I am not vaccinated. Firstly, I think it is great that effective vaccines have been able to get to market so quickly and in general lean towards the view that regulators and society in general is too conservative with this sort of thing. I support even things like businesses and other entities being able to require vaccine or health passports, if they really want to and think it's sensible. Necessarily, I believe I do not need it or that it wouldn't be all that beneficial to me, otherwise I would be getting the vaccine regardless of any other reason I don't want to be getting it. As someone under the age of 30 in relatively good health who has already been exposed to the virus, I believe I can selfishly get away with not getting it, even though getting vaccinated can improve your immunity somewhat even if you already have decent natural immunity to from a prior infection, as I understand it. I do strongly believe that the risk of COVID in general to my demographic (and to me as an individual) has been overstated by governments and scientific bodies, and deliberately so in some cases.

Primarily though, the reason is that I do not agree with the general politics around COVID in Western societies - lockdowns, performative hygiene theatre, a trend towards authoritarianism, some extremely severe dishonesty and politicking on the part of institutions I might have (mistakenly) respected before like the World Health Organization, and most of all the suppression of and hatred towards those who express any serious dissent from whatever the party line may be on COVID at any given time, which, of course, changes and even reverses. There is no real way to vote against all this, it is very hard to politically organize against it. Where I live all the major political parties support most if not all of the measures. Debate is only around degree and alternatives cannot be considered. It is a taboo and also a class marker to disagree strongly with any of it.

I think many people are aware that there are things that the government and other bodies have lied about and gotten away with, that we have had to go along with over the course of this pandemic, but accept that it is or was for a "greater good". There is a distinction in my mind between being passively complicit in something you don't agree with, and actively collaborating with it. If I go and get a vaccine, that I (perhaps mistakenly?) believe I don't need and don't want, because the government and the media whom I don't trust and everyone knows do lie from time to time, are propagandizing me and my peers to, using emotional manipulation, and even subtly and not so subtly threatening to restrict my freedoms if I do not get it, then - what am I doing? Personally I'm not much more scared of COVID than I am of a plane I take being hijacked. There is a bigger picture here in terms of how society is trending that needs to be slowed down at all costs, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is and take a small risk here. It should not in my opinion be acceptable at all for governments to act like how most have with regards to COVID. I want to be able to make my own choice and have the right to not go along with and submit to the theatre of this new, dark power structure which has swept over the world. On a level deep down, I believe people know getting this vaccine is not entirely a free choice, from a political perspective. There are political and social consequences to not getting it, orthogonal to how safe, effective or beneficial it might be.

The vaccines per se are not an issue. They could be 100% safe and 100% effective and I would still be reluctant to get them. I may get the vaccine at some point in the future, but the only reason would be something like if the nature of COVID changed such that I didn't think immunity from my prior infection was sufficient, or more likely out of a sense of political self-preservation if unvaccinated become scapegoats or targets, which they are now to an extent.