Take the Vaccine or Not?

On December 7, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that 12,600 to 23,400 new COVID-19 deaths would be reported by the week ending January 2, 2021. That prediction would bring the total COVID-19 deaths to between 332,000 and 362,000 in the United States. According to the government, help is on the way. Several pharmaceutical companies have raced to develop and deploy what they believe are safe, effective vaccines. These vaccines are now available for emergency use. In response to this news of an available vaccine Rampage decided to ask our readers this very question:  When a vaccine becomes available to you for COVID-19, will you take it?

 An overwhelming number of respondents, about sixty-one percent, answered that they would take the vaccine once it is available to them, and a much lower rate of twenty-five percent responded that they would not. Twelve percent of respondents have not made up their minds yet, and two percent answered that they would probably take it. 

It looks like a large percentage of the respondents are ready to be vaccinated and trust that the vaccine will be safe and effective. One respondent added a note that he/she would take it after five years has passed, just to be sure of its safety and efficacy. 

Of course, now that the vaccine has begun being administered and will soon be ready for public consumption, governments of the world will have to facilitate an equitable way to distribute it. That is just another hurdle as the medical community strives to both suppress the transmission of this deadly virus as well as reduce mortality.