covid vaccine side effects remind me of when I used to collect baseball cards in the 1990s. All the companies came out with these sets where there were special “rare” cards, say 1 in 500 of a player that would be signed by him or have a little piece of his jersey or baseball bat (some shards) attached.

Out of the pack these were worth like $500 back then, so you were playing the lottery by buying them. After a while, though, you realized that so many companies were issuing so many sets that these “rare” cards were actually not so rare. They could just issue a new premium “glossy” set with the same dynamic. So every year, there were like 30 different sets, each with this “rare” version for each star player. That’s when I stopped buying them and wished I had spent the money on cards that were actually rare from the 50s and 60s.

Each side effect could be unlikely in particular person, but collectively it’s not rare at all. And even the particular ones aren’t nearly as rare as they should be.

Incidentally this lesson re the cards also kept me away from shitcoins which is the same principle.