COVID-19 vaccine: is it really a good thing?
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all photos used courtesy of Pexels.com
I feel the need to preface this by saying that I am strongly pro-vaccine. I believe that if anyone is physically capable of getting vaccinated, they should do so for their own safety and the safety of others. I myself have received all my vaccinations, and my immunization record is up-to-date.
With all that being said, it’s probably a bit surprising to hear that I’m not all that excited about the COVID-19 vaccine coming out so soon. And don’t get me wrong; with everything that the virus has done, I’m all for the cure. I just have a few concerns with how it’s all being handled.
Vaccine Development Timeline
Upon research, vaccine development usually takes years, sometimes decades. And apparently there has been talk of a COVID-19 vaccine coming out sometime in 2021, which is honestly both impressive and concerning at the same time.
I’m aware that the world’s top scientists and medical researchers have been fighting tooth and nail to get a vaccine available to combat the virus, and their hard work is very much appreciated. However, when a process that takes years upon years is condensed into one single year, there’s potential for mistakes to be made. And when it’s something as vital as vaccines, mistakes are completely unforgivable. Vaccines are meant to be put into our bodies to keep us safe; one mistake could jeopardize an entire population.
To put it simply, when a time sensitive and delicate process is unbelievably rushed, it should raise some concern. I mean come on; a COVID-19 vaccine that took only one year to make? I can’t be the only one that’s skeptical about how trustworthy it really is.
Vaccine Testing and Certification
In addition to the lengthy development process, there’s also an even lengthier testing and certification process. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), which is the world’s leading force in vaccine development, there are a multitude of steps and procedures to follow to ensure that a vaccine is safe for the public. Each of these steps typically take up to two years each to complete.
With that in mind, there are multiple medical facilities around the world, including some in the U.S., that are reportedly already performing “Phase III clinical trials”, which is one of the very last stages of vaccine testing before approval. My question is: how the hell did that happen? How did they all manage to breeze through so many years worth of steps within a few months?
There’s a reason why each of these steps are so time consuming; they include both animal and human testing to ensure the proposed vaccine’s absolute safety. The fact that these proposed vaccines are at the very final stage of human testing is beyond unthinkable. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there have been steps that were skimmed over or even completely skipped, which to me is horrifying given the severity of vaccine safety.
Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Good News?
As of now, there have been over one million deaths caused by COVID-19 worldwide. Millions of people around the world have already lost so much due to the pandemic. To say that there isn’t an urgent need for a solution would be blatantly incorrect. However, it seems to me that in the desperate search for the cure, vaccine research and development has gotten a whole lot sloppier. I want this virus to disappear just as much as anyone, but it isn’t worth potentially putting even more lives at risk with a rushed, faulty vaccine. The world already has so much to deal with; the last thing it needs is a game of vaccine Russian roulette.
Amal Sheikhmusse
Amal Sheikhmusse is a second-year student of Algonquin College’s Professional Writing Program. Whenever she isn’t practicing her future editor skills by giving unwarranted critique to all her friends and family, you can find her re-visiting childhood nostalgia, notebook in hand, ready to verbally tear her childhood hopes and dreams at a moment’s notice.
