How to talk to that family member...

So we managed to get through the day and not discuss why there aren't microchips in vaccines and even if there were your phone already knows absolutely everything about what you do and where you do it.

That bit always makes me laugh too. "I've a great conspiracy theory, I'm going to put it up on facebook/twitter/whatsapp/reddit, from my phone". If actual conspiracies* of the kind they buy into were happening and they're not, that would be like Martin Luthor asking the pope to use the vatican printing presses to promote the Reformation. The only person I actually know like this is welded to their phone and has actually said to me "they're listening to our phone conversations" while standing beside an Alexa in their kitchen that plugs their existential hole by constantly buying tat off Amazon. If you know someone like that, for the craic ask to download their location history and show it to them... Now it could reinforce their paranoia, but they won't give up their phones.

For some, or at least that individual I know I think conspiracy theories are a comfort of sorts in the face of an ever changing world that they're happy to buy into, even though they know the theories are bull. Kinda like some of the religious who seek the same comfort. This pox has hightened that lack of comfort in a previously "safe world". It's screwed up long held comfortable routines and for many it's also really hit their livelihoods and their family lives.

*conspiracies can and do happen of course, but they're nearly always small scale and only stay hidden for very short periods of time, if they stay hidden at all. Take planned obsolescence. One conspiracy was to do with lightbulbs(back in the 1920's IIRC?). Sales were down for all the companies because lightbulbs were lasting too long. So a group of lightbulb producers from America and Europe got together and behind closed doors decided a "gentleman's agreement" where they'd all agree to look into making lightbulbs that didn't last as long. And it worked. They did and sales went up. However the gentleman's agreement didn't last long and it was all over within a few years and this was a simple "conspiracy". Plus many of the items we use every day have planned obsolescence built in and we know it, the manufacturers are hardly hiding this from us, but it doesn't matter to the vast majority of people who keep buying them. A fine balance of economics, marketing and the basic human need for novelty is all that's required. No conspiracy involved.

I certainly now don't believe the efficacy rates are where they claimed them to be.

They've been extremely effective at lowering the risks of serious illness and death. They've been less than hoped when it came to transmission and long term protection. Still more consistent and far better than catching covid. Now some do seem to get longer protection after infection, but it's not consistent which is a problem and you have to catch and recover from it which is the bigger problem, especially for the old and the chronically unwell. This goes quadruple for the vulnerable demographics. Serious illness and death fell off a cliff in the very old for example. If in another world we'd had vaccines in January 2020 odds are extremely high at least half of those who died in this pox wouldn't have.

The flu viruses and vaccines are not a good comparison. Coronaviruses are a very different beast, hence why there were no human vaccines against them before this. There is one for animals, in farm chickens IIRC? But it's not particularly effective. Mutations are less of an issue as they mutate more slowly than influenza viruses. One of their problems is in most cases our immune system memory doesn't last long with coronaviruses. Measles at the other extreme is basically catch it, or get vaccinated and you're immune for life. Chicken pox would be similar. Tetanus is more like a decade of immunity. With flu though antibodies drop after infection or vaccine immune memory is much longer. EG the Russian flu of the late 70's was pretty much identical to the Korean flu twenty years previously* and those who were old enough to be exposed to that were immune to the 70's one. That flu pandemic was mostly concentrated in the young of the time.

I'd be willing to bet that by mid 2022 we'll have a vaccine protocol that will mimic the super immunity of those who have recovered from covid and been vaccinated.

*Now that's a conspiracy theory that could actually have some legs. Namely that it's unlikely that the two viruses were so identical two decades apart in a virus that mutates annually that there's a theory among some scientists that it could have leaked from a lab researching vaccines, likely in Russia where it was first reported.

They have been researching the technology for 20+ years but why wasn't a single product based on mRNA technology ever fully licensed for human use.

Personal opinion? There was a huge amount of talk within the industry that it was going to be a gamechanger, a magic bullet for all sorts of ailments. The money flowed in from investors on the back of it. However the tech was tricky. It was either hard to apply it, or when it was applied in higher doses required in some ailments the side effects were too risky, or it just didn't work very well(at least one cancer therapy was stopped because of lack of efficacy).

Then we had vaccines. Vaccines looked good because of the smaller doses involved and with less risk and it would be more much likely to work. Problem is, or was, vaccine production was at the budget end of the pharma biz. There wasn't any money in it, or at least not enough to throw too many resources at it. When SARS(and MERS) happened loads of resources were thrown at it and a lot of it was fired at possible vaccines, but then when SARS didn't go all global pandemic and essentially went away those resources dried up and research pretty much ground to a halt. Research into mRNA vaccines continued but at a low level. Viral vector vaccines were similar enough. Now they have a longer real world history but even there it was only a handful of viral vector vaccines that had been approved before covid.

Then Covid happened. We needed vaccines and as quickly as possible. Huge amounts of cash and brains were thrown at the problem and mRNA tech was a large recipient of that across a few companies, which sped up existing research that had been in the slow lane. If covid hadn't happened I suspect there would have been mRNA vaccines, but they would have taken much longer to get to market. When humanity has a need and resources are thrown at it, the need tends to get filled and in short order. Most problems are essentially engineering problems. Look what happens in war. At the start of WW2 we had mostly 20's tech in aircraft with a few new idea monoplane stressed skin aircraft, by the end we had jet fighters and bombers and guided missiles and rockets and atom bombs.

As for doubts about mRNA tech. I had a lot more doubts when they were first rolled out, but those doubts have receded since. Could they be problematic in the longer term? Unlikely at this stage, or I haven't read any evidence of that. I would say where they might have a problem is by being so specific in how they get an immune response because they focus on the spike protein in the case of covid. If the virus mutates around that then good luck. Kinda like if you instruct bouncers in a club to refuse entry to those who wear red socks because you've determined they're always scumbags. Great until the scumbags cop this and start wearing black socks. However if you give the same bouncers a list of traits that determine scumbags, them changing their socks won't affect the bouncer's ability to stop them coming in. TBH I'd also be a little wary about boosters every few months because of any possible cumulative effect.

The vaccines show strong protection against serious illness and death with all the variants so far. The apparent mildness of omricon could well be down to the vaccines too and/or natural community resistance in a young population like South Africa. Yeah we've more breakthrough infections because of a lackof neutralising antibodies, but immune memory seems to be still running very strong. I'd be willing to bet omricon might not be nearly so mild in an unvaccinated(or unexposed) population. Not as bad as delta, but not a headcold either.

Though I'd read your links more thoroughly:

mRNA vaccines are made using a new technology...

You seem to have a worrying inability to read basic English: Which part of this do you have difficulty comprehending? "I agree with the CDC". I even expanded on that agreement with my last paragraph. It was your previous link I reckoned needed work. If I had typed: mRNA vaccines are made using a new technology you'd have had another fit of misplaced pique, yet you used the link to back up your position.

It seems like you're just another one of those who reads what they want to read and imagines the rest to back up an existing opinion.