system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Covid vaccine sceptics are not anti-vaxx,

People have every right to be sceptical and make their own decisions regarding a vaccine that has been created in record speed where no one knows what the future side effects may be. It’s not the same as not vaccinating your child for mumps, measles and whatever other serious diseases one gets vaccinated for. These are proven and tested. I am getting the vaccine and think people should get it but it seems like using the term ‘anti-vaxx’ is a way of politicising and branding someone as crazy if they so much as date to ponder possible side effects. I don’t believe people should be demonised for considering not taking a vaccine that the future effects of are not known.
gpt
It’s not that different than the rest of the anti-vax community.   No one (well, most people) don’t say they are “against” vaccine.  It’s always couched in safety concerns, inadequate testing, etc.   The real problem is that the goal posts always wind up moving, because the skepticism isn’t really founded in any genuine concerns that can be dispelled by evidentiary argument.

Let’s look at some of your specific claims—you say it’s not the same as other childhood vaccines, because those are proven and tested.  

Well, none of them went through any long term “future effects” studies before getting approved either.   Vaccine safety studies generally only last a few months because that is when all the side effects appear.  What can happen is that very rare side effects are only identified after the vaccine is approved because that’a when millions of people get it, rather than thousands.   

In the case of the Covid vaccinations, we’ve given literally *billions* of doses.   If there is a real risk of serious side effects, it would have appeared by now.   Like the handful of deaths linked to AstraZeneca—6 in Australia out of 6 million doses given.   So, incredibly rare and already identified. And if you’re in the US, we don’t even take AstraZeneca.

Now maybe you think it makes sense people are worried about this new mRNA technology.   Setting aside the fact that we have years of experience testing the safety of it in other drugs and vaccines, that arguement isn’t a good defense of vaccine skepticism *because there is a traditional vaccine available.*   

Johnson and Johnson is just a normal vaccine.   It builds on our century of experience with vaccines and their side effects. The FDA already paused once to look at potential side effects.

So skepticism of mRNA vaccines doesn’t justify skepticism of “COVID vaccines.”  None of the arguments stand up to serious scrutiny.   

So, sure, everyone has a right to be skeptical and make their own decisions.   But when you’re skepticism and decisions come from an unfounded place, you’re gonna get lumped in with other people who have unfounded skepticism of other vaccines.