Well, I avoided it for almost 3 years..
Me as well. A couple of weeks past it at this point. Pretty much a head cold, it never bothered my breathing, or turned severe in any way. Itchy throat, runny nose, and dead tired through the worst couple of days. First symptom to the last went about four days. I call myself lucky.
This is exactly what vaccines do. Nothing prevents you from catching this (or any virus), they're floating in the air. The vaccines are training for your immune system. Instead of your body "inventing" it's own defense against the virus while the virus in in you and freely doing it's thing, you already have the defense mechanisms in place and at the ready, which allows your immune system to begin the "fight" almost immediately, and do so with much more effective and efficient tools than if it had to start fully from scratch.
I think of it as karate lessons for your immune system. Karate lessons won't stop a bar fight in any way, shape, or form. But they sure would help... Yes, I know that this forum is mostly made of folks who don't frequent the kind of a bar where fights break out all the time, but considering that the vast majority of the US has stopped giving a crap about spreading Covid 19, the rest of us have, willingly or not, kind of inadvertently been dragged into that bar. Being prepared is a good thing.
