Students Speak Up . About the COVID-19 Vaccine

October 2021 Students Speak UpAbout the COVID-19 Vaccine

Senior, Gage Whitney

I am vaccinated. I recently got vaccinated because at some point, whether we like it or not, the vaccine is going to be required by the government just like numerous other vaccines already are and life even as of right now is difficult to maneuver how you wish without having the vaccine. The sooner we all get vaccinated, hopefully, the sooner we all can move on from this and go back to living our everyday lives, and we are especially at a point right now where the vaccine has been issued enough times and for long enough period of time to see that there are not any immediate adverse effects from it. The biggest pro of the vaccine has got to be that once you are fully vaccinated, with the restrictions that are in place right now, your life can return back to normal just like how it was before COVID even existed. In addition to this, you have a sense of pride in the fact that you quite possibly just prevented the death of another human by doing your part and getting the vaccine yourself. A con of the vaccine, however, is that it seems that whether or not you are vaccinated determines your political affiliation. This should not be the case, though. People should be taking their own medical history and personal values into consideration when deciding whether or not to get the vaccine. Sure, the vaccine may not be 100% effective, but in my eyes, any chance I have to keep everyone around me healthy is a chance I am willing to take. Do I think the vaccine is suspicious? Obviously, the vaccine is suspicious. It is literally a drug that the government is practically forcing people to inject into their bodies with nothing but quick research done beforehand. Is that enough to stop me from getting the vaccine? No, it is not. That is because nevertheless, the vaccine is not a tracking device, it does not make you magnetic, and it definitely does not make you a sheep to the power of government. Whatever the vaccine may do to a person long term, I believe we can figure out later because by then at least one of these illnesses will have been dealt with and we should have enough new medical technology and information by then to cure what was caused by the initial vaccine, if there are any. I do not think COVID will go away without everyone getting vaccinated. We have already seen one wave of it where only a certain percentage of people are vaccinated and then the virus mutates based on those vaccinated people forming variants such as Delta. If this keeps happening, and not everyone gets vaccinated, then we are going to have created a super virus that then cannot be stopped, so we need to take preventative action now in order to save ourselves from struggling later.

I am not vaccinated. I chose not to be vaccinated, for the vaccine had not shown any real health benefits. People, who get the vaccine can still get COVID, which in my opinion, why take a vaccine that you do not know the long-term effects of if you can still contract it? In kids my age, the death rate is also very low, so why get the vaccine? Allowing my body to build natural immunity will benefit me in the long run. I also have had COVID previously, and I am as healthy as I was before I contracted it. I have no lasting effects from the virus. The biggest pro of the vaccine is opportunity. When traveling to places like Hawaii you either need the vaccine or have to have a negative COVID test. Which, having the vaccine would make it slightly easier. The biggest con to the vaccine would be the unknown longterm effects. They never had time to test what the effects would be after say, 2, 3 years from now. It is all a guessing game. There have also been many vaccines and medicines throughout history that have had serious long-term side effects. When looking at children, when out of the 4.2 million that have tested positive it is only resulted in about 358 deaths. Many of which already had underlying health conditions. Why risk the unknown long-term effects if the death rate is so low? I do see the vaccine as suspicious. The vaccine was created and pushed to the public in a short period of time. This means minimal testing and minimal study. The vaccine was also authorized for emergency I do not think COVID will necessarily go away. I think it’s now going to be kind of like the flu where you can still get it here and there, but I do believe it can be minimized without the vaccine. It has also been proven through testing as well, that people who contract COVID and gain natural immunity to the disease, have a lower chance of breakthrough with the delta variant. The people with the vaccine had an increased risk for breakthroughs with the variant. Natural immunity allows for stronger and longer protection over an experimental vaccine.

— Scout Hurley, Editor-in-Chief

When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine there are a lot of reasons why someone would choose to get it or not. Having discussions about these reasons is vital in order to make an informed and balanced decision. Here are two students who have shared their perspectives on the vaccine and why they made the choice of getting it or not getting it.