Trust a COVID-19 vaccine? Not me.
October 20, 2020
Americans are desperate for a vaccine to prevent the continued spread of the COVID-19 virus. If you are one of those people, you won’t have to worry about fighting me for a spot in line for the vaccine. I will not be one of those waiting in line to receive it.
Over the last few months, multiple companies have been working on producing a vaccine. Recent comments by President Trump indicate that the vaccine could be available to the general public by mid-October. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that it does not expect a vaccine to be available until well into next year.
Regardless of when it is available, I will not be clamoring to get vaccinated. First, the lack of significant testing of the vaccine is worrisome to me. This vaccine may have serious side effects that aren’t known about yet. The identification of side effects is limited because of the small sample size and small window of time available to test the vaccine. The vaccine could eradicate the virus, but ten years from now I could have significant nerve damage, cancer, heart problems, or any number of health issues.
Another concern of mine is that the vaccine is being produced at a very fast rate. President Trump said that he would like to make the vaccine available to the public almost immediately. The vaccine is being produced so quickly that there is no long term supporting data as to its effectiveness.
Loading ...It would break the record for the shortest time for development for a vaccine. Normally it takes several years for a vaccine to be created and made available to the public. Presently, the vaccine would be available in less than a year’s time from its initial development. That is disconcerting.
Lastly, with multiple companies working on vaccines, I wonder which one is the best for me. The companies obviously will not be producing exact copies of the vaccine because they are all doing their own research. I am not going to put my confidence into one specific vaccine at this time.
The negatives seem to outweigh the positives and the risks are far too great.
