How vaccine scepticism affects the United States?

The United States of America has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic tremendously. There is a vast impact caused by the disease, not just with the 33 million confirmed cases Or the 600 thousand deaths [1]. The damage is massive as the virus and lockdown caused various less apparent issues like the decline in mental health, not to mention the massive fall in America's economy.

It feels safe to point out that America and its citizens are amongst the greatest victims of the global pandemic. With this, you would think that the American people would jump at the very first opportunity to save themselves and their home country, yet the truth about the matter is much more complicated than it seems.

The talks of possible vaccines began just as the problems with the virus started to get apparent. The worrying tendency of mass vaccine scepticism was reported in October of 2020. When fewer than 50% of American citizens said they would commit to getting shot as soon as they could [2].

Vaccination taking place in the US. [Source: Time]

The reasons for this were plenty, ranging from commonplace worries about side-effects to general confusion stemming from health officials opinions swindling like a pendulum, to something absurd like conspiracy theories ( no, Bill Gates is not going to implement a tracking device into you via a vaccine, you already have that in you phones) and even unexpected aspects as communities of black, latino and indigenous people who refused to engage with public health recommendation, due to a history of racial biases in the US medical history.

It’s important to note that as the possibility of getting a vaccine from companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna became widespread, the issue of vaccine scepticism became less and less prevalent. There are now enough vaccine doses that every American over the age of 16 can get a shot [3].

With around 46% of the population getting at least a single dose of the vaccine and around 2-3 million getting vaccinated every day, the future looks bright, with some medical officials predicting a gradual return to “normal”.

Yet, this is where the scepticism may once again show its head as, according to the polls, around 15% of people are hesitant about the vaccine and 13% of citizens outright refuse the idea of getting one [4].

The issue shows its ugly political side as a whopping 30% of all republicans are vaccine hesitant, specifically with young conservatives being the outliers [5]. The prevalence of Covid-19 denial among young conservatives is linked to previous outbreaks, like the H1N1 swine flu, which have shown a far less spread. Republicans policy towards ignoring the pandemic may still be among the main contributors to scepticism, even as Ex-president Donald Trump who is credited among the biggest contributors to the denial, encourages people to take the vaccine [6].

Everything is not as horrible as I make it out to be. It is important to stress that vaccine scepticism is not unique to Covid-19 cases, it is just as old as vaccines themselves are, with WHO declaring vaccines scepticism among the world's biggest global health threats back in 2019 [7]. So it’s clear that the issue is not just in CoVid and politics around it. What is more, The Biden administration has already made up a plan to invest 20 billion dollars to help reach communities in rural areas (another demographic that shows their hesitancy) [8]. Something that may prove to be fruitful in the long run.

At last, it already looks unlikely for America to achieve herd immunity, so perhaps worrying about the percentage of people hesitant to get their vaccine is redundant? [9]. I don’t think so, as the issue now lies not in achieving full herd immunity, but in minimizing the damage it still causes.

Every day there are around one thousand deaths from CoVid in the US [10]. More and more people will die, as a huge part of the population will hold back on taking their shots. Every day counts, as every day may be proven to be the last for some of the American citizens.

Fates of thousands of people may eventually lay in the hands of those uneducated or straight up ignorant about the problem.

Be it political causes, gut feeling or personal reasoning, it is highly important to stress the fact that the vaccines are mandatory to restore the semblance of normalcy. And for those people worried about their safety and effectiveness, it can’t be stressed enough that they are indeed safe and effective in vast majorities of cases.

As it’s not the perceived “danger” of vaccination, but the hesitancy of those reluctant to take it that will cause more unhealable damage to the United States.