Opinion

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News / Opinion / Columns

Rushing: Vaccine benefits outweigh risks

By Tracy Rushing

Published: August 2, 2021, 6:01am

The bottom line is this: Your risk of illness from COVID-19 is much higher than your risk of any negative effect from the vaccine. This is true even if you are young and healthy.

Do I think these vaccines are perfect? No. Do I think their process of development was perfect? No. Did I feel safe getting one? Yes. Will I schedule my children as soon as it’s approved for kids their age? In a heartbeat. Here’s why.

It looks most likely that you will either get the vaccine or get the virus. One to two of every 100 people who get the virus will die of it.

In contrast, your chance of a dangerous or life-threatening reaction to the vaccine is much smaller — closer to 7 in 1 million. Current hospitalizations and deaths are almost entirely unvaccinated people. So while it’s possible to have a so-called “breakthrough” infection after vaccination, your chance of being someone who is hospitalized or dies from the virus is almost nonexistent.

Choosing nonexistent over a 1 percent chance of death is kind of a no-brainer.

Long-haul COVID is a thing. Current data shows 1 out of 4 people who get this virus develop chronic symptoms. That means you have a very high chance of feeling like crud for a very long time.

Just a handful of people report chronic symptoms after the vaccine and, even more interesting, many who survived the virus report that their symptoms of long-haul COVID resolved after getting the vaccine.

Early research also shows that kids aren’t spared. While their risk of hospitalization and death is less, more and more children are now presenting to their doctor with symptoms of long-haul COVID after infection.

Almost 350 million doses of vaccine have now been safely given in the United States. While the development of these vaccines was faster than usual, these sorts of vaccines have been studied for decades, and their roll-out has been one of the most scrutinized in our history of vaccines.

Simply put, the benefits of these vaccines far outweighed the risks when they were rolled out, and this is still the case today.

If you’re feeling unsure or hesitant about COVID-19 vaccines, that’s OK. This moment in time has been crazy and unpredictable, and asking questions is prudent.

My advice is to sit down with someone you trust who has a medical background and search out info at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What I don’t advise is predominantly listening to a talking head on your television or computer, someone with no firsthand medical experience.

Talk with someone who knows and works the landscape of this pandemic day to day.

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