People have been working on and testing mRNA vaccines for nearly two decades now.

There is no reason to believe that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is the host to some potential spooky side effect that will only rear its ugly head a decade from now. Because the entire history of vaccines, including mRNA vaccines, shows that is tremendously unlikely.

And this vaccine has been studied by more people than any vaccine in the history of vaccine development. Anyone suggesting this vaccine has a real shot at causing damaging long term side effects is doing so without any scientific foundation. Just a "hunch" or a "concern" or something rooting in personal feeling rather than reality.

Having COVID, however, we *know* can cause Long COVID. We *know* COVID has killed nearly 700k in America alone in under 20 months. We *know* that vaccines effectively fight the disease, making it much, much less likely that a new vaccine-resistant variant is created within a vaccinated person. Yes, there are things we don't know about the virus, but we do know it's absolutely more damaging than the vaccine for the health and safety of the general public.

When people say they're "worried about long term side effects of the vaccine," that's code for "I don't want to be told what to do, but I also can't defend not getting the vaccine in any reasonable or morally sound way." I'd like to think anyone who isn't getting vaccinated at this point due to "vaccine concerns" is just ignorant to the well-documented history of vaccines and the overwhelming odds that vaccines don't show long term side effects and the absolute scientific certainty that the virus is much worse for society than the vaccine... but odds are much higher that they know these things and just don't care.

I'm all for respecting the majority of people's "personal decisions"-- except when they have an effect on public health. Getting the vaccine is in the best interest of public health. And trying to find science that suggests otherwise is like trying to find science that denies climate change-- you'll find them on the fringe, raging against the overwhelming majority of facts, history, and collective knowledge.