this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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It's important simply to do just for the benefit of science going forward. We need to look at the long term effects of medicines. Usually we do that prior to release. It also protects you from the propoganda. Someone may throw out crazy statistics at you but you'll have this study in your back pocket so you can be like "yeah it's crazy" and dismiss don't debate.
And try not to get too downtrodden with humanity. Not everyone is a too far gone. Some are just a little lost.
Exactly this. What's annoying is how people twist the process along the way.
For example, with the AstraZeneca vaccine there was this overblown controversy over blood clots. Every time you stick someone with a needle, their blood will clot, and there's a chance that a chunk of this clot will break off into the blood stream. Sometimes, the thing you're injecting makes it more likely to happen, and as such we closely monitor new injections to determine whether or not the issue is significant. AstraZeneca (or any other covid vaccine) has been shown to not significantly increase the risk of blood clots over any other injection - but that didn't stop politicians (eg Boris Johnson in the UK) to parrot on about the handful of people who did develop blood clots as if it were a real issue. Of course, this led to AstraZeneca no longer being offered as a vaccine for many people; instead, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were used. Wouldn't you know it, Boris is personally invested in these companies. He shooed away the non-profit vaccine in favour of the for profit pharmaceutical mega-corporations that pay him dividends. And, of course, his statements actually reduced the uptake of vaccines in general.
Yeah, given how quickly alot of these were rushed out, due to the emergency we were in, there really should be follow-up research to prove their safety and efficacy. If only to provide additional evidence to anti-vaxxers who will argue against it. Even if the threat of Covid is seemingly behind us, who's to say we're not right back here in the next 5/10/20 years with the next pandemic that comes?
Some people have proposed that covid could become an endemic, meaning that there are always pockets of covid brewing somewhere. Annual flu vaccines could be accompanied with annual covid vaccines. If that really happens, we need to know more about the safety of the vaccine. Instead of being an exceptional emergency, it’s just “business as usual”, so proper studies are needed.
Convincing anti-vaxxers is impossible, because that conversation doesn’t follow the rules of a debate. Instead, the resulting monologue is a symptom of mental instability, and there isn’t much you can do about it.
I would be shocked if there wasn't follow-up research being done.