Don’t worry about the anti-vaxxers

Although there are opinion polls doing the rounds that suggest that the majority of people will not take the coming coronavirus vaccines, I don’t think we need to greatly concern ourselves. There are a couple of reasons why. Firstly, there have always been anti-vaxxers, but we hear more from them these days because of social networks.  And there are always people who believe in things that aren’t real, like ghosts, homeopathy and the supposed spirit world. It’s highly likely that people were more likely to believe in nonsense before science turned up. Secondly, once safe and effective vaccines are available, and when they are convinced about both, the fears and conspiracy theories will fade away.

In my lifetime, there has never been a virus like this one, at least not one that killed so many people in the UK. Previous threats to humanity, like SARS and Swine Flu, were seen off, so it was a shock to find this one took some shifting. But science has come riding to the rescue in record breaking time.

And the fact that science has reacted with such breathtaking speed is almost too much to take in. Vaccines often take years, even decades, to arrive. To have one, maybe more than one, which is over 90% effective in a matter of months is astonishing. It’s natural to be apprehensive at the speed but I suspect we shall soon celebrate the work of scientists and Big Pharma.

I suspect there will be unwanted consequences for those who decline to take the vaccines. As things stand now, you need to prove you have had a negative test before travelling to certain countries. It may well be that in order to travel abroad, you may need a ‘vaccine passport’ to show you have had it. For those who haven’t, there may be airport testing which will come at a price, currently £80, although given the terrible financial effects of COVID-19, who is to say airports wouldn’t charge considerably more? Testing, I would suggest, will not be free forever if there is a vaccine.

There may be implications for employers, too, especially in sectors which involved close contact, which is a lot of sectors. Presumably, staff would require regular testing, mask-wearing and would be compelled to maintain social distancing. None of this would be to ‘punish’ anti-vaxxers and non-vaxxers: it would be to protect others, not least those who are unable to take any form of injections and not just vaccines. In the end, especially when it has become clear even to those most hardened cynics that vaccines are safe and effective, I suspect many will accept them, rather than live in an expensive and inconvenient parallel world.

It’s true that at the moment we do not know if the new vaccines are safe. That’s why they are subject to such intense scrutiny and testing. But there comes a time when the evidence is overwhelming.

Several decades ago, the very same crackpots and loons were telling us that the MMR vaccine was not safe, that it caused autism. There was no evidence then to say it did, there is none today, but even science believers like me had doubts when a doctor, one Andrew Wakefield, lined up with the families of autistic children, blaming MMR. It was a lie, but a lie that scared people, including me. And so the lies and untruths from today’s anti-vaxxers will have the same effect on others. For now.

For now, don’t worry about those who say they won’t take the vaccine. Many have genuine concerns which will be addressed by scientists and not here today, gone tomorrow lying politicians and their advisors. And when we all come to see that vaccines can return our lives to the old normal, all those fears will fade away.