![]() Instead of leading to greater appreciation of our best weapons against infectious disease, it is possible, even likely, that the hesitation and fatigue generated by Covid vaccines may spill over into vaccines for other diseases. ![]() Precisely because of the highly public discourse around the Covid-19 vaccines - which have been ferociously debated like no shot in modern memory - the small but vocal minority that oppose them, and the prevalence of hard-to-stamp-out disinformation and misinformation, the public is paying more attention to vaccines in general. But while those lives are lost, the growing reach of vaccine hesitancy - rooted in factors ranging from understandable safety concerns to deep mistrust in the government - will not end with Covid. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from Covid-19 who would likely otherwise be alive had they chosen to be fully vaccinated, according to an analysis in May. The human toll of anti-Covid-vaccine sentiment is enormous. This fall’s dismal booster campaign has only reached an estimated 8.6 percent of Americans over 18 Partisanship has further hobbled this fall’s dismal booster campaign, which has only reached an estimated 8.6 percent of Americans over the age of 18: According to a September survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 20 percent of Republicans have said they will “definitely not” get the booster, and a further 38 percent aren’t even eligible because they never received enough previous doses. Soon enough, legislators began raising anti-vaccine bills in states calling for changes such as bans on vaccine mandates and the dismantling of childhood immunization requirements. It didn’t take long before some political leaders - mostly conservative - began openly espousing anti-vaccine views, to the applause of many of their constituents. The failure to convince enough of the public to take up a tool developed specifically to prevent severe disease and death has blunted its ability to do just that. Yet, tens of millions of Americans in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century took a look at the greatest scientific achievement of the modern age and said, in effect, “Thanks but no thanks.” While 68 percent of Americans got both initial doses of the vaccine, fewer than 50 percent went on to be boosted once, according to the CDC an even smaller share has received a second booster. And as more people were vaccinated, society began to rebound from Covid, too. The vaccines, unlike masking and social distancing, required virtually no sacrifice from Americans: Just one or two shots protected people from the worst outcomes of the disease with few side effects. Completed in record time and extraordinarily safe, they built on 30 years of research into mRNA technology to deliver a tool that in its first year alone prevented an estimated 19.8 million deaths worldwide, and even more infections and hospitalizations. The Covid-19 vaccines were perhaps the greatest medical achievement of the 21st century.
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