Should I get the COVID-19 vaccine?
This might be a burning question in your mind today. With news of the COVID-19 virus having some unsavory side effects, one cannot but feel anxious whether to have it. After all, we have just been recently paralyzed with a vaccine scare for Dengue Fever that affected our belief in the vaccination program, in general.
Added to this dilemma is where the vaccine can be procured. We want to live out our lives as before, with social interactions unhindered. But fears surrounding the vaccine are circulating, and it is difficult to make a decision whether to have the vaccine or not.
In some countries, vaccination is in full swing. Some are being prioritized, such as the frontline medical personnel who are deemed most vulnerable. Though initially unsure of the consequences, they readily accepted the challenge of being the first recipients of the FDA-approved shots. In India, however, it was reported that some vaccines go to waste because people do not show up as scheduled. To address this, even unscheduled participants are now being accommodated for immunization. “Each vial has 10 doses, and if only five people are coming, either we have to deny vaccination for these five people or waste five doses,” said Tamil Nadu’s director of public health and preventive medicine Dr. T.S. Selvavinayagam.
Let us try to look into the issues and see whether they are based on facts.
First, the adverse effects being reported so far are not alarming. News on some deaths were found to be due to an underlying medical illness, not brought about by the vaccine. Most of the adverse effects are due to injection site reactions, which are expected, and which usually go away in a few days. The adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccine are mainly local ones including pain, itching, and redness (1).
Now comes the benefits. According to studies, the available vaccines have an efficacy that hovers around 90 percent or even better. Another vaccine candidate has a lower efficacy rate, but it is preferred by certain government sectors. Could science shed more light on this discrepancy to make us have better decisions? Definitely.
Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/23510/estimated-effectiveness-of-covid-19-vaccine-candidates/
The hesitation comes from our inability to remove the noise and find what is relevant. Science will do this. It will remove the extraneous variables and focus on the truth. When decisions are based on scientific knowledge and not hearsay, you can be sure that whatever the outcome is, it will be consistent. Consistency produces results. Ask any athlete or marketing professional, and they will tell you how consistency produces the outcomes they desire.
Just believe in science. Shun the fears and unfounded factoids away. Remove the hesitation with evidence.
SOURCE:
Yuan, P., Ai, P., Liu, Y., Ai, Z., Wang, Y., Cao, W., Xia, X., & Zheng, J. C. (2020). Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of COVID-19 Vaccines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2020.11.03.20224998. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.03.20224998