Before I say anything, I want to say that the COVID-19 vaccines are effective, side effects from them are either mild or rare, and that, even if the Delta variant has a 20-50% breakthrough rate, vaccines still do prevent hospitalization and death most of the time. The majority of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are from the unvaccinated and you should absolutely get vaccinated.
Moving on, I think that, while we've seen that public trust in the government and medical professionals has been incredibly high during the pandemic, while I have no idea what the trust is like now, my trust has decreased if anything. While there's no conspiracy theory to try and microchip me (none of us on this site are important enough to be microchipped), the government has been h a s t y, to put it lightly.
In Canada where I live, we have had three waves and are on the way for a fourth if current trends continue. There was a time in June or July of 2020 where cases were down to as little as under a dozen a day, and it's thanks to the rush to reopen, the inability to properly ensure the virus did not begin exponentially spreading again that caused us to not only have a second wave, but a third, and maybe even a fourth. This all happens despite the fact that New Zealand seemed to be perfectly weathering the storm. Our government failed us in not ending this in July of 2020, and the blood of my countrymen is on the hands of those who prioritize the economy and their performance at the polls over the lives of their constituents.
We have constantly been told over and over and over that the vaccine is 100% safe and effective even as potential side effects were causing us to pause the usage of certain vaccines entirely at the same time. I understand the need to reassure the public, and I agree that the vaccine is safe, but the messaging around things like this reeks of failing to acknowledge genuine risks or symptoms because of the fear of vaccine hesitancy. Yes, it's necessary to combat vaccine hesitancy, but not at the cost of objectivity. Despite the fact I was 100% convinced the vaccine was safe when it came out, the response to the rare and dangerous side effects managed to make me less confident if anything. The only time I have ever been hesitant to get the vaccine was at moments where they were most insisting that it was safe. I have heart issues and I am young, which puts me at risk in some ways to some of these side effects, and it felt like the government was choosing to just ignore it because they were so desperate to reopen.
Journalists and doctors dismissed the Lab Leak Theory from the Wuhan Institute of Virology for months, saying it was naught more than a conspiracy theory and we had completely 100% for certain found that the cause was the Spillover Hypothesis beginning at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. Then, as soon as Trump leaves office, their tune changes to "Both are plausible explanations that we should explore." I understand that Trump is an aggressive liar and conspiracy theorist and his claims were promoting xenophobia, but it's the responsibility and moral obligation of science to look past its biases and to find the truth, and it absolutely failed here.
Every single damned politician who speaks about the pandemic talks about "getting life back to normal" and "reopening" and not saving human fucking lives. This is the third time that my country is reopening, and to be honest, I'm fucking sick of it. I don't care that I can't leave the house and do stuff I want to, I've always been a sedentary individual, but I am so tired of the prime minister or my premier pretending he gives a shit as he lifts restrictions and effectively sends people to die or deal with the lasting damage of COVID-19. The sheer ability for these people to disregard the very real threat to human life by failing to squash the pandemic just so they can try and reopen ASAP is not only despicable, but is also the very reason that it's taking us even longer to reopen.
There's no excuse for failing to implement contact tracing, refusing to mandate vaccinations in schools, refusing to stay in lockdown as long as it takes, etc... And, after all the months of public trust, seeing the sheer mismanagement, mixed messaging, and trying to ignore things that people don't want to hear to reopen as fast as possible, I feel as though my trust in the government and the medical establishment is at an all time low. All good will I had for the government and all belief I had that the government wouldn't dare willingly allow tens of thousands of deaths of my brothers and sisters has been squandered with the beginning of the fourth wave.
