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storm6436 t1_j711xg1 wrote

I don't know about you, but I was in the military long enough ago to remember the initial anthrax vaccines that were still being developed when they were made mandatory.

It's one thing to be reluctant about something because of ignorance and/or simply not knowing WTF you're talking about, but it's quite a bit different when someone has a track record for shifty/shady shit.

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slowslownotbad t1_j717heg wrote

Yeah I’m Aussie, we mangled some people with experimental malaria stuff. East Timor. I get it.

Still, this ain’t that. mRNA had a huge rollout, and the stats supports vaccination. Benefit outweighs the danger.

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tipper7959 t1_j72haqn wrote

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.

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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..."

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