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Personal choice of vaccination sentiments can spread to other public health measures
The idea of centring personal choice at the heart of a decision to get vaccinated is problematic because it can be used to extend out to other public health measures such as masks or treatments. Some countries have now controversially made masks a matter of public choice, even in unventilated indoor spaces, which is contrary to scientific guidance on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As with vaccines, using masks not only protects the individual from getting infected, it reduces the risk of that person transmitting the virus to others.
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The choice is not necessarily informed
Scientists and regulatory bodies who assess whether or not a vaccine is safe require enormous amounts of expertise and need to review vast amounts of data to make that decision. Most people, even those who are scientifically literate, don’t have the capacity for that level of assessment, which is why we have regulatory bodies and many levels of checks and balances before a vaccine can be rolled out to the general public. This doesn’t only apply to vaccines of course, but to any medicine or medical intervention, and beyond medicine to the motor vehicle or food and drink industries. Thus, holding back on vaccination to monitor side effects in other people – a wait and see approach – would only work if people waited for years before getting vaccinated against COVID-19, and even then only if they gathered data from studies around the world. People do have the right to be informed of potential risks before they take a vaccine, but this information can be provided by their health worker. Also, now that more than two billion people have been vaccinated, we have data on even the rarest side effects, of which there are very few. Even with breakthrough infections and new variants, all the evidence so far points to the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Getting vaccinated is still the best way to protect yourself and the people around you.
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