Listen to this The Dailypodcast: “Voices of the Unvaccinated.” There are multiple reasons being given: “Don, a 38-year-old single father from Pittsburgh, doesn’t want to be lumped into the ‘crazy anti-vax crowd.’
“Jeannie, a middle school teacher, has never vaccinated her teenage son and says she won’t start now.
“Lyndsey, from Florida, regrets having not had her late grandmother vaccinated against Covid-19.”
I’ll speak to just one person’s point of view—Don.
He is waiting for “all the information to become available” so that he can make the right decision. Listen to what he said about purchasing the latest Xbox and you can dissect his line of thinking. To him, I’d say there is a reason for the virus being called “novel:” “A ‘novel’ coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.” It is new, which makes everything about it also “new,” which means sometimes you have to act only on the information you do have.
His reason for not “jumping for the vaccine” is that he wants to be sure — on everything. Not an uncommon excuse for not acting. I heard a port executive remark, “I need all the information before making a decision.” The trouble with waiting for complete information is that you will always be behind the innovation curve. And, if you wait on the vaccine, you could be dead.
After listening to the podcast, I do think the next big surge in vaccinations that might come in the future is when the FDA removes the “emergency authorization” for the vaccines and they are declared fully researched. Or, people may throw up another reason for not becoming vaccinated.
