Before the infamous strain first reached America in March of 2020, the discussion of vaccination only ever happened at a doctor’s office or in public school (with an occasional snub toward anti-vaxxers). This discussion mainly consisted of the typical and required vaccines such as measles, tetanus, chickenpox and so forth. Now, the government treats vaccinations, specifically COVID-19 vaccines, as if they are the golden ticket to a safer world; meanwhile, the public is becoming more hesitant toward believing whether that is genuinely the case.
According to the news release from the FDA, they believe that their official approval of the Pfizer vaccine will encourage the population to become vaccinated at a faster rate due to an expected increase in trust toward the vaccine and its various guarantees. While this may be shown exponentially, through the rise in numbers and hordes of people rushing to become vaccinated, it does not reveal whether these numbers are coming from necessity or trust or neither. Let’s look at the fact that over 700 college campuses just within the U.S. require their students to obtain the vaccine to even be allowed on campus, or that the U.S. Government is forcing all their soldiers, active or not, to receive this newly approved vaccine. It starts to look less like a suggestion and more of a requirement. This is especially the case for those seeking to return to what normalcy we think we had. This has given reason to those who were skeptical at first to become even more dubious against our fickle government, which has led to open defiance against Covid-19 protocols becoming more and more common amongst citizens. This can be expressed through not wearing their masks, refusing to become vaccinated, ignoring social distancing, etc.
The FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine leaves the people who willingly allowed professionals to inject them with what was essentially a premature vaccine (this entails all administered vaccines, including Pfizer before its approval) left feeling misled. In a sense, the federal government deluded and rushed the public to receive various vaccines from varying companies, causing most Americans only to be “partially” safe. When dealing with the severity of the damage that COVID-19 has caused, anything less than 100% is simply not enough.
Why was it not approved before, even though it was mandatory? A better question would be, why make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory before any single one was officially approved? Instead, the American people were practically forced by their jobs, schools, and government to be administered an array of different vaccines. The federal government irresponsibly allowed a copious number of vaccines to be circulated within our nation, which, in return, led to an immeasurable amount of confusion among the American people and unnecessary suffering on behalf of those afflicted by the untimely vaccines. Nearly 14 million people received the Johnson and Johnson single-dose vaccine and more than 22 million Americans have been given the Moderna vaccine. When discussing the number of people in America who received the vaccine before the official approval of Pfizer, it pales in comparison against the actual number of those worldwide that were also given an “incomplete” vaccination. When things as essential and as invaluable as human life and health become challenged, it begins to make me quizzical about what the government or our society indeed finds important.
beautiful article.