Nearly half of Americans believe Covid vaccines have probably caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey last week. In December, Rasmussen reported that a near equal proportion worry that Covid vaccines may have major side effects (57%) as believe they are effective (56%).
People can hold both views at the same time. But the self-professed expert class and many who call themselves journalists dismiss anyone who questions their Covid vaccine orthodoxy as an “anti-vaxxer”—a label as sneering as “climate denier.”
But surveys show that most Americans, including those who didn’t get Covid shots, don’t distrust vaccines in general. Public views on Covid vaccines are more complicated because they are new and haven’t been thoroughly studied. The experts are responsible for vaccine skepticism because they aren’t honest about the potential risks.
The mRNA vaccines use a novel technology to combat a novel virus that is evolving. They were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on an emergency basis after only 10 months of testing. Vaccine trials usually take about 10 years.
With thousands dying each day, the FDA in December 2020 decided it couldn’t wait for an exhaustive study and authorized the
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vaccines after two large randomized controlled trials showed they were nearly 95% effective against symptomatic infection. But patients had been tracked for only a few months. The trials included too few participants to identify relatively rare adverse effects, especially among those of different age groups or with particular medical conditions. Public-health officials couldn’t conclude with any certainty whether the vaccines cause, for example, neurological symptoms in 1 of every 100,000 recipients or cardiac problems in 1 of every 10,000 young men.
While the FDA later granted both vaccines full approval, boosters were never tested in large clinical trials. Nor has the government’s recommended vaccine regimen, which for seniors has been five doses in less than two years. Booster recommendations were made on the fly on the assumption that the benefits outweighed the vaccine risks. Last fall two senior FDA vaccine officials resigned, reportedly because political appointees were pre-empting agency scientists and rushing boosters for all…
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