Some of my buddies' parents are thinking about getting the AstraZeneca shot, and are presenting the argument that it seems to cause clotting mostly on young (40 and younger) people, so they think they are safe. Anyone out there got some statistical data that could be presented in order to dissuade them ?
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Have you ever girdled a tree? Probably not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling#:~:text=Girdling%2C%20also%20called%20ring%2Dbarking,above%20the%20girdle%20over%20time.
If you didn't know, 90% of living tree cells are only just under the bark, not including the leaves. Cut any tree, you'll see green. That's pretty much all of the tree that is "alive." All the wood inside is just structural and to provide a big storage depot for water and carbohydrates. If you strip the bark, all the way around, a tree's days are numbered.
You can girdle a young tree, and it will usually die pretty quick. That's because a young tree prioritizes growing over self-maintenance. A young tree will grow a new limb rather than repair a damaged one.
Old trees aren't the same. They grow slower, relatively, because they know if they grow too fast they will collapse under their own weight. So, the older a tree gets, the better it is at repairing itself, if only because less resources are spent on growth.
In a way, it comes down to metabolism. A young body performs more growth processes, which lends itself to more destruction if a wrench is cast into the gears. An old body performs less growth processes, but make no mistake, the processes are still going on. In a way, that's more dangerous because the symptoms will build so slowly, you won't know when it is too late.
In summary, you can girdle a young tree and you can girdle an old tree. Either way, a death blow had been dealt and years it once had to look forward too are now gone forever.