Would you jump off a bridge if a scientist told you that it was safe and medically necessary?
Before you start ranting that I'm comparing that to taking a vaccine, I'm not. I'm just pointing out that we should always use our own common sense filter when evaluating advice from anyone, including scientists, lawyers and others. The mortality and hospitalization stats are widely available - no science degree needed, lol. Young healthy people can read the mortality stats for themselves and come to their own conclusions about risks, as can those who have resistance from prior infections and the parents of 12-15 year old kids (Yes, one of the vaccines is now approved for adolescents).
Also, contrary to the outlandish stories in rags that so heartily feed your confirmation bias, there are plenty of seemingly normal people who have weighed the risks vs. rewards and made their own informed decisions. That includes a solid majority of parents of adolescents nationwide. The fringe types being highlighted in places like Yahoo and Puffpost are not the norm. Now yes Southerners and Midwesterners tend to have more independent streaks, but don't confuse that for lack of intellect. Indeed they seem to understand the mortality stats better than you do, which is something to consider when you keep trying to fit them in these labelled mental buckets of yours.
And yes, our vaccine history has been littered with hiccups and missteps, including Eric's favorite polio example. The versions we use today went through several iterations over time and are not the ones that first came out, which along with a myriad of drugs we no longer use were also promoted as safe and effective - until they weren't. This is also something that others seem to understand this better than you, lol.
Now I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting the vaccine, especially people who are scared and/or at high risk. But this notion that there is only one right answer for healthy adolescents and young adults, who are at virtually no real risk from a statistical standpoint, is getting kinda' silly now.
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