A Covid-19 vaccine will likely be available shortly: What should you do?

When a vaccine for Covid-19 is released in the United States I will likely be one of the millions of people who abstains from taking it.

As a scientist with a Ph.D. in biology, I am shocked to be writing those words.

I wrote those words almost three months ago and they created a fair bit of a stir. Indeed, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, pushed back and we engaged in a productive dialogue about the issue.

I made it clear in my original essay and in my response to Dr. Collins that the Trump administration had politicized so much of the government’s medical and scientific establishment that I found it impossible to trust any decision being promoted by those in charge. I also clearly made a number of important related points:

· I trust and respect the scientists who are working on vaccine development;

· I wholeheartedly believe in the efficacy of vaccines and I worry about providing any ammunition to anti-vaxxers; and

· I would reassess my position if there were a review of the safety and efficacy of a Covid-19 vaccine…