I Am Unvaccinated

We’re publishing an original essay today by Cