Are you aware of the testing they did before releasing the vaccine? It's not like they cooked it up in the lab on Monday and started injecting the entire population on Friday. Not to mention that it was not even available for individuals outside of high-risk groups for several months after release.
I'm sorry to hear about your experiences with the medical system. It's certainly not good at treating patients with respect - even today. But consider that if the vast majority of the population was willing to get the COVID vaccine voluntarily the mandates would not be necessary. People like yourself would likely be able to opt out freely thanks to herd immunity.
In a lot of ways my main feeling about COVID is disappointment. COVID was an opportunity for people to come together and make a small sacrifice to contribute to protecting the weakest among us. Instead it turned into an everyone-for-themselves shitshow. I remember visiting Hong Kong in 2008 and I was amazed to see how many people wore surgical masks in public. This was probably carry over from the SARS outbreak in 2003. To me it showed a high level of care and empathy for others that people were willing to set aside their own comfort to try to prevent spreading whatever cold of flu they were carrying. I wish we could adopt some of that attitude here in North America.
I'm sorry to hear about your experiences with the medical system. It's certainly not good at treating patients with respect - even today. But consider that if the vast majority of the population was willing to get the COVID vaccine voluntarily the mandates would not be necessary. People like yourself would likely be able to opt out freely thanks to herd immunity.
In a lot of ways my main feeling about COVID is disappointment. COVID was an opportunity for people to come together and make a small sacrifice to contribute to protecting the weakest among us. Instead it turned into an everyone-for-themselves shitshow. I remember visiting Hong Kong in 2008 and I was amazed to see how many people wore surgical masks in public. This was probably carry over from the SARS outbreak in 2003. To me it showed a high level of care and empathy for others that people were willing to set aside their own comfort to try to prevent spreading whatever cold of flu they were carrying. I wish we could adopt some of that attitude here in North America.