Let me start by saying I’m not an “anti-vaxxer” in any way shape or form. My child is fully vaccinated, the science is solid, and the conspiracy theories are – mostly – insane. That said, when I was a kid in the 1970s, I suffered from vaccine-triggered Guillain-Barré syndrome. I temporarily lost the use of my legs in a very painful bout of paralysis, so I have a healthy skepticism of anything we’re injecting into ourselves.
Bottom line? I don’t want to be in the first batch of people receiving a rushed-to-production COVID-19 vaccine. If other people want to line up, that’s fine. It’s their decision. I’ll wait and see how things turn out.
Apparently, I’m not alone. Moderna has officially started a new phase of trials for its ‘Rona vaccine, and that had CBS wondering: Once it’s approved, how many people are willing to be among the first to receive it?
Advertisement - story continues below
The results indicate that it will take more that $1000 to get people on board. Fully 70 percent of Americans say they have no interest in being a COVID-19 guinea pig, and many will not get the vaccine at all:
With the first volunteer receiving a shot, Moderna officially began the phase three safety and efficacy trial of its novel RNA-based vaccine. The plan is to enroll 30,000 such volunteers, half of which will get a placebo and complete the trial in just a few months, rather than the several years such trials normally require.
TRENDING: Herman's 9-9-9: One of the best policy proposals you had no idea was so good (and serious)
But even if a safe and effective vaccine is available by year end and it was free, a new CBS News poll suggests there may not be takers, at least at first. The poll found that more than two third of Americans, 70%, would either wait to see what happens when other got the shot or would never get one. Fewer than one in three would get the vaccine right away.
I have news for CBS. It’s the “safe and effective” thing that has people concerned.
Advertisement - story continues below
American media outlets, like the government officials they cover, have absolutely incinerated their credibility. They’ve lied, fudged and hedged so often that literally no one accepts what they say at face value. There is always a bias, always an angle, and always a double standard.
So, when someone tells us the vaccine is “safe and effective,” we’re naturally suspicious. Maybe it seems safe now, but problems show up later. Maybe it’s sometimes effective and sometimes not, but testing was rushed so no one really knows. Perhaps you’re just regurgitating whatever your particular political messiah told you to say, whether it’s right or wrong.
The problem is that we have no way of knowing the truth, and both our politicians and our alleged journalists always have an agenda.
So, yeah. There’s a real strain of intense distrust out there. If reporters want to know why it exists, they need only look in the mirror.
