Why are Some People Hesitant to take COVID19 Vaccines?

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Why are Some People Hesitant to take COVID19 Vaccines?
At the end of January 2021, I was excited that the world has made progress in combating COVID19 by introducing a vaccine. I was reading a WHO article that appeared on December 31st, 2020, titled, “WHO issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine and emphasizes the need for equitable global access.” Having lost relatives and friends to COVID19, I was happy that eventually, a vaccine was available to save the rest of the population. I quickly shared the article on my Facebook page to enable more people to access it. Within minutes, my post attracted numerous comments. The first comment was a link showing that 29 people had died in Norway after getting vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. All these individuals were aged 75 years and above. The article further indicated that the U.S. media had remained silent despite the massive deaths from the vaccine. When I looked at the article, I noted that it lacked contextual detail. For instance, about 400 elderly individuals die every week in nursing homes in Norway. Investigation reports on 29 older adults did not link the cause of death to the vaccine. Instead, the deaths were caused by other underlying conditions. Further, I discovered that other media outlets like Bloomberg, Associated Press, and Australia’s 7 News had already covered the deaths. More comments followed condemning COVID vaccines and warning people against being vaccinated. Others shared videos from “medical doctors” advising people to stay away from the vaccines because they altered people’s DNA. I was surprised to see how the post generated heated arguments, with anti-vaccine activists presenting misleading information regarding COVID19 vaccines to persuade people from being vaccinated. In this paper, I will examine why some individuals are hesitant to take the COVID19 vaccine, despite its availability. The misleading notions that COVID19 vaccines have microchips, have not met safety and efficacy standards, have adverse side effects, and can alter the DNA of the recipients have led to vaccine hesitancy among a section of the population.
Rumors continue to be circulated on social media that the vaccine includes a microchip. Research in Jordan and Kuwait demonstrated that 27.7% of the respondents believed that COVID19 vaccines inject microchips into the recipients (Sallam et al.). The harmful beliefs extended to notions that governments wanted to enforce vaccination to implant microchips as a tool for controlling people. The conspiracy theory originates from the misrepresentation of Microsoft cofounder billionaire Bill Gate’s vaccine advocacy. Gates had earlier remained vocal on the need to ensure that the healthcare system remains vigilant when a pandemic strikes the world. People have misrepresented Gates’ efforts to mean that the billionaire is trying to establish a global surveillance system through COVID19 vaccines (Goodman and Carmichael). They claim that the vaccine has a microchip that turns people into magnets where they can be monitored. Yahoo News and YouGov partnered to conduct a poll to claim that Gates wants to implant chips on individuals. The survey of 1,640 people demonstrated that 28% of Americans Gate intends to use the COVID19 vaccine to implant chips on masses (Sanders). The false claims were further fueled when Gates, in a March 2020 interview, claimed that there would be “digital certificates” to show those tested, recovered, and vaccinated. However, digital certificates are efforts to have an open-source digital platform to access vaccines and facilitate home-based testing. Islam et al. demonstrate that the rumors and conspiracy theories that COVID19 vaccines have microchips are misleading. It is not possible to place a microchip in a vaccine.
Additionally, the development of COVID19 vaccines was so fast that it appears that scientists skipped vital steps. For most diseases, vaccine development takes between 10 and 15 years and costs between$200 and $500 million per vaccine (Serdobova and Kieny 1555). The development process is expensive, hence slowing down the process to cut down on costs. Pronker et al. provide the steps of vaccine development. The process commences at the exploratory stage, which involves basic laboratory research to identify antigens preventing disease. Researchers then proceed to the second stage, called preclinical. Here, scientists undertake animal testing to determine if the candidate vaccine can generate immunity. Candidate vaccines that produce immunity do not show harmful effects on the next phase of clinical development (Pronker et al.). According to Pandey et al. (807), vaccine development has three main stages. Firstly, small groups of individuals receive the vaccine. Scientists monitor the impact it has on individuals. The clinical study is extended to individuals with characteristics like age and those the vaccine targets on approval. After passing this stage, the vaccine is issued to thousands of individuals and tested for safety. Studies continue on the vaccine even after its approval and licensing (Joffe). Considering the stages of vaccine development, it is easy to understand why it takes years to develop them. In COVID19, the development was fast, which created doubts among anti-vaccine crusaders on its efficacy and safety. However, considering the collaboration and using tried and tested technology, it was easy to develop the vaccines within a record time.
Despite the speedy development of COVID19 vaccines, all the processes were followed. In COVID19, the virus threatened the whole globe, which necessitated the need to have a new global approach to vaccine development. The international attention enabled cooperation between governments and pharmaceutical companies to speed up the development process. Governments worldwide committed billions of dollars towards the process, which made researchers not need to slow down to reduce costs (Lurie, Sharfstein, and Goodman). Further, the initial development was accelerated because the virus causing COVID19 is related to other viruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (Lai et al.). For a long time, scientists have been studying other coronaviruses to develop vaccines against them. The knowledge gained over the years allowed scientists to accelerate the initial development of the current COVID19 vaccines (Li et al.). Unlike in other diseases where scientists have to start the initial development from scratch, SARS and MERS offered a good platform to study COVID19. Additionally, the cooperation between governments and major pharmaceutical companies has enabled vaccines to be brought to the market faster than usual. For instance, the U.S. government has invested massive resources for the manufacturing and distribution of COVID19 vaccines. The investment allowed manufacturing to commence while the vaccine is still in its third phase of clinical trials so that distribution can start immediately after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves each vaccine (“Developing COVID-19 Vaccines”). Considering ...