Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

tipper7959 t1_j72haqn wrote

Reply to comment by storm6436 in Cancer mRNA vaccine completes pivotal trial by Phoenix5869

I was skeptical of the covid vaccine when I first heard about it because I didn't understand how it came about so fast when vaccines up until then took years/decades to develop and test. As I learned more I felt more comfortable in the experts recommendations to get the vaccine and I was in line the first day it was publicly available.

It's okay to be skeptical of something at first take IMO but holding on to skepticism in the face of insurmountable evidence and expert guidance is foolish.

7

storm6436 t1_j72kvqi wrote

Except when it's not, which is the problem. Adding social pressure doesn't fix the trust issues, it makes them worse.

Half my friends and family are in the medical field, which isn't to say my position is magically correct, but that I'm not exactly ignorant of how things actually work either. To be more precise, I'm not a "but muh mercuryz!" clown or a "Fire doesn't melt steel!" loon.

I have zero problem with "Shit was hitting the fan, so we had to make something work," but I do have problems with people who will never pay the price for their decisions that also inherenty have conflicts of interest and a long history of corruption along with poor decision-making (ie. Politicians) claiming exigent circumstances to justify telling me I can't make my own choices. I spent a quarter of my life in the military, another good chunk working for the government in some form or fashion before becoming a physicist, and I grew up in a state with a reputation for corruption and government overeach. My distrust doesn't come from ignorance, it's based in decades of personal experience.

Hell, I hope mRNA tech takes off and it proves out, precisely because of the things it makes possible, but I'm also perfectly fine waiting for the kinks to get ironed out. The FDA has a pretty long track record of coming back 5-15 years later with, "So that thing we said was safe? Yeah, uh, sorry about that..."

1