Nowadays, one of the most dangerous and deadly diseases is COVID-19. Mass media and countless articles discuss the various vaccine development projects and how all of these tests are claimed to be the primary step of a major breakthrough. However, people had high hopes for different vaccine inventions in the past, only to be brutally disappointed with the outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the statistic scales, considering whether Americans are ready to get a COVID-19 vaccine and the reasoning behind them.
The main changes in individuals’ minds occurred after the summer season. According to the article, “intent to get a COVID-19 vaccine has fallen from 72% in May, a 21 percentage point drop” (Tyson et al., 2020, para. 2). The cause is the mistrust of the vaccine’s quality and compliance with standards and with the government’s early affirmation as well. Nevertheless, some people are waiting for the medicine, claiming that the approval is moving too slowly, creating unnecessary delays.
Worries about side effects and uncertainty were distinguished in various ethnic groups. Pew Research Center has found out that black adults (68%) do not believe they would get a vaccine, whereas “52% of white adults, 56% of Hispanics and nearly three-quarters (72%) of Asian Americans” are sure they will receive it (Tyson, et al., 2020, para. 6). Probably, race inequality, which still exists in society, affects black people’s attitudes.
Money concerns do not take the last place in the decision-making process of buying a vaccine. A quarter of American respondents state that “out-of-pocket costs would not change their likelihood of getting a vaccine”, while others would probably think twice before the purchase (Tyson, et al., 2020, para. 13). Therefore, either the effectiveness of the cost will be a decisive factor in possessing a COVID-19 vaccine.
The necessary process everyone should know is vaccinating and how it works. Vaccines introduce molecules of certain viral or sometimes bacterial pathogens – known as antigens – into the body in order to train the body’s immune system to recognize and fight a pathogen (The Infographics Show, 2020). The body already does this naturally, but this can take valuable time – time during which the disease can progress to dangerous levels.
The degree to which a virus is amenable to an effective vaccine is less connected with the virus’s symptomatic traits and more with the specific characteristics of how the virus infects. Hence, a disease as deadly as smallpox can be conquered, and disease as simple as the common cold continues to be impossible to vaccinate against. In other words, the evidence currently points to COVID-19 being closer to the common cold on this scale than something like smallpox due to its structural peculiarities.
Moreover, many Americans express reluctance toward any vaccinations as the failures have already appeared in the past. The bad science and the government’s long history of misleading the public have led to the collapse of confidence in public health authorities. For instance, vaccine skeptics often focus on the claim that childhood vaccines cause autism (ReasonTV, 2020). The claim famously was amplified by a British researcher named Andrew Wakefield. Lately, the UK general medical council found him guilty of multiple ethics violations for lying about his test subjects. Thus, such cases scare and diminish hope for the invention of a high-quality antivirus against COVID-19.
In conclusion, it is necessary to highlight the idea that a vaccine will be apparently developed and available in the next several months. However, people started to underestimate the virus, and according to the given national survey, the opinions on its necessity are almost halved. The research data has ascertained that everything will depend on the speed of invention, quality, and value in the worldwide market.
References
ReasonTV. (2020). Why Americans fear the COVID-19 vaccine. [Video file]. Web.
The Infographics Show. (2020). What if a COVID-19 vaccine is never developed? [Video file]. Web.
Tyson, A., Johnson, C., & Funk, C. (2020). U.S. public now divided over whether to get COVID-19 vaccine. Pew Research Center. Web.