It is too positive, sorry! only 76% people in the UK say they would take a vaccine, reducing to just 57% from the BAME community
Here's the thing, I'm dismissive of the anti-vacc conspiracy loons who reckon Bill Gates is trying to inject everybody with a microchip that can be controlled by 5G (have you heard Ian Brown's song, 'Little Seed, Big Tree'? - check it out!) but, as often seems to be the way with conspiracy theorists, they do raise some interesting questions.
I think that there are a lot of people who will be reticent about having the vaccine. Of course, some of these people are going to be confirmed conspiracy theorists (or what is it they prefer to call themselves, is it, 'truth seekers'?!) but I have a feeling that there are a great many more who, like myself, don't believe the conspiracy theories but equally, don't necessarily trust the government and/or the science.
We are told that this is a completely new type of vaccine, one that has never been used before. This is possibly a cause for concern. Howver, I reckon that when the old-type vaccine was first ever used (was it against smallpox?, I don't know) there were probably people worried about that. Turns out they were wrong, and the vaccine(s) were a good thing for humanity.
On the other hand, medical science hasn't always got it right, and there have been some spectacularly horrific fuck ups (promotion of smoking tobacco, thalidamide, etc).
Another reason that somebody might be reticent about taking the vaccine is because it has been developed so quickly. One might think it is a fantastic achievement of humanity and the scientific community to have developed a vaccine so quickly; another might question just
how they have managed to achieve this so quickly, in a record space of time?
Perhaps the most obvious reason someone might be reticent to have the vaccine is that simple notion of, "I'd rather wait near the back of the queue and see what happens to those at the front of the queue before I have the vaccine; they can be the guinea pigs, not me, thank you very much."
Now I'm not saying that any of these positions or questions/doubts are substantiated, only that I think they probably exist in the minds of lots of people. What other reasons are there for the figures 3x6 posts being so low? (This is a genuine rather than rhetorical question!)
One question I have, which may be a really simple and stupid question, and I'd love to be answered is why does everybody have to have the vaccine? If most people can survive the virus without the vaccine and with the use of their own immune system, why do they need to have the jab? The flu virus is here every year and every year the elderly and the vulnerable are offered a jab. Why is this different? Why isn't it enough for just the eldery and vulnerable to have this vaccination whilst the fit, healthy and young build up their own immunity?
As I said, I realise that might be a stupid question and I hope there's somebody on here who can explain it to me.
And I think that this should be a general approach. People's genuine questions and fears shoudn't be just dismissed as, 'dangerous conspiracy theories', they should be properly explained. There is dangerous dis- and mis-information out there and the way to couter that is with complete transparency and an engagement with doubts and worries that some people may have about taking the vaccine.
As I said at the top, I'm no anti-vaxxer and it seems to me that vaccination appears to be the only way out of this shit that we've all been enduring for months, and will continue to endure for many more months. But my instinctive lack of trust of governments etc., means I am cautious about being forced into taking this vaccine. The government have said that nobody will be forced to take it but I'm pretty sure that in time it will become necessary to have had the vaccine if you want to travel or, for instance, have access to the NHS. I have little doubt that although one might have the freedom to not particpate in the mass vaccination, exercising that freedom will in effect greatly limit one's freedom.
That very idea is, to me, a little frightening. The idea that we're all so desperate to return to, 'normality', that most people are more than ready to have the jab without question, AND that those who do question it aren't given answers they're simply given the option to not participate (and by doing so waive their right to particiapte fully in society).
If there is nothing to fear, why can't the questions (no matter how stupid) be answered clearly and the conspiracy theories (no matter how bizarre) be properly debunked? If they were then shirley the percentage of people happy and willing to take the vaccination would be much closer to 100% than it currently is...
