 2) pro-actively get a vaccine and risk the .0008% chance of developing deadly blood clots.

Maybe reluctancy to get vaccinated is not about conspiracies or believing myths and is actually just a simple risk analysis using statistics. This is not about ignoring the science or threat of Covid. As with everything in life, this is a risk/reward calculation.

The underlying issue is philosophical and debated for centuries: Should people be free to make their own decisions and live with the consequences or are people too irresponsible/incompetent to make decisions for themselves?

Chase McWhorter

Carbondale