COLUMN: YOU DON’T WANT TO GET VACCINATED, SERIOUSLY?

TSERING TASHI, TRUMPET GUEST WRITER

The only reason I can think of not getting vaccinated is maybe immunocompromised people will suffer side effects from it. That is a valid concern. 

I am also fine with Amish not getting the COVID-19 vaccination because they have had religious exemptions forever. 

What I am not fine is young people taking pride in not getting vaccinated. 

Those youths have not a single valid reason to be unvaccinated other than “I don’t want side effects from the vaccine.” Congratulations for pointing out the risk associated with the vaccine. 

Here is another reason I have read and heard from people why there is a hesitancy over getting vaccinated, the Bill Gates conspiracy. Some people in the U.S. population believe that Bill Gates inserted a GPS microchip in the vaccine. How ridiculous is that? Seriously? 

First of all, I don’t think there exists a GPS microchip small enough to be not noticed. Second of all, if Bill Gates was excited about locating where people are, he could have done that a long time ago with Microsoft. It is much easier with resources like Microsoft to locate PC users.   

When I was younger, I never heard people rejecting vaccine. If they do, that’s because they get scared of syringes and after a while, they will get over it. 

However, during the past two years, anti-vaccination sentiment took a new form of life. I don’t know where this silly sentiment came from. 

Perhaps people’s IQs are falling because they are constantly on social media. I suspect at least a weak correlation between time spent on social media and one’s IQ. 

Since social media content is not always accurate, unaware minds become good targets for the misinformation. 

Perhaps having more free time during pandemic was not good after all, because people had more free time scrolling misinformation on their Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter.    

Tsering Tashi is a third-year student majoring in neuroscience.