I'm still pissed my insurance won't cover the shingles vax. Took over my right side and hurt like hell for, uh, six years now.

I'm also a needle-weenie. I tell a different nurse each time and we joke about it -- despite getting like 9 shots in one day in Basic. Then I wince a bit as I get the shot, put my stereotypically plaid coat back on and off I go.

Devil's Advocate: Being sick is an immediately visible problem; vaccinations... viruses are invisible and you don't see symtoms till its too late

My mother has become, in her later years, a "well idk if they definitely cause autism but I did vaccinate all of you and I do have a kid with autism..." which like. whatever. I've been over talking to them for a while now anyway.

But when I was younger and getting vaccinated she always said,"you're gonna look at the wall in the other direction, it's gonna hurt for a few seconds then it'll be over and there's an ice cream place next door." And I have almost 0 medical anxiety, like I'll let new grads I'm precepting practice on me before I let them stick a real patient.

vs I remember when I was a swimming instructor in my early 20s sometimes a kid would start crying and their parent would come over to scream at them to behave and then it would take waaay longer to get their body to relax enough to float.

So while I'm sure it doesn't make or break every fear of needles or medical anxiety, I do think a LOT of it comes down to how the parent handles and ideally normalizes routine medical care.

I hope so. Irrational fears are really hard to control.

There is reasons to be afraid of needles. Courage is not having no fear, its facing your fear.

Na a bunch of them are actually afraid of the pointy needle.

Gear of medical debt comes up for some too, but since the covid vaccines were free they had to pretend they weren’t afraid of the needles instead.

"Being afraid of what you don't understand is completely reasonable"

No it isn't... It's common, but not reasonable, and it's a big factor in so much bad about humanity. We need to teach people to specifically NOT be afraid of stuff they don't understand and instead learn more about that those things, and to never have strong opinions (which includes fear) about things they know nothing or little about.

Add to that we’re constantly being lied to it’s hard to know what the truth is and what isn’t unless you deeply research a topic, and honestly:

They know that American healthcare providers in the past experimented on blacks and other PoC without telling them and they don’t want it done to them now that we’ve pushed to make everyone equal under the law.

This is why they’re so scared of equality as well - we’re all game for the unethical experimentation and exploitation of some of us aren’t in the protected class.

To really break the programming we need to get through that those lines are drawn on class, not on race as they appear, and that no class of divine human exists.

Yep, this, my mom doesn't trust doctors. Apparantly, according to her, doctors in PRC was corrupt and always try to extort as much money as possible by doing "unnecessary 'treatments'", according to her.

She told me that both my older brother and I were both C-Section and like she doubted if it was even necessary, she believed that the doctors were just trying to make extra money because surgery costed more... but she had no choice but go along with it... because she had no idea if the fetus (aka: me and my older brother) were at risk.

As for vaccines... government policy... I guess both the collectivist society and pressure from government

US Government definitely required vaccination records before giving us immigration visas...

Its kinda funny, does the currnt admin allow immigrants without vaccinations? Or make it stricter to make immigration harder?

[Insert 2 red button meme here]

America doesn't just do this domestically. They have interfered in other nations public health perceptions as well. The CIA undermined polio vaccination programs in Pakistan when global eradication actually seemed possible.

There’s been a systematic undermining of public trust in health and safety instructions going on for decades.

A lot of it perpetrated by those very industries themselves. It's the natural consequence of letting every facet of societal motivation be dictated by profit maximization.

Like I said in another comment, I think what the antivaxers are incapable of understanding and expressing is that they are not actually questioning the science, they are questioning the health care industry and the systems meant to keep them honest. And in that I would agree with them, if only they were able to articulate it.

this is why we need to educate people. it does require a certain level of trust in the system to accept a shot will prevent your kid from dying of measles or whooping cough. a system that also conducted the heinous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, then never held those same criminals or the decision makers accountable for their crimes.

governments do thousands of things; not every single one is predicated on evil intentions, many, probably most, are for the good of their people. think running water and sewage. think power and roads.

sometimes they go fuckbrained. which is why we need whistleblowers, accountability, CONSEQUENCES, etc.

Sounds like you may have a vasovagal reaction? My dad gets that too.

I've had some really bad experiences in the past as well including passing out and nausea. Luckily at least for smaller needles like vaccines/dental work I no longer suffer from that. I still lay down if blood is being drawn.

It took a long time, but I think the dentist giving me some sedatives for the needles helped me get more comfortable with it since I knew they helped, and eventually, I was able to try without and it was hard but it did help, and it just got easier from there.

It still sucks, but it's manageable now.

If you struggle at the dentist like I did, maybe that's an option if you need work done and a path forward.

It's a shame that's not an option typically offered for other needles. I bet it could help people get vaccines if it was offered.

I've found the best way to deal with a fear of needles is to scream slurs

Small world. A cousin of mine had a negative reaction soon after getting the 2nd dose of Pfizer. Got rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night from what I heard, spent long time in ICU, got their parents worried, they were talking about it on the wechat group. Sent a wave of panic throught the entire friend circle.

Imagine having one of the people you know IRL having a bad reaction to the vaccine.

(not anti-vax btw, just sharing anecdotes)