plonq | He did his research!

I had the radio on in the background while I was making breakfast this morning and caught a segment on vaccine hesitancy in some of the southern rural towns. The bible belt runs through those towns, and I know from interviews with town officials that this is one of the prime causes of hesitancy. People who actually get a shot are often shunned by their neighbours, and accused of lacking faith in Jesus to protect them. Of all the reasons to avoid getting a shot, that's probably one of the most ignorant and depressing.

Then there was the guy they cornered for an interview this morning.

He started with the usual excuses. "Well, I'm pretty sure I already had it. Also, I'm young so it's not a big deal if I catch it. Also, in my job I don't interact with a lot of people."

I think he had enough self-awareness to realize that none of those were particularly good excuses, and you could almost hear him shift gears in the middle of the interview. He switched to a more pontifical tone of somebody who obviously believes that he's done all of the research and needs to explain things to the interviewer.

"I don't think there's been enough testing. These vaccines are all new technology, and we don't know enough about their long-term effects for me to feel comfortable getting one. I just don't feel that I'm ready to let myself be used as a test subject for an unproven technology. I might get a booster when those are offered, though, because boosters are a long established technology."

Like ... dude ...