Counterpoint: I am not optimistic about these vaccines – Student Life

Point: Roll up your sleeves and do your part

The recent news about several possibly effective vaccines able to be distributed as soon as April has people breathing a sigh of relief—and for good reason. For the first time in a long time we have real, unmitigated, uncontroversial good news. Right? Well, I suppose I am here to be the pessimist once again. Let me preface this by saying that I also think this is great news, and I think you would have to be a little crazy not to think that. However, that does not mean we are in the clear with vaccination efforts—there is still a lot that has to go right, and a lot that could go wrong. I think if we rush into the vaccine gung-ho and guns blazing, there is the potential for huge social, and potentially medical, consequences.

I am not an anti-vaxxer. However, many people in this country are. In fact, according to a recent Gallup poll, only a little over half of Americans are willing to take a COVID vaccine (a number that has risen, yet is still astonishingly low). Not all of these people are anti-vax per se, but they are at least skeptical about taking it—and potentially susceptible to anti-vax ideas. Even Joe Biden, while emphasizing his trust in scientists, expressed doubt about a vaccine developed in a Trump administration. Considering the general ineptitude of the Trump administration’s COVID response and the truncation of extended vaccine testing in the “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine development program, I think some of those concerns are warranted. Vaccine development often takes up to five years from start to finish, with a significant portion (often a full year) of that time taken up by testing. It has not yet been a year since the national coronavirus shutdowns, let alone since serious work on the vaccines began. There is still a lot we might not know.

But it is not the safety of the vaccine which I am most worried about but rather the social consequence of an unsafe or otherwise botched process of vaccine distribution. This is especially concerning when considering historical precedent and the origins of the modern anti-vax movement. Infamously, the initial rollout of the ‘Cutter’ polio vaccine was defective, which paralyzed hundreds of children and killed ten. In the grand scheme the Cutter vaccine was a huge benefit to society, saving nearly half a million lives since it was implemented, but this initial screw-up permanently damaged vaccine credibility in the United States, a legacy we are still dealing with today.

So adding this up, we have low national trust in vaccines and a complete truncation of FDA testing procedures. This is all without even mentioning the logistical issues, issues of payment and who will get the vaccine and a fraught political transition. To me, it seems likely that one or more of these links could break. So I think it’s better to temper expectations for now. Because if we go all out on a vaccine that turns out to be ineffective, or worse, get people sick, then we could blow our shot at vaccinating people who are sceptical but willing to take a chance. This is a delicate situation, so let’s tread carefully. You can be skeptical without being dangerous — and in fact a healthy scepticism might just end up benefiting vaccination efforts in the long run.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Google News can be found here ***