I will start out by saying that back in the stone ages there were batteries of shots/vaccinations that were necessary, mandated, and yes, required to be able to attend public school. Diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and one particularly enjoyable one they had to hold me down for while they jabbed a shank in my arm about 100 times (the way I remember it) for smallpox were on the menu. We were at the mercy of a health system that was doing the best they could with the knowledge they had then. Growing up next door to a girl my age that would forever require skeletal leg braces from polio gave me reason to appreciate the need for the scar on my shoulder.
If I was still of the age where making babies might still be an issue my thoughts on the Covid vaccines might be tempered in a cautionary direction, but as I do not need to consider that or living another fifty years I chose to comply for the sake of my precious daughter whose immune system was wrecked by chemotherapy treatment from her six year battle with cancer she finally lost this past February. God forbid that I was going to even risk the possibility of exposing her because of my pig headed irrational insistence on being a tough guy that was just not gonna take it. And losing two friends (one my age and one years younger) to Covid who both passed on taking the vaccine also made an impact.
Without the impact of the internet and a 24 hour constant talking head news cycle I'm sure there were people adversely affected, and maybe even crippled and/or killed by forcing those vaccines on us when I was a child - we just didn't hear about it as much. Plus any veteran of the armed forces knows you don't have much choice at induction when they line you up and hammer you from both sides running you through the line. But polio, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and others that used to maim and/or kill a lot of people's children were almost completely eradicated.
No guarantees. You don't want a vaccine - fine - take your chances, your life, your right. But don't be so cavalier about looking down your nose at others who do take it as if they were only a tough guy like you they wouldn't need it. I have a few friends that boast that attitude, that anyone who succumbs to taking the vaccines line up as "sheeple". The "wonders" of this "modern world" are offering us lots of opportunities previously unavailable, but seem to be killing compassion, empathy and humanity in many.
Sorry if this comes off as hijacking the thread - To address Steve's question in the OP, I've had mild symptoms from the effects of the vaccines and boosters for a short time but I lived through it, even though I guess I must not be a 'tough guy'.
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