When the push to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 began, the holdouts were large in number and varied in their concerns. Inroads were made at first, as the vaccine became widely available without jockeying for a place in line. Other roadblocks slowly lifted as outreach efforts connected marginalized communities with good information in multiple languages, as community groups helped people reach vaccination sites, as influential leaders in the worlds of religion, science, even pop culture, advised taking a shot in the arm.
Fear became a motivator as well, as the unlucky unvaccinated shared horror stories of falling ill and spoke of their regrets. And a major wall of doubt came down when the vaccines graduated from emergency use to full Food and Drug Administration approval.
Now, access to certain public places is blocked if you’re not vaccinated, and you could even lose your job. Whether their resistance was based on inertia or principle, many have decided it is time to roll up that sleeve.
But not everyone.
Some of the last holdouts have legitimate medical barriers such as extreme allergies. Outside that group, though, we’re still left with a hard core of objectors, those who, like Washington State (and former University of Hawaii) football coach Nick Rolovich, choose to challenge their employers’ mandates rather than be vaccinated.
It can be surprising to learn who else is in these ranks. Of 948 Honolulu city employees who have applied for vaccination exceptions, just over half are first responders, according to the city’s Department of Human Resources. These are people on the front lines, which puts them at high risk and also in a position to have seen the worst of what COVID-19 can do. It makes you wonder.
All these people are entitled to their principles, and it’s really not our business what led them to this path. But, still, we’d really, really like to know. This is what we’d ask, and argue:
>> Do you believe in other vaccinations, for measles, diphtheria and the like? Perhaps the difference is that those vaccines were tested over many years and have a track record of safety generations long, whereas this one was rolled out relatively quickly. Fair point, but consider how far scientific processes and vaccine development have advanced since, say, the 1960s, when the measles vaccine was developed, and also that the modalities that led to the COVID-19 vaccine have been studied for decades.
>> Do you think you are safe because you’ve had the disease already, or because you take other precautions? OK, just keep in mind that the coronavirus is mean, sneaky and deadly. It doesn’t even necessarily care if you’re a COVID-19 survivor. Not only do you have to keep from being exposed, you have to be certain you won’t pick it up by chance and spread it around unknowingly. A mask and a 6-foot line of demarcation won’t stop everything.
>> Do you think the dangers of the virus are overstated, and that even if you got it, you’d be fine? Maybe, but the numbers clearly show COVID-19 patients who end up hospitalized or dead are much more likely to be the unvaccinated. Add to that the burden each patient places on our intensive care units and health care professionals and the risk really seems unreasonable.
>> Are your objections religious, and if so, please explain. From the pope to the dalai lama to faith councils that advise Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and more, all have encouraged vaccination.
>> Is your objection related to the use of fetal stem cells? Cell lines — cloned copies of cells that originated with fetuses decades ago — were used only to test the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and to make a component used in the Johnson &Johnson vaccine, the Associated Press has reported. If you can’t get past this, you’ll want to check into how these cells are used to develop many other vaccines, drug treatments, even cosmetics.
>> Are you afraid of side effects, or the possibility of what could emerge years after you get the vaccine? Fair enough, although short-term effects have proved minimal, and rigorous research and FDA vetting attest to safety as well as effectiveness. As for the long-term, weigh those unknowns carefully against the known horrors of this disease. The death rate from the coronavirus vaccine is 0.0022%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those who contract the virus, the latest CDC figures show, the unvaccinated are 11 times more likely to die than the vaccinated.
>> Has news of boosters and breakthrough infections made you suspect that vaccines just don’t work? It’s true that the war is not over. We have to use the best weapons we have as they become available. Right now, that’s vaccination.
>> Is your bottom line that no one can tell you what to put in your own body? Again, fair enough, just understand that this is not only about you, it’s about protecting the larger community. Smallpox and polio are virtually gone now, largely because way back when, and over the decades, enough people believed in the science to protect themselves and consider the greater good.
