CON COVID-19 vaccines may be unsafe:

Data, distribution and other details remain sketchy.

As of this writing we’re being told the anti-corona cavalry is on the way starting December 10-ish in the form of vaccines created by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, etc. Nevertheless, despite the heartbreaking pandemic-related deaths of 260,000-plus people in the United States, millions of Americans are doubtful about being inoculated for immunity if/when FDA-approved vaccines are made publicly available. According to polls, in “mid-September … just 50% said they would get vaccinated,” while a November survey found: “Most Americans won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine unless it cuts risk by half.” Given that the U.S.A. has experienced the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths in the entire world, why is vaccination skepticism so widespread?

Motives range from the cautious to the wild-eyed. From his Inaugural Day crowd size to who won 2020’s election, Donald Trump is the most documented liar in human history, averaging “50 false or misleading claims a day,” for a total of 25,000-plus whoppers during his presidency. He’s also a climate change-denier who disastrously bungled federal government pandemic response, unable to protect his wife, sons or himself from getting infected.

Vaccination opposition spans the spectrum. Anti-vaxxers dubious about science spew conspiracy extremism. According to The Guardian: “The QAnon theory now connects antivaccine, anti-5G conspiracies, anti-Semitic and antimigrant tropes, and several bizarre theories that the world is in the thrall of a group of pedophile elites set on global domination in part aided by ritualistic child sacrifice.”

But not everybody questioning the vaccine is a rightwing crackpot. Some sober-minded people predisposed to the scientific method doubt “Operation Warp Speed,” suspecting it’s produced by a warped mind for whom haste is waste. On November 9, Public Citizen, the organization consumer advocate Ralph Nader founded, contended: “The release of preliminary and incomplete clinical trial data by press release to the public is bad science” and called for trial results to be “independently reviewed and scrutinized by staff at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the independent experts.”

During October 7’s Salt Lake City vice presidential debate Democratic contender Senator Kamala Harris asserted: “If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us … we should take [the vaccine], I’ll be the first in line to take it. Absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us … we should take it, I’m not taking it.”

This is presumably because the egregiously incompetent, dishonest con man-in-chief, who has botched almost everything else regarding federal pandemic response, may be presiding over a rush job releasing half-baked, unsafe serums, etc., in an effort to secure his seat in the White House and/or place in history.

The abusive Tuskegee syphilis study that began in the 1930s, plus other medical outrages perpetrated against Blacks, caused a lingering legacy of mistrust among African Americans. The son of a liberal icon, Robert Kennedy Jr., is one of the “Anti-vaccine heavyweights”.

According to Canada’s Globe and Mail, “To the consternation of public-health officials, Mr. Kennedy Jr. and other high-profile anti-vaxxers are increasingly refocusing their attention on COVID-19 … Mr. Kennedy Jr. has implied that Mr. [Bill] Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, have an economic interest in promoting vaccines for COVID-19.”

Hawthorne Strategy Group CEO Cynthia McCafferty commented: “Much like the little boy in the story, when you cry wolf over and over again, people begin to tune out, even if you are the President.”

The moral of the story is Don-the-Con’s “alternative facts” and hoax-crying has damaged his credibility so irreparably that the man who suggested – on live TV! – injecting disinfectant could be a COVID cure is widely regarded as inherently incredible. As Aesop’s Fable put it: “Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.” So, can you really blame people for taking an “I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it?” attitude when it comes to any Trump promise?

Another rationale for resisting possible COVID vaccines could be the refusal by some fanatical anti-Trumpers to give him any credit for a cure. However, according to Bob Woodward, Trump actually didn’t initially push vaccine development, preferring quackery such as hydroxychloroquine instead. Ironically, The Donald’s foot-dragging might have affected the presidential race’s outcome, because Pfizer and BioNTech didn’t announce their vaccine candidate’s efficacy until after the election.