It's true this thread is not directly about veganism... but indirectly, it most certainly is.
I only saw the thread this morning & please forgive me, I gave up reading as I saw the increasingly unpleasant - but entirely predictable - direction in which it was going.
I have no intention of being vaccinated for the time being until the safety of these vaccines is much better understood. I have family members who are immuno-compromised and respect their and others wishes to be vaccinated. If my position disqualifies me from flying etc, then so be it. But as for the self-righteous bile that several members have spewed forth, however understandable that may be due to their family situations, please consider the following.
Despite what the health authorities tell us, we are still a long way from fully understanding not only the virus & its mutations, but also how to treat it. Obviously, no health minister will say this, but stop fooling yourselves. We are only just at the very beginning of a learning curve to understand to what extent being vaccinated will truly reduce transmission. We have little idea which of the vaccines will prove the safest and most effective in the longer term & almost no idea if they will work against future mutations. One of our failings as a species is the ability to accept how little we truly know, whilst insisting that we do know, when we are really just hoping.
What is the real problem with this pandemic, apart from the above mentioned lack of specific understanding ? I agree with Attenborough that we - humanity - are the likely cause and it is just part of the global catastrophe that is unfolding around us. I expect most of us watched "
Extinction : The Facts" a year or so ago. For those who did not, it's all about massively accelerating biodiversity loss and the very dangerous consequences this will likely have for our future on the planet; from the BBC website:
"Last year, a UN report identified the key drivers of biodiversity loss, including overfishing, climate change and pollution. But the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats. Seventy-five per cent of Earth's land surface (where not covered by ice) has been changed by humans, much of it for agriculture, and as consumers we may unwittingly be contributing towards the loss of species through what we buy in the supermarket.
Our destructive relationship with the natural world isn’t just putting the ecosystems that we rely on at risk. Human activities like the trade in animals and the destruction of habitats drive the emergence of diseases. Disease ecologists believe that if we continue on this pathway, this year’s pandemic will not be a one-off event."
The major part of this destruction of natural habitat is for animal food production, either directly for grazing or for vast feed monocultures.
In recent years, the extensive Oxford University research into climate change has stated that cutting meat and dairy products from our diet could reduce an individual's carbon footprint from food by up to 73 per cent. They say it's by far the largest difference any individual - and therefore society - can make : yet there is not even a
suggestion from any government to mandate it. There isn't because most of us insist on turning a blind eye to the barbarous practice of factory farming just so we can enjoy our Full English etc (and if you think it's not barbarous, show a YouTube slaughterhouse video to your grandchildren and watch their reaction).
If all you want to do is angrily condemn the small number of people who for ethical or other reasons choose a "wait & see" approach to Covid vaccines, whilst not taking much wider responsibility yourself for being part of the real problem & not at all the solution, then do so, but basically you're in denial about your own role as a largely ignorant member of the human race. It is therefore totally hypocritical to pick on a gentle fellow like
@windhoek if it is possible that you yourself are a bigger part of a wider, but entirely related, problem & are making less effort to reduce your footprint in this respect. Please note that I wrote "if".
Unless we get with THIS aspect of the program pretty darned quick, it's not going to matter who gets vaccinated. My niece's partner heads up an ecological foundation; he's a very well-informed fellow & privately expresses the view that the latest data suggests it's already too late to reverse potential extinction level climate change.
So veganism is more than relevant, but so many here - and everywhere else - just won't go there, addicted as we are to our meat and dairy based diets. I understand people are extremely frightened and want to point the finger, but until we collectively point the fingers at ourselves, we're dragging each other collectively over the cliff edge, just not for the reason BT suggested.
Imagine a vastly more evolved alien species watching the human extinction process from afar, "
Look at them, they worked out what they needed to do on that wonderfully abundant planet, yet were so greedy, cruel and selfish that they just couldn't help themselves... all in denial, just about the whole, darned lot of them ...".
