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I have a friend who is very anxious about how quickly these vaccines were developed. What can I tell them to reassure them that it is safe?

ahulak 6y ago
Something that resonated with me... Which do you think is more likely to have a significant negative effect on your health? These vaccines or COVID? We have plenty of reason to believe these vaccines will be effective with minimal adverse effects (including the relatively small study of 40k individuals). Conversely, we have definitive proof that in the best case COVID can be asymptomatic and/or a nasty, but survivable, virus. At its worst, it kills you or leaves you with long-lasting health issues that we don't yet fully understand. Personally, I'll take my chances with the vaccine. My biggest fear isn't adverse reactions, but rather lack of efficacy.
ganoushoreilly 6y ago
But that's just it, we anecdotally know they're safe. There are tests we've run and the results are promising, but the true large scale inoculations haven't happened. All things point to these as being safe, but until it's more widely dispersed I don't think you can assert it as having the same safety as most modern inoculations. Cautious optimism isn't a bad thing, nor is hesitance to taking the vaccine. Its not really your place to convince them it is safe, that's for them to decide with the facts on hand. Provide them info on the tests, share whatever you have, but it's ok to not trust the speed at which these vaccines were made.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago
This NYT article clicked with me: https://outline.com/bVnccw https://outline.com/bVnccw If our best and brightest doctors are opting to get the vaccines for themselves, I feel safe doing the same - it's probably the most clear and obvious signal we're going to get.
- spapas82 6y ago
  This is a game of probability of which risk is greater: covid or vaccine? So, a doctor that has a great chance to get covid it's worth to use the vaccine even if it has risks. For me that I have low probability to get covid (I try to be very careful) it's not worth to have the vaccine risks.

ahulak 6y ago

Something that resonated with me... Which do you think is more likely to have a significant negative effect on your health? These vaccines or COVID? We have plenty of reason to believe these vaccines will be effective with minimal adverse effects (including the relatively small study of 40k individuals). Conversely, we have definitive proof that in the best case COVID can be asymptomatic and/or a nasty, but survivable, virus. At its worst, it kills you or leaves you with long-lasting health issues that we don't yet fully understand. Personally, I'll take my chances with the vaccine. My biggest fear isn't adverse reactions, but rather lack of efficacy.

ganoushoreilly 6y ago

But that's just it, we anecdotally know they're safe. There are tests we've run and the results are promising, but the true large scale inoculations haven't happened. All things point to these as being safe, but until it's more widely dispersed I don't think you can assert it as having the same safety as most modern inoculations. Cautious optimism isn't a bad thing, nor is hesitance to taking the vaccine. Its not really your place to convince them it is safe, that's for them to decide with the facts on hand. Provide them info on the tests, share whatever you have, but it's ok to not trust the speed at which these vaccines were made.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago

This NYT article clicked with me: https://outline.com/bVnccw https://outline.com/bVnccw If our best and brightest doctors are opting to get the vaccines for themselves, I feel safe doing the same - it's probably the most clear and obvious signal we're going to get.

spapas82 6y ago
This is a game of probability of which risk is greater: covid or vaccine? So, a doctor that has a great chance to get covid it's worth to use the vaccine even if it has risks. For me that I have low probability to get covid (I try to be very careful) it's not worth to have the vaccine risks.