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Guy de la Bédoyère: Why I’ve Had the Jab

by Toby Young
10 March 2021 10:01 PM

We’re publishing an original piece today by Guy de la Bédoyère about why he decided to get vaccinated. Guy wrote a book about the development of the Polio vaccine, so he’s something of an expert on the subject, although he’s no vaccine evangelist. Indeed, he and his wife decided not to give their children the MMR (although they now deeply regret that decision). However, when it came to the Covid jab, it was a no-brainer. Here is an extract:

I live in a country where many businesses that I care about are going to have no control over what they are required to do by the state. Some of those businesses deal with other countries where they will have even less influence. We also face dealing with foreign businesses which can also impose conditions beyond the UK’s control. Two of my sons live abroad (Vietnam and Mexico). My choice then is predicated in no small part on whether I and my wife will be physically able ever again to travel to see them, or them to see us. If being vaccinated opens that door then so be it.

British Airways and other airlines have been a large part of our lives and we wish to support them. In the end, just as it did for Peter Hitchens, this clinched it for me, though I never really had any doubt. No point in cutting off our noses to spite our faces. Seeing our son, granddaughter, and grandson in Hanoi is a great deal more important to us than fussing about a vaccine which we are not obliged to have anyway. Thanks to Covid we haven’t even met one of the children yet.

I could complain all I liked about the injustice of being prevented from taking a flight if I hadn’t been vaccinated but it’s not a battle I could ever win, and – more to the point – I don’t have the time to waste fighting a battle I wasn’t interested in fighting in the first place. The inconvenience of not having a vaccine would far outweigh the inconvenience of having had it.

As with all Guy’s pieces, this one’s worth reading in full.

Tags: Vaccine

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14 Comments
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Thomas_E
Thomas_E
4 years ago

Yor body ,your choice.As for me,no thank you,don’t need it,don’t want it.Dont need a fucking essay to justify my decision.

24
-1
peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago

Firstly I have no right to try to stop someone taking an injection if they willingly decide to do it. I expect the same right if I decide not to.
I think the only reason this article exists is to appeal to probably refusers to change their minds. In that respect it forms , albeit mildly, part of the on-going psyop. Mr Young obviously supports vaccination, so this is to be expected.
Regarding some of the issues raised in the article itself, I will comment on three, and also on the absence of a critical issue.
1) It is widely recognised, and it was mentioned briefly, that the vast majority of public health improvements, some say as high as 95%, happened in the years before their was general use of vaccines; ie the general availability of fresh water, good sanitation, varied diets, etc
2) Covid19 has an IFR of something around 0.23%, it is not a threat at all to anyone under 60 years with general good health
3) The argument that the vaccine is not being forced upon the population, is false. And the reason’s given in the article for taking it show this clearly. Without a piece of paper or smartphone app showing you have had one it is increasingly difficult to escape the prison that is now the UK ( and many other countries). It is possible to take a risk with a PCR test that you do not become one of the false positive statistics, but who wants to take that risk, with 10 days incarceration , fines etc as a result. And travel is just one of the facets of what we used to call ‘normal life’ that is threatened the same way.
4) What this article omitted was a description of what was injected. It was referred to as a vaccine, but it isn’t. it quite specifically has not been approved or licenced for use. It has merely pass an emergency use trial which had targets of minimising one out of a list of symptoms. It has been promoted as having passed this test with high percentage of efficacy. But these high percentages merely represent RELATIVE efficacy. The ABSOLUTE efficacy is approx 1%. That is 100 people have to be injected for ONE to get relief from one symptom. All the so-called vaccines will not finish their phase 3 tests until late 2022 or 2023. Indeed it could be argued that current injections in the general public are replacing the normal animal testing proceedure as part of the trials.
No-one should be subjected to a decision process of taking an experimental injection so they can travel to see a grandchild.
This injustice needs to stop immediately.
If it did and everyone was very clearly educated in what exactly they are being asked to WILLINGLY participate in , with all the risk/reward balance explained, there may be some merit in continuing this exercise. But we are not in that position and its not improving.

