Vaccine by numbers — give it a shot

Several writers have recently suggested that getting a COVID-19 vaccine could be risky, and they are absolutely correct. Every vaccine carries a risk of side effects, and the current vaccines are no exception, particularly since several of them feature the relatively new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Frankly, the absolute safest (and most selfish) course of action would be for everyone but you to get vaccinated. That way, you wouldn’t catch the disease because nobody would be spreading it, and you also wouldn’t risk any possible side effects from the vaccine. But living in a functioning society involves some self- sacrifice. “Herd immunity” to eradicate the pandemic requires at least 70% of the population to get vaccinated, so if everybody chooses the “safest” route then ultimately nobody is safe.

As I write this, five COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have published their results. Of the roughly 75,000 people who have received one of the five in a research trial, not a single one has died of COVID. To put that in perspective, if you picked 75,000 American adults at random last year, about 150 would have died from COVID. And of course, half a million Americans have already died from the disease, compared to zero from getting a vaccine.

Developing a COVID vaccine in record time was a scientific marvel, but vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations do. Sometimes doing the right thing and the safe thing are the same thing. Give it a shot.

— Scott Paulo, Chico