May 17, 2020 3 min read

Imagine waking up one morning before too long and finding that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House health adviser who has become a household name in recent weeks, has made a surprise announcement.

A vaccine for the coronavirus has been found. And it’s effective. Come and get it!

Given the scale-busting levels of anxiety and misery the pandemic has generated, in lost lives, lost livelihoods and diminished well-being, most of us would, in theory, be pouring out of our houses, screeching our tires to get to the nearest drugstore and happily rolling up our sleeves for a needle-wielding pharmacist so our routine lives can return.

Just think: one shot and the economy can start to recover and we can toss aside our masks and do simple things again like go to a grocery store without feeling like we’re Navy SEALs planning a raid on a terrorist compound.

But even after all the turbulence and stress that COVID-19 has stirred, it should be emphasized that Americans will line up for a coronavirus vaccine “in theory.”

Polling results unveiled earlier this month by Morning Consult found that 14% of Americans would stubbornly refuse to get a coronavirus vaccine and 22% are not sure. In order to reach the level of “herd immunity” that would allow the virus to fade away, we need 60 to 70% of the population to either be infected or vaccinated. That 36% of Americans would either refuse or be on the fence about a vaccine in the face of an American death toll rocketing toward 100,000 is flabbergasting.

This contingent undoubtedly includes the rabid “anti-vaxxers” who have been spreading misinformation and sowing fears about vaccines over the last several years, even though multiple studies have shown that vaccines are safe and effective. If it weren’t for vaccines, diseases like polio, diphtheria and smallpox would still be stalking the land. It’s a measure of how successful vaccines have been that many people take them for granted, or believe they can bypass them without putting their lives in jeopardy.

Anti-vaxxers have been in the ranks of protesters railing against stay-at-home orders governors have issued, some claiming that a coronavirus vaccine has been already been cooked up and is being stashed in a cupboard. These folks will probably never come around, but recent news reports have indicated that the pandemic has precipitated a change of heart among a slice of vaccine opponents.

Haley Searcy, a 26-year-old Floridian, recently told CNN, “I was just as scared of vaccines as I was of the diseases they protect against. Since COVID-19, I’ve seen firsthand what these diseases can do when they’re not being fought with vaccines.”

We should be glad Searcy had this epiphany. There need to be more people like her.

Heidi Larson, an anthropologist who leads the British-based Vaccine Confidence Project, pointed out that “this is an important time to reflect on the value of vaccines. If we had a vaccine for this, we wouldn’t be locked up in a room, the economy wouldn’t be crumbling, we would have (had) a whole different world.”