Causes of vaccine hesitancy in the US

I wanted to explore the underlying causes of the vaccine resistance in the United States.
I think the situation in the US is significantly different than what we see in other countries.
Common causes:
1. Virus is new and poorly studied. The vaccines that are used against this new virus are using new platforms themselves with no long term studies done, and we won’t know about the long term effects until, well, the long term. We have not had these platforms against other common viruses before covid, so this combination of new virus and new vaccine against that virus looks a bit alarming.
2. Vaccination drive and censorship - if vaccines are so good, why are there attempts to force everyone to use them against their will? In contrast, there was virtually no nationwide drive to inform everyone that legitimate treatment in the form of monoclonal antibodies is available. In fact, I know I lot of people from northern states who had no idea treatment exists before I personally told them about it. One would think that during the pandemic real treatment would be as important as containment of the virus via vaccination.
3. Some funky business with Fauci and gain of function research. I also distinctly remember Fauci predicting a pandemic at the beginning of Trump’s term.
4. Woke health officials. When you see CDC literally rejecting the fact that women exist and replacing their terminology for females to “menstruating persons”, or “birthing persons”, one naturally starts wondering if these people were involved in the approval of these vaccines and whether their political views interfere with their duties.
5. Social ills. Just a few years ago a slogan “defund the police” would be considered absurd, but now it’s being seriously discussed and some local politicians even implemented these policies. We also see the rise of CRT in schools, which pretty much teaches kids that whites are the cause of all problems in everyday lives of POC. We’ve seen violence in the streets while mass media were claiming those were peaceful protests. This social environment emerged around the same time covid emerged. It’s not directly related to covid per se, but our environment does tend to influence our risk tolerance. Many people are in a “temporary mental survival” mode where they are just waiting for these absurdities to blow through like the wind.
6. Mass media. Probably the worst offender. We all used to be able to follow pretty much any MSM and while we could see some light biases, they were tolerable. On the same year the covid emerged, we saw mass media and social media take political sides and even suppress some stories that would hurt their desired candidate. This naturally makes everyone wonder - does our mass media really cover everything there is to know about the virus and the vaccines? How do I know Facebook won’t suppress some legitimate research that would hint at a potential problem with the vaccine? How do I know CNN will cover something that goes against their biases? We don’t have unbiased news sources any more that target all viewers, not just right or left. No one takes seriously articles about health from a source that we subconsciously view as very biased politically, so, in essence, if you want to really know about covid or the vaccine then you are reduced to doing your own research, which subjects you to your own biases.
7. Wokeness in healthcare. Every time I asked something my personal doctors about covid, when I start drilling into details they tend to lower their voices and speak as if they don’t want coworkers to know what they really think. If your doctor seem to be scared to freely answer your question out in the open, one naturally starts to wonder what the hell is going on and whether it’s best to just wait it out, even if you risk getting infected.
8. Alarmism among mass media - it is becoming pretty obvious that our mass media is seriously over exaggerating the efficacy of the vaccines and the infection rate of covid. When mass media says that a significant portion of those who had mild covid have serious organ damage, yet you know a lot of people who had covid, recovered, and have no lasting effects, one starts to wonder if the message you received is true.

The environment that we live in is the breeding ground for conspiracy theories, and I believe our extreme left and mass media are the ones who share the largest portion of the blame for our current situation with vaccine hesitation.
I, myself, am not vaccinated, had covid in very mild form (among with my entire family), and recovered with no lasting negative effects. What I listed above the best describes my feelings towards the vaccines against covid. I’m not anti-science and I do not consider myself an anti-vaxxer because I’m current on all of my traditional vaccines, and I vaccinate my kids according to vaccination schedule for their age. I do not intend to give my kids vaccines against covid and will leave the decision for them to make when they become adults, and do not plan on getting one myself for the next 10-15 years until the dust settles.

 

A good perspective Thedimon!

Those who refuse the shots are smarter, at least much less gullible, than those who've volunteered for the drug experiment. Maybe those who refuse are just more skeptical of government and pharma claims?

Who knows, maybe they remember all Mike Wallace showed on 60 Minutes way back when regarding the scam of Swine Flu?

 

I wouldn’t divide people into smart/stupid(gullible) categories because not everyone has time and ability for a personal research, and some just really don’t care.
But the left has all the power to change things if they really wanted to. For now they are just displaying their hypocrisy - they are willing to change bathroom rules in schools to appease 1%, or they are willing to lower standards in schools to appease (or so they think) the 13% minority, yet they openly mock and insult a 30% minority when all they need do is straiten out CDC and FDA by purging woke, openly condemn all vaccine misinformation, even if it’s being spread to increase vaccination, and implement some transparency rules on FDA approval and give open platform to scientists to act as devils advocates - question what the public is being told about certain treatments and vaccines.
Everything is in their hands, but all we see is incompetence.
PS - I used to think we saw a lot of incompetence during Trump years. Trump is gone, but things definitely turned to worse.

 

Causes of vaccine hesitancy in the US

It's a set up. The thinking of the anti-vaxxers is this is a conspiracy by TPTB to wipe out 1/2 to 2/3 of the global population, and they think they're making the safe bet. But ask yourself this. Why would TPTB leave this world to those sort of people? Wouldn't they prefer keeping the type of people who are playing ball with them by getting vaxxed? This isn't a vaccine against COVID, but for something far more deadly. When TPTB release the real plague...

 

I know a lot of people who refuse to take the vaccine and none of them think that way. Let’s not confuse those who resist specifically anti-covid vaccine with those who refuse them all.

 

You don't get it. They are specifically after the kind of people who refuse to get the shot. What else will they refuse in the future? Best to get rid of them now. And this is a diabolical scheme to do just that.