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Should you rush to take the coronavirus vaccine?

Let me make it absolutely clear that I'm 100% not any sort of "anti-vaccer". Vaccines are the most efficient and one of the safest forms of preventing viral diseases, and the science on this is extremely reliable.

Many years ago I went on a holiday with some friends to China and Thailand. It was recommended to get a Hepatitis-A vaccine prior to that because those areas were potentially risky. I took the vaccine without hesitation. A couple of years ago my tetanus vaccination was expiring, so I went on the very day that was marked for the renewal to take the vaccine. (Even though all indications show that the beneficial effects of a tetanus vaccine last for much longer than 10 years, I nevertheless went to take the booster on the exact 10th year anniversary of the previous one, just so that I don't forget. Incidentally, recently the health officials here have updated the recommendation to be every 20 years. Anyway.)

This doesn't mean, however, that every single vaccine in existence is 100% problem and complication free. This isn't any kind of conspiracy theory or paranoia. It's well established and well published knowledge in medical literature and vaccination documentation.

For example, when you go to take the influenza vaccine, in most places the nurse (or whoever is administering the vaccine) will recommend sitting in the waiting room afterwards for at least 10 or 15 minutes or so, before leaving. There's a good reason for that. They are not doing that merely to see if you start feeling weak because of nerves and being stressed.

The influenza vaccine in particular (unlike many other vaccines), very soon after having been administered, can cause a very strong immune system reaction in your body. Essentially, your body may react pretty much as if you had full-on influenza. You may get a sudden really strong fever, dizziness and extreme weakness, among other symptoms. In the worst cases people have had to be hospitalized because of these strong symptoms. This is really rare, and the symptoms are rarely lethal or long-lasting, but it can happen, and it can be quite a shock.

That's why the medical professionals recommend you to wait for a while in the waiting room after the vaccine, before going away. They want to see if you get a reaction. Better there than on the street.

The coronavirus is not influenza, but it shares quite a lot of the same symptoms and methods of transmission.

Many people, who are likewise not any sort of anti-vaccers, are nevertheless a bit cautious about the upcoming coronavirus because its development has been really rushed.

Normally a new vaccine for a disease that has had no vaccines before takes many years to be developed and fully tested for efficacy and safety, and to pass all the various extremely strict approval procedures by the different governmental medical administrations. It's not uncommon for a new vaccine to take quite many years, even over a decade, before it's fully tested and approved.

In comparison, this coronavirus vaccine has been extraordinarily rushed because of all the social and political pressure due to the pandemic. This might be a record on how fast a vaccine has been developed and approved for a viral disease that didn't have any vaccine before.

This is not one situation where breaking such records is a good thing necessarily.

Many people who are cautious about this are saying that they'll just wait a while and see how the millions of test subjects that the vaccine is going to be administered to fare.

It's actually a bit scary that the vaccine will be administered first to those who are physically least fit to handle adverse reactions, ie the elderly and the sick, and those whose impact on society would be the greatest if they were to suddenly become indisposed and unable to perform their job, ie. medical personnel.

This whole thing is being incredibly rushed, and if something goes wrong, the order in which people will be vaccinated will only maximize the amount of damage.

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