It appears many people are still concerned over the safety of the
COVID-19 vaccine, so much so that the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts vaccine
supply will soon outpace demand.
Safety is just one concern, as well as side effects and political
influences, but in order to reach the herd immunity marker, more people need to
be lining up at vaccination sites.
One concern is the political divide. A poll by
Monmouth University shows almost 45% of Republicans say they will likely never
get a vaccine, compared to just 5% of Democrats.
For the two dose vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna, some people might be
worried about the second dose effects. According to the CDC,
about 8% of people
are skipping the second dose, and of course with the pause on Johnson &
Johnson, there's some lingering hesitancy there.
But the CDC and FDA cleared
it after the pause. Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed the concern, saying the Johnson
& Johnson vaccine has been examined and
it’s safe.
“You know, we've had about
141 million people that received at least one dose of the vaccine, a very small portion
of that, about eight million has been Johnson &
Johnson,” says Dr. Fauci. “The rest have been the MRNAs from
Pfizer and from Moderna. So, if anybody has any doubts about the safety of
those other vaccines and including J & J, we can now say, you know, we take
this very seriously. We've looked at it now. Let's get back and get people vaccinated.”
There’s a chance the 8% number could be behind. They don't factor in
people who get a first dose at one clinic, and then their second dose somewhere
else.