The vaccines are safe

Why don’t you want to get the covid vaccine? Because you don’t trust the government? Because you don’t trust Big Pharma, for-profit hospitals and insurance companies? Because you distrust the CDC, or just covid vaccines?

There’s good reason to distrust government. For 20 years—under four presidents—they lied to us about Afghanistan, insisting we were winning the war. In fact, our government never has had a strong record of truth-telling, regardless of who’s in power.

Why would we trust Big Pharma and insurance companies when corporate honchos and stockholders make a killing from our illness? The real problem is a health-care system built on profit.

CDC’s changing directives and recommendations have diminished our confidence in them. But they’re scientists, after all, and we should understand that as more data becomes available their conclusions change.

Besides, is there any other group or agency better equipped to give us science-based guidance on infectious diseases?

Vaccines protect us from flu, tetanus, hepatitis, shingles and polio. We vaccinate our kids against a range of childhood diseases. Is it this particular vaccine? This week FDA finally has enough data to fully approve a covid vaccine. So, no problem, right?

Your resistance to vaccination is well-reasoned, but the bottom line is that people who are vaccinated have a very low rate of infection and in most cases don’t suffer serious illness or long-term effects if infection does occur. Unvaccinated people account for nearly all hospitalizations and deaths. Bottom line: Covid vaccines are safe and they work.

BOB BILLIG

Elkins