On the “legitimacy” of vaccine hesitancy

Ed Yong interviewed CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who makes the case that “America Is Getting Unvaccinated People All Wrong,” and the majority of the vaccine hesitant are a whole lot of ordinary folks with legitimate concerns, questions, and poor healthcare access (because America):

Anti-vaxxers are incredibly vocal, and because of that, they’ve been a disproportionate focus of our vaccine outreach. But I think that they represent a small part of people in this country, and especially in our communities of color, an irrelevant part. In our work, we haven’t given much credence to their bluster. But the rampant disinformation that’s put out by this minority has shaped our public discourse, and has led to this collective vitriol toward the “unvaccinated” as if they are predominantly a group of anti-vaxxers. The people we’re really trying to move are not.

No doubt she is right that antivaxxers a noisy but tiny minority, but I doubt that they are irrelevant, or that their only effect is an unfair, misdirected “collective vitriol towards the unvaccinated.” I fear that their noise is the main reason that the “hesitant” majority has so damned many legitimate questions and concerns…which must be slowly, expensively answered to get them vaccinated. While the pandemic rages on among the unvaccinated. Even if that effort is “successful,” it’s a hell of a price tag.