Robackrman, your anecdote about the woman you know who seems "different" after being vaccinated really upsets me, because I have been seeing a lot of cognitive decline in people I know after they have had the shot. I am mainly noticing it in the smartest people; they can't think as they used to (perhaps the less smart people are driveling more, but I've always tried not to listen to them much, so I can't say). By any reasonable standard these intelligent people are okay, but not compared with how they were. They were really, really, really smart before. Now they are just really smart.

These are people who were far smarter than me (and tolerated my drivel, no doubt). But they are going downhill. I don't want this to be the case; I would rather not be smarter due to their decline. This is not a gift to me. I feel like I am going to be the genius from Idiocracy.

I have always had a horrible memory; just terrible. I do very well on standardized tests and can reason, but I can't remember anything. I have a friend who is 72 y.o. who has an astounding memory. Until now. Yesterday I was able to recall a religious term that he couldn't. He told me, "don't grow old!" I wanted to scream. It's not his age; it is almost certainly the vaccination.

In the case of people who are less smart, what I am seeing is that their facial expressions are different after being vaccinated. They look blander, and slightly fearful. There are also people whom I see on zoom, who don't say much, so I can't tell how well they are mentally. They look terrible, just awful; their faces have aged tremendously.

It is possible that these effects are due to people being infected by covid itself, before or after their vaccination. I can't rule that out. I don't know enough people who haven't been vaccinated to have a comparison group. But even if it turns out that this is due to infection (rather than vaccination), it is clear that the vaccination is not preventing it.

I was hoping I was imagining this, so I am not happy to get confirmation.