Americans Refusing To Vaccinate from COVID-19 (Essay Sample)

Americans Refusing To Vaccinate from COVID-19 The Covid-19 pandemic took the world in a whirlwind at the beginning of 2020 and caused utter pandemonium in every nation across the world. The world looked at the First World countries for a solution, a vaccine, to curb the wave of deaths. On 14th December, 2020, approximately one whole year after the detection of the Covid virus, a US citizen received a vaccine for the first time. However, what was soon to be realized was that not everyone wanted the vaccine; America started encountering their ‘anti-vaxx’ plight and to this day is being plagued by it. When talking about a solution, what we need to understand regarding the anti-vaccination situation in the US is that there is no one solution to it; instead of offering incentives, people need to be informed, getting vaccinated needs to be made easier and the political arena needs to become one on the issue rather than being divided. We need to understand that with every crisis that takes birth, people have a million questions and when the concerned authorities doesn’t do a good job of educating the masses, misconceptions, denial and conspiracy theories become rampant. Same has been the case with the Covid-19 outburst. For example, one conspiracy theory in the States is that vaccine shots are being used by Bill Gates to inject his microchips into Americans (Thompson, 2021). There is also inherent misinformation being spread through media. So, what the government needs to do is educate the masses properly and thoroughly, and address these rising concerns. Similarly, getting the vaccine needs to be made convenient. According to Dr. Frieden, former director of CDCP under Obama’s presidency has stated that, “Most of the people who are not yet vaccinated aren’t strongly opposed to being vaccinated. They just haven’t had the vaccine be as convenient as it should be” (American Medical Association, 2021). People cannot make appointments, verify identities, wait in lines, go to far off location etc. Instead, it needs to be brought to their door step; there should be vaccine drives, vaccine stands around every corner. Basically, getting vaccinated needs to be made more convenient. Furthermore, the political parties of America are divided when it comes to getting vaccinated. Party affiliations matters significantly when it comes down to such national/international crisis; people follow their leaders. According to a survey, only 36% Republicans said they would get vaccinated, as compared to 77% Democrats saying the same (Enten, 2021). This is a huge gap and it becomes even more vital when we consider what effect such a divided political front is having on the masses. Hence, there needs to be unity. On the other hand, some individuals believe that the answer to the vaccination problem lies in the First Amendment of the US Constitution; freedom of choice. The supporters of this stance claim that since they are citizens of the US, they are free and have the right to choose for themselves. If everyone is respected for their choice and not forced into compliance, then there won’t be any issue at all. However, such individuals fail to realize the highly contagious nature of the disease and the fact that by not getting vaccinated, they are endangering the lives of others. This is not a solution at all; everyone has a right to life and protection. Hence, when we look at all these di...