Vaccine Trials & Tribulations
It seems like the U.S. is just a few days away from rolling out the first COVID-19 vaccine. I’m not an anti-vaxxer by any stretch of the imagination (gets your kids their shots), but something about this vaccine process just isn’t sitting quite right with me. In all likelihood, and hopefully, this post won’t age well, and in a few years we can talk about how silly we were to be worried about it, but as of right now, I don’t want the COVID vaccine.
Most of all, I don’t trust big Pharma. They’re one of the most egregiously exploitative industries in world history, and report after shocking report keeps proving this. It sucks that they’re going to reap all the credit and the profit for saving everyone. The opioid epidemic is completely their fault, but now we’re going to act like they’re heroes because they’ve ostensibly concocted a vaccine for a virus that has caused far less death and suffering than the products they’re usually pumping out.
Furthermore, it seems like it happened too quickly and with too much coordination. Back in March, they were predicting it would be at least 12-18 months before we would have a viable vaccine. Now, here we are and multiple companies happened to cut that time in half, making this the most successful vaccine production campaign ever, and they ended up with a finished product that’s 94% effective? It just seems a little too good to be true.
What doesn’t seem too good to be true is the period of time for which the vaccine is effective. Presumably because the COVID-19 virus mutates rather quickly, the vaccine is only predicted to provide about three months of protection. Logistically, if everyone were in line to get the vaccine, I don’t think we’ll have enough to vaccinate everyone in America for many months, given that one vaccination requires two injections spaced a few weeks apart. That means that the number of people who can be vaccinated is half of the number of doses we have. So if everyone has to get back in line for another round of two shots after three months, it seems like we won’t ever catch up unless the companies manufacturing them can miraculously increase their output.
On a different note, some people have had severe allergic reactions to the vaccine, so at what point should we start to wonder about the risks? Not only the short term risks of possible allergic reactions, but what about long term risks? This is a brand new vaccine, we don’t know what long term effects it could have. If you’re an elderly person, there’s a good chance you could die from COVID, so you probably don’t need to worry about long term effects, but if you’re a young, healthy person, you should consider whether this vaccine will do more damage to you in the long run than COVID itself could.
Further contributing to my safety concerns, the Trump administration has hopelessly politicized this process. Their political strategy has been to rely almost entirely on the promise of a vaccine rather than preventing the spread of the virus in the first place, so I don’t exactly trust them to have followed all the necessary safety guidelines. As I said before, this feels like a rush job. Plus, if you wanna talk crazy conspiracy theories, then it’s worth acknowledging that if the government (or a private entity, @bigpharma) ever were going to try to get the majority of the population drinking some kool-aid, this would be the time to pull that lever. I don’t believe that’s what’s happening, but this would be a great opportunity.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t get the vaccine. I’m just saying it’s a decision you need to make carefully, and that we should be asking questions rather than falling in line like sheep.