Why are people refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine?

Leah Ixchel Sanchez and Evelyn Torres Rivera|September 24, 2021

The Moderna vaccine is one of three vaccines highly available in the United States.

COVID-19 has been around for the past two years. Although at least 53% of Americans have received their COVID-19 vaccine, a large percentage still hasn’t. So why has 47% not gotten their vaccine?

One of the reasons people have not gotten their COVID-19 vaccine would be the theories going around. Since the COVID-19 vaccine has been around, anti-vaxxers (people against the vaccine) have received more supporters.

COVID-19 Vaccine

One theory going around would be that the COVID-19 vaccine implants chips in your body to track where you are.

This theory started in 2020. In an ABC4 News article, James Tabery, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah, talks about how this theory came to be. In the article, it states when Bill and Melinda Gates had an interview about COVID and its vaccine, they wanted to encourage people to take the vaccine. They donated to researchers who were able to track COVID-19 vaccines. This is where the miscommunication started. People refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine in fear of being tracked by the government.

This is one of the many theories going around in the United States about the COVID-19 vaccine and why people will not take it.

Americans are skeptical

A scammer from China got arrested after selling water as COVID-19 vaccine shots. The scammer made nearly $3M from selling water vaccines putting the people at risk.

The BBC reported that some counterfeit vaccines had been sold in hospitals in China. Also, some scammers were hiring “village doctors” to administer fake vaccines to people in their cars.

COVID-19 vaccine side effects

Another reason why some Americans won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine is because of the side effects it might cause. Rumors have gone around that the vaccine causes infertility and can cause autism. Where did this rumor come from?

Last December, a German epidemiologist (public health workers who investigate health issues) said that a woman’s body might deny a protein (which is connected to the placenta), making women infertile, all because of the COVID-19 vaccine. He thought that because syncytin-1 and the spike protein in COVID-19 are so similar, it can cause infertility.

In a Health Care article, a reproductive endocrinologist at MU Health Care stated that “the overall construction of the protein is so completely different” and that the body’s immune system is “way too smart to be confused by that.”

Along with infertility, Americans believe that COVID-19 vaccines can cause autism.

Vaccines, in general, have been scientifically proven not to cause autism. And no other study shows that the COVID-19 vaccine does anything different.

Americans don’t believe in COVID-19

Since the beginning of COVID-19, there have been those who refuse to do their part in preventing the spread. Their reason why? They don’t believe in COVID-19.

Some Americans don’t see coronavirus as a severe threat. Many of these people were influenced by Donald Trump, who said coronavirus wasn’t that big of a deal.

Most Americans were influenced by parties they support, like Democrats most likely had gotten vaccinated with 91% and Republicans had gotten the vaccine with 52%. Some people don’t think they need the vaccine because they believe they have a natural immunity that protects them.

Yet, there have been several ways to overcome this. For example, when applying for a job now, they would probably say you need to get vaccinated. They may not be motivated to get the shot, but they will get the vaccine if you give them a reason to do so. Like they are persuaded by incentives, whether hard cash or free tickets to an event.

Should we trust the COVID vaccine?

Understandably, people are not trusting the vaccines like the traditional anti-vaxxers distrusting all vaccines in general. But they have a point: the vaccine was made fast and without even getting technically approved by the Food and Drug Administration since the agency only authorized them for emergency use.

One thing that could help is the FDA’s full approval of the vaccines. As of August 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. A survey by Kaiser showed that about one-third of Americans would get vaccinated if the vaccines had full approval.