Here’s what I think about the coronavirus vaccine

I’m hesitant to talk about the coronavirus vaccine. But, oh gosh, I’m doing it…

I have kept my mouth shut here about it, but I’ve been getting way too many messages asking my opinion on the matter, so I’m going to give you my two cents. T

At this point in time, the ingredients we use in vaccines are safe and they’re there for very specific reasons. The difference in this vaccine would be the germ—the SARS CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

I’m really not worried about the safety of the vaccine so much as the effectiveness of the vaccine. Will the vaccine work in stopping the spread of the virus? I don’t know.

Here’s the thing.

If the vaccine is not effective in stopping the spread of disease, it will really undermine the faith in public health.  It could potentially destroy the very foundation upon which our vaccine infrastructure was built.

Health authorities put out information and then they put out new, and possibly conflicting information, as it becomes available. Say there was a measles outbreak. The information could be put out there right away because we know so much about the virus. That’s the difference.

I’m a researcher. I know how long it takes to produce data that’s even somewhere near what we could call factual. It takes a long time. Years.

We haven’t had years. We’ve had months.

There is going to be a lot more information to come, and I am sure that it will conflict things we think we know right now.

People want a vaccine right now. But people question the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine because of the speed in which it may become available. The polls are showing lots of people are opposed to getting it. I suppose that’s understandable.

Here’s the other thing.

If you have half the population not getting this vaccine, then really, the vaccine won’t stop this problem. Meaning, a majority of the population must be immunized to halt the spread of disease.

It will seem as though the vaccine is not effective, when it really might be our holy grail in stopping this pandemic.

What I do know is that we need to keep vaccinating our kids with the vaccines that we do have. And we need to continue to do our best in taking preventative measures of all sorts.

So, that’s that.

This is all I can say at this point in time. Maybe it helps, maybe not. But I’m not going to tell you what I don’t know. When I put out information, I do my best to make sure it’s the correct information. And of course, I’m not always correct. I’m human. But what I won’t do is tell you this vaccine is going to work, because I just don’t know.