Responses to Anti-Vaxer Rationales

If you’re not getting vaccinated because you hate the government and science and scientists and doctors and people telling you what to do and the nanny state and who knows what other reason you have, then I have nothing to change your mind… because you’re not claiming to be using it. But if you are resistant to getting vaccinated because you have what you regard as “reasons,” then I’d like to offer the following counterarguments.

“The vaccine itself is still an unproven risk, only recently approved, which was probably under pressure.”

Over 5.8 billion people have taken at least one dose and only an extremely small percentage have serious reactions. Using the ratios of the U.S., 2 out of 100,000 people died at some later time after taking the vaccine and no direct relationship has been established for those deaths. Just for reference, in the U.S. alone, before the pandemic, about 8 thousand people die every day. Your odds of dying from COVID are immensely higher than of getting even a serious adverse reaction from the vaccine.

“The scientists are still guessing about too many things and keep changing their minds.”

You probably have a very mistaken understanding of science. Science is not a world of yes-and-no answers that pop out of a science factory and everyone agrees on them. Yes, there are many things that science does establish with near certainty, but in the world of nature, such as disease, much of our knowledge is limited to statistics and probabilities. And yes, there is corruption in science, as in all human endeavors. And yes, scientists make mistakes. But science continues to collect information and make better decisions. And you should rely on them, not on fear or the mistaken holdout for some perfection that is not going to arise. Your odds of getting sick or dying from COVID are immensely higher if you do not get vaccinated. Your odds of transmitting or contracting it are many times higher if you don’t wear a mask when indoors near other people in low air circulation.

“I’m worried about the immediate reaction to the shot: fever, soreness, chills, maybe a severe reaction.”

Vaccines have been used for over 100 years now and the immediate reactions are entirely predictable and expected. They are known responses that in fact confirm that your body is doing what it’s supposed to do, preparing to fight disease.

“I don’t want to find out that some weird, unpredictable result of the vaccine occurs years from now… something they can’t even imagine now.”

Scientists were smart enough to make this vaccine because they understand how the chemicals of the body work… enough to solve an incredibly detailed problem and do it in the shortest timeframe ever. Do they know everything about the body and its inner workings? No. But exactly what are you worried about that is worse than dying alone in a hospital bed gasping for air? Do you think you’ll grow a third arm, or develop a life-threatening disease? No such problems have happened from any of the dozens of vaccines used throughout history. Do you think all of the scientists, who know a lot more about physiology than you or me, would take it if those were likely risks?

“I’m not against the vaccine, just the government mandating it.”

Then get vaccinated and keep complaining about government just like you’ve been doing. Vaccines have been mandated and protecting the population for over 100 years, and for that entire time the Supreme Court has upheld such mandates because they are supported by two tenets right at the beginning of the constitution: “provide for the common defense,” and “promote the general welfare.” Are you against the childhood vaccines that you yourself received that prevented you from getting smallpox and other diseases? And is it possible, just possible, that your objection has nothing to do with the government telling you what to do, but rather, is that you just don’t like the government even though you’ve done nothing to participate in it?

“I’m young and healthy, it’s a low probability of getting it or getting very sick.”

Wrong. In a group of 3,000 adults ages 18 to 34 who contracted COVID-19 and became sick enough to require hospital care, 300 (10%) had a tube stuck down their throats to supply air, and 81 (2.7%) died. Mother Nature made you into the Superman you think you are and she can take it all away any time she wants with a flying squadron of invisible, 3-micron small helicopters.

“The vaccine isn’t even guaranteed to protect me. People still get COVID after they’ve been vaccinated.”

No vaccine has ever been perfect. That is not how they’ve ever achieved their miracle of preventing disease. Vaccines through history have been around 60 percent effective of preventing any one individual of contracting a disease. But when all people get vaccinated, it prevents the disease from spreading and can eventually kill it off. The COVID vaccines are an astonishing 95–98% effective at preventing you from contracting the disease. This means that if the germ is pumped into a crowded, enclosed room where there are 100 vaccinated people, 3–5 are likely to catch the germ. That is a fact. But 95–98 people who might otherwise have caught it won’t. But more than that, it also prevents the germ from doing serious damage if you do get infected. And it makes it extremely, extremely unlikely of death.

“I’m scared of needles.”

I thought so. Get over it. Use mind over matter; you’ve done that at other times in your life and this won’t be the last. The needles they use these days are so thin you often can’t feel them much, if at all.

“It’s my right not to take it.”

Ultimately, maybe, sorta. But just because you have the right to do something doesn’t make it right. Go ahead, keep on maintaining your rights… while you infect those around you, drag our economy down, and risk your own death and that of others. Maybe try thinking about what it means to be part of a community, and where exactly you get those rights from.

So, are you really insisting that you are basing your choice on willful, thoughtful reasoning? If so, I really think you need to examine your logic. Are you in fact using logic and knowledge… or fear?