1) Except, they didn't form a consensus. There was plenty of disagreement, and there is still a fair amount, of what the appropriate response was, often within

1) Except, they didn't form a consensus. There was plenty of disagreement, and there is still a fair amount, of what the appropriate response was, often within the same fields of medicine. 2/3) I will give you that the vaccines have undergone some testing, but do I think it is nearly enough? No. The testing period for these vaccines was far below what a standard testing period is for medical procedures humans participate in. Standard Phase 1 approval takes, on average, 10 years, and this vaccine did it in less than two. While this vaccine has appeared to be helpful, when it comes to a novel disease and drug testing, there is only so much leeway we can and should give. 4) If we were looking for immediate reactions, sure, but improper dealing with biological functions is a long-term game like cancer, not something typically observed or resolved in the short term. 5) The problem is, we didn't know that millions more were going to die without this vaccine, we made an assumption. This is a novel disease that we didn't have anything close to accurate mortality projection rates, even before the vaccine. They were all over the place and were about as accurate as the lottery numbers in a fortune cookie. Beyond that, we can't really know if this particular vaccine did actually save lives because the drop in case numbers not only corresponds with vaccine rates but also with natural infection recovery and immunity rates. And with estimates of over half the country appearing to show such a high level of immunity to the disease that they didn't even show any symptoms we really didn't know what to expect. 6) And this goes back to my original point. Maybe more people die without the vaccine, but orders of magnitude more? I find that unlikely. 600 million COVID cases in the world [0] and only 6.5 million have died in the whole world. I find it very hard to believe that waiting on a vaccine would have increased those numbers significantly. 7) The body's generative abilities only go so far. The protein development may be a minor issue, it may not. I still would like the question tested and answered. 8) Even if a stop-gap measure is better than no measure at all it should not be forced on people. Make the vaccine available? Sure. Be open and up front about the perceived strengths and flaws? Absolutely. Provide regular updates? Of course. Force people to take it (even just making it a condition of being able to work or go to school)? Absolutely not. [0] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries EDIT: I suspect neither of us will be able to convince the other of their position, but I did want to let you know that I do appreciate the civil tone that has been kept throughout the conversation.