Why don’t some people want to get the vaccine? Here’s why
Musa al-Gharbi
Left-leaning people wonder ‘what’s wrong’ with the unvaccinated. But what if their non-compliance isn’t that surprising?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...e-covid-vaccine


woman holding a chart reading Freedom not Force at a rally
‘There are many powerful and fairly-straightforward reasons for people to be suspicious of authorities.’ Photograph: Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
Tue 15 Feb 2022 06.25 EST

Hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 in the US are now driven heavily (although not exclusively) by the small share who remain unvaccinated. According to the latest CDC estimates, an unvaccinated American is 14 times more likely to die of Covid-related complications as compared with someone who has two doses of the vaccine – and they are 68 times more likely to die from Covid-related health problems than someone who is “boosted.”

Explanations for persistent vaccine hesitancy abound. An increasingly dominant narrative, especially among progressives, is that failure to comply with the directives of public health officials is absurd and must be driven by some pathology or deficit. Among those who subscribe to this worldview, debates turn around identifying the primary malfunction of “those people”: Are they ignorant? Brainwashed? Stupid? Selfish and apathetic? All of the above? Left off the menu is the possibility that hesitancy and non-compliance may actually be reasonable responses to how experts and other elites have conducted themselves, both before and during the pandemic.

Yet there are many powerful and fairly straightforward reasons people cite for why they are suspicious of authorities, both with respect to the Covid-19 vaccine and other pandemic-related public health guidance. In no particular order:

The Covid-19 vaccines were developed, approved, mass produced and distributed at record speed. On the one hand, this was a miracle of modern science, state capacity and private sector ingenuity. On the other hand, the rapid process gave rise to questions about whether proper protocols had been followed and exacerbated concerns about how safe and effective the vaccines would be.

These rapidly produced vaccines also pioneered the use of “artificial proteins never seen in the natural world”. Again, a miracle of modern science, but one that left many wondering if there was sufficient research on possible long-term problems and side-effects, given that the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine was the first mRNA vaccine ever to achieve full FDA approval in the US and was a developed and approved on a radically accelerated timetable.

During the 2020 US presidential campaign, both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris expressed grave concerns about the “Trump vaccines,” alleging that they may not have been properly developed, vetted, approved or manufactured – and consequently, may not be safe. The Biden administration is now depicting hesitancy around these same vaccines as irrational and immoral.

In a recent interview, Anthony Fauci outright acknowledged that he has engaged in “noble lies” with respect to herd immunity vaccination targets in order to encourage more people to take the shots.

Pre-Omicron, the vaccines were portrayed as providing more than 90% effectiveness against Covid-19 infection. It turned out that even a two-dose sequence faced precipitous declines in efficacy, dropping to less than 50% effectiveness several months after the second shot. That is, a two-shot regime ended up at the low end of what would be considered “effective” at preventing infection at all, which is why we ended up with boosters.

In the wake of Omicron, even people who have been “boosted” with a third shot are regularly experiencing breakthrough infections. -- excerpt, rest at link above --


Pretty decent explanation. Particularly for The Guardian. I wonder why?