29
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Mrs M
Mrs M
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

Very well said.
I find the extent of this pro vaccine coercion to be quite nauseating. And frankly I am amazed that so many people seem to be ok with taking these novel “vaccines” that have approval for emergency use only, and which are still undergoing testing. I also find it amazing that so many people trust the Government narrative about them when they (the Government) have shown themselves to be totally untrustworthy about pretty much everything else.

13
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TheBluePill
TheBluePill
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

I’ve given up trying to talk to people about risk, they are just too stupid to get it, even though it is incredibly simple.

There is absolutely no way that you can evaluate the risks of the vaccine as being worth it. Even for people in their 90s who maybe have a 10% chance of dying from the virus if they are unlucky enough to catch it, the vaccine gain is insignificant next to the their chances of dying of anything else that year being multiple times greater. And in avoiding that virus risk they have just cost themselves one of their last year’s of quality life and still counting, in addition to losing their remaining fitness by being imprisoned. And that is the most at risk group.

I can’t quite decide if the species has reached terminal stupidity, terminal gullibility or terminal immorality (in terms of corruption).

11
-1
J4mes
J4mes
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

Not sure about others here, but over the last few days, I’ve been spammed and pestered by my local medical practice to book ‘my’ covid jab. While I was trying to do my job, they were ringing my phone, left two voicemails and sent a text message saying if I ‘want’ to get the jab, please contact them. I ignored the text. Today, they started ringing again and left another voicemail.

I could get back in touch and tell them to pack it in, but I’m curious to see how this will transpire. Will it turn into something resembling the BBC licence fee threats?

5
0
DevonshireDozer
DevonshireDozer
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

I had the same thing. Take the call, tell them you’ve declined & they’ll take your name off the contact list.

0
0
RickH
RickH
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

“I think the only reason this article exists is to appeal to probably refusers to change their minds.”

Why this tendency to see a conspiratorial background when it’s not necessary?

It’s more likely simply an exercise in self-justification following an uneasiness about the decision.

0
-2
peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago
Reply to  RickH

The editor decides what is published, that is what I was referring to.
I can’t quite work out your motives in picking this point out in all of my post.

2
0
patb
patb
4 years ago

Should feel ashamed of himself.These are rushed ’emergency’ vaccines for what is not an emergency. Just makes life harder for sensible people.

10
0
J4mes
J4mes
4 years ago

Why do I get the feeling we’re being urged to reconsider something?

10
-1
Scotty87
Scotty87
4 years ago

More dirge from Lockdown Sceptic’s vaccine spokesman. He’s wheeled out periodically to dispel any myths that this site is an “anti-vaxx” haven, because we know that as a member of the pro-jab club, Toby wouldn’t want to risk his place in polite society.

When these jabs eventually get revoked across the world for the colossal harms they’ve caused, I’ll remember that Lockdown Sceptics meekly fell into line like so many others.

7
0
Lucan Grey
Lucan Grey
4 years ago

You get vaccinated because it makes sense to do so.

Overblowing the fears of a vaccine is just the same sort of faulty thinking as overblown fears of the virus.

1
-4
RickH
RickH
4 years ago
Reply to  Lucan Grey

Overblown fears are just overblown fears – as anyone cowering away under the whip of ‘Covid!’ needs to know.

But also, specious moral blinkers are no credit to the wearer.

The issues around these vaccines are far wider than just practical concerns about potential risks accruing from abandoning proper testing protocols on spurious grounds that have been deliberately manufactured.

Last edited 4 years ago by RickH
0
-1
GCarty80
GCarty80
4 years ago

Unfortunately because Vietnam is a “zero covid” country, I’m not sure Guy will be able to visit his family there any time soon in spite of being vaccinated.

2
0

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