Highlights:
In the first 24 hours a very sore arm. Flu like symptoms (stuffy nose, heat flashes).
Why I decided to take it:
Who do I trust least was the approach combined with understanding the statistics. The virus emerged from China in the Wuhan area. While it is not proven or conclusive there is circumstantial evidence that it might be lab made. There are theories floating around which say it was an accident which leaked out from a lab in Wuhan. Foreign governments now say it was made by the US military labs. 40% of US marines do not want to take the vaccine.
Regardless of which lab the virus may have come from the vaccine was made in a transparent process by labs we can inspect. The trials were very public allowing people like me to collect risk statistics. It comes down to which group of scientists (which labs) do you trust the least. To me the least trustworthy lab would be the lab in China, in Wuhan, and I would not trust any classified US military lab either. This logically means Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, are more trustworthy. Many of us already have received vaccines from these companies for the flu and many other things and this includes most children and all US soldiers.
Suppose that the vaccine has some long term side effect and I die? I concluded I would rather die fighting to save lives on the side of science than from COVID-19 if COVID-19 was a bioweapon. The only way to defeat COVID-19 once and for all is through herd immunity and the only way to achieve that is if over 80% of us get vaccinated. There will be better vaccines in the future but in order to save our own lives we have to be willing to risk our own lives.
When making difficult decisions from which there are really no good options the approach which can be taken in this scenario is to choose the least bad option. The level of risk to reward is never usually equal across all options. The least bad option for one person can be different for another. For people who like to travel and who do not want to live in the fear of dying from a cold the least bad option for them (lowest risk highest potential reward) could be to take the vaccine. This may also include people on the medical front lines, or people in jobs where they are around a lot of people, or people who like being around people. There are some other people who do not care to be around a lot of people, who interact with very few people, and these people might have a different conclusion. The key to making these types of decisions is to know what you value and what your priorities are.