Why a reckoning over the mRNAs is so unlikely

Most people are happy to have Covid behind them. They aren't getting more jabs, but they would rather believe they did the right thing than worry they didn't.

Imagine two ways of thinking about the last three years.

ALICE (SCENARIO A):

I did my part to stop a dangerous virus! I stayed home for almost a year to slow its spread. It stunk, but I made it work. I didn’t want anyone to get sick because of me.

When scientists invented a vaccine for the virus, I took it when it was my turn. It wasn’t perfect - I had some nasty side effects. Plus I had to have a mammogram rescheduled, and then I got the virus anyway, and then I got it again after I took a booster. Annoying. And a friend of a friend got shingles after his second shot. The doctors weren’t sure, but the timing was weird. Anyway, I don’t think I’m going to take more boosters.

But the same people who told me to take the shot say it kept me from getting really sick, and that’s good enough for me. We’re back to normal, and I did my part, and that’s what counts. Now if only we could do something about gas prices.

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(In either scenario, you need to subscribe!)

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BARBARA (SCENARIO B):

Wish I hadn’t been so scared. I didn't know anyone who got really sick from Covid, much less died, except for my uncle, who was in a nursing home and like 84 and wasn’t doing well anyway. But every time I turned on the TV, those death counters creeped me out.

Which is why I was so excited for the vaccine. 95 percent immunity. Yes! I even yelled at my best friend when she said the second shot messed up her periods. Joke was on me, it messed up mine too. And my lymph nodes got so swollen that I couldn’t have my mammogram for three months. Then I got Covid anyway! And then I got the booster, and I got Covid again. The best advice my dad ever gave me, fool me once, shame on you…

I should never have listened, I should have remembered the way I had such a hard time getting off my antidepressant. You cannot trust these drug companies. I’m an idiot. I’m definitely never getting another shot, luckily everything’s back to normal so I don’t have to. Only now instead of being worried about Covid, I’m kinda worried about the vaccines. Also, how come the government pushed them so hard? Ugh. I don’t want to think about this more but I feel like I have to.

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The facts in scenarios A and B are the same. But Alice and Barbara’s attitudes are entirely different.

Alice sees herself as an altruist, if not a quiet hero. She accepted personal discomfort for the sake of the people around her. She did the right thing. And though the vaccines didn’t seem to work - after all, she got Covid twice - people who know a lot more about science than she does say they did. Who is she to argue? She won’t be taking more shots, but she doesn’t particularly care either way. Who does?

Barbara does.

She remembers the hype from the fall of 2020, the 95 percent immunity. Now she finds herself questioning not just the vaccines, but everything about Covid and the response to it, from the first lockdowns to the mandates.

She doesn’t feel like a hero. She feels like a fool. Worse, she’s still scared - only now she feels like she can’t trust the public health authorities she believed three years ago.

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Obviously, the first scenario is far more psychologically comfortable than the second. And Alice is far happier with her choices than Barbara - even though they made the same choices and had the same outcomes.

People aren’t dumb. But they are very skilled at finding ways to make themselves feel better and justify their decisions - especially when those decisions, like being injected with mRNA, are irreversible.

I’ve thought a lot about this recently, as this fall’s booster campaign has sputtered. Most people have rejected the idea of more mRNA. They’ve have had Covid after getting the shots, showing them firsthand that the vaccines don’t work particularly well, or they’ve had unpleasant (and sometimes serious) side effects, or both.

Yet most people are not pushing back on the new campaigns or complaining about the way the authorities and media now pretend that they never claimed the vaccines would prevent Covid. They are content simply to ignore the pressure. They haven’t entirely forgotten - many people are even more cynical about drug companies and health bureaucracies than they were in 2020 - but they’ve moved on.

And as long as the vaccines don’t have provably terrible side effects going forward, they are unlikely to look back.