I can’t see why anyone would not want to take it. There’s absolutely no chance for severe, long-term side effects because nothing in the vaccine sticks around for very long and the end products are things we’d have in our bodies anyway. If you’re unsure about this vaccine, don’t be.
With respect, I don’t think we should go beyond what the actual vaccine producers say about their own product. The other day I read their official product monograph that “
The safety evaluation of participants in Study 2 is still ongoing” and that, for example,
No [drug] interaction studies have been performed.
Reproduction and developmental toxicology studies in animals have not been completed.
The safety and efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in pregnant women have not yet
been established.
The safety and efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in children under 16 years of age
have not yet been established.
It is unknown whether Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is excreted in human milk. A risk to
the newborns/infants cannot be excluded.
and under “SERIOUS WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS” they can at most say:
At the time of authorization, there are no known serious warnings or precautions associated
with this product.
I get that persons with specialized knowledge about whatever mRNA vaccines are, may feel heightened confidence and assume that the language used in the monograph is
merely to cover the rear ends of the scientists involved. And sure, rear-end-covering will be a significant part of it, and the scientists involved
may feel privately convinced that safety
is adequately established for all populations, or excretion through breast milk
is excluded, or there will
never be a serious warning or precaution associated with this product.
But there’s a reason the scientific method, and government health authority standards, don’t allow them to say that before they’ve proved it.
And in the meantime, I think it’s fair enough for an average Joe to be as “unsure about this vaccine” as the product monograph is. Not to mention that this has not been a year (or recent few years) in which authority figures have earned the trust of regular people. There are all sorts of reasons a person may choose not to step forward early, and I
firmly believe no one should be forced to submit to an injection of a rushed-through substance whose testing is yet incomplete, from authority figures they distrust, against their will.
That said, after reading the monograph I did come to a conclusion in my own life. Which is that if I start spending more time around the pregnant (or trying-for-pregnancy) women in my life, then to spare them the possible risks from the vaccine (and to spare them from anxiety about others not surrounding them with herd immunity), I’d choose to receive the vaccine myself. I’m not planning for pregnancy in the near future, and women I know are. Better my body than theirs, if something goes wrong. But this should be
my own choice, not something forced on me (or forced on others).