After more than a year in a global, life-changing pandemic, there is hope and optimism due to one breakthrough—the Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccines are arguably the single greatest life-saving medical innovation in the history of medicine. They’ve improved the quality and quantity of many lives by eradicating deadly diseases such as smallpox and polio. So why is there such entrenched hesitancy from nearly 25% of Americans to take the vaccine?
Vaccine hesitancy, skepticism, and conspiracy theories are nothing new. Crude precursors to modern vaccines were used as early as the 16th century in China in an attempt to fight smallpox. Skeptics existed then too, however, modern skepticism and anti-vaccine arguments have evolved to become more amplified in the media and across the internet. The internet has created an easily accessible platform that allows anyone to spread scientifically inaccurate information to countless others. The modern era of vaccine hysteria began in 1998 with the publication of a study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in the respected medical journal, The Lancet. Wakefield’s study claimed that a commonly administered childhood vaccine correlated with a higher risk of autism in children. We have since learned that Wakefield faked his data. The studies were retracted, but the hysteria over the Measles vaccine lived on and grew. Environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. claimed for years that the mercury in children’s vaccines explained the increase in cases of childhood autism. There is no medical evidence to support this, and Instagram recently de-platformed Kennedy for continuing to spread medically inaccurate “information.” Celebrities like Jenny McCarthy (who has no medical or scientific background or training), have made anti-vaccination a personal crusade and went on the Oprah Winfrey Show to spread anti-science opinions to millions with little pushback. The most recent conspiracy theories involve Covid-19 and Bill Gates. They go something like this: Covid-19 was developed in a lab in China and intentionally spread globally so that Gates and members of the global elite (including the Illuminati) could use the vaccines to implant people with chips to spy on them via 5G. Never mind that nearly all of us carry a smartphone that knows more about us from data scraping and tracking than we could imagine—no needle necessary.
Medical experts have had to spend valuable time and resources dispelling Covid-19 myths. Here are some facts: The vaccine is safe, effective, and has been studied in thousands of subjects during clinical trials. The vaccine met rigorous safety, efficacy, and manufacturing quality benchmarks set forth by the FDA so that it could undergo distribution through emergency use authorization. Millions of doses have been administered in the US alone, and the vaccine has undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in US history.
Still, epidemiologists, virologists, and other infectious disease specialists continue to set the record straight to encourage patients to receive the vaccine. How was the vaccine released so quickly? According to the experts at Johns Hopkins, the method has been in development for years. China isolated and shared genetic information so scientists could keep working on research and development. No steps in the process were skipped, but some steps overlapped so data could be recorded faster. Lots of money was, for obvious reasons, thrown at development. Some types of Covid-19 vaccines were created using messenger RNA (mRNA) which is faster than a traditional vaccine approach. In fact, the mRNA technology behind the vaccine has been in development for nearly 20 years. Social media platforms were used extensively to find study volunteers. Manufacturing began before FDA authorization so that some supplies would be ready upon approval. And lastly, scientists worked around the clock to produce the COVID-19 vaccine.
Another hurdle in the way of the vaccination effort is that vaccine science has become ultra-politicized at a time when we need to look at data and scientific evidence and come together as a nation. CNN recently reported that vaccination rates by state indicate that the race to vaccinate falls along clear political lines. Of the top 25 states, in terms of percentage vaccinated, President Biden won 21 of them in the 2020 Presidential Election. Former President Trump and his wife Melania were privately vaccinated and yet made no public attempts to promote vaccination. Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox News, was vaccinated early in December 2020. He has actively encouraged others to vaccinate, however several of his top-rated show hosts like Tucker Carlson have spread wild, unproven theories about the vaccine including lies about the vaccine being linked to deaths. (Carlson has admitted on air that he is fully vaccinated.) It’s a rating boost and a cash grab for Carlson that’s purely cynical, and it’s harming public health.
Full disclosure: I received two Pfizer shots more than two weeks ago, so I’m fully vaccinated. I can’t imagine ignoring the advice of top experts who have studied and administered vaccines for many years. I had a sore arm for two days but otherwise felt no side effects. I trust science. I trust medicine. I trust expertise. And I trust that I will be free to live a much more active life thanks to being vaccinated.
