Are you willing to get the Covid vaccine when offered?

tomwaits said

I agree, and I am not saying that. I am saying there is a risk with vaccines and if these companies are negligent, part of the risk is there is not the usual legal recourse that most every other industry would have. It would be foolish to not weigh this in when making the decision to get vaccinated.

EDIT: I also want to add that I am hearing the vaccine is more effective than skeptics thought it would be. I am overall positive on the vaccine, but risks should always be weighed.

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Keep in mind that many, many industries have some type of liability protection under Federal law. Sometimes its because of public policy and sometimes its because of effective lobbying. But, for example there is a reason Congress created a special fund to pay 9/11 victims - under federal law the airlines would have legally been able to limit their liability to 10s of thousands per victim (can't remember the exact number). Same reason you only receive a limited refund for lost/destroyed baggage. (read the back of your ticket - its not pretty) And yet despite the legal protections they enjoy, airlines have maintained an excellent safety record.

Sometimes we (through Congress) decide that its worth giving an industry protection from lawsuits in order to incentive activity that might be cost prohibitive if they were open to unlimited damages in court. A few decades ago we decided that vaccines were important enough that we wanted Big Pharma to be able to produce them in a streamlined legal environment. The fact that this limitation only applies to vaccines and not therapeutic drugs of every kind speaks to the relative importance of vaccines and not any real question about legal liabilities.

Also FWIW in the history of vaccines almost every major side effect has been discovered within the first year of use. The odds of everyone growing a third ear in 10 years is extremely remote.