The pandemic is a social issue. We all have a responsibility the rest of the population to do what we can to not spread. The problem with this is we expect people to not be stupid and make truly informed decision.

There was a ridiculous number of people who said they weren’t getting the vaccine because some rapper said their cousin’s gf’s neighbor’s husbands balls fell off after getting the vaccine. Those people apparently didn’t have a basic epistemology that would cause them to take pause on something so stupid.

What does this have to do with legitimate publications? How many people do you think have read medical or technical publications? How many of them do you thinking know know the difference between the types of studies, how the statistics work or efficacy? How many side effects medical terms do you think the average joe understands? Often times people misunderstand that the affects of the disease are far far worse and far more likely than the side affects.

If you have questions about side affects you should be talking to a doctor. If you don’t understand why going to them is important then you are the type of person who may be swayed by some rapper’s balls falling off when there is absolutely zero evidence for it. It also means you probably wont really understand the side affects and may make a decision because you misunderstand what they are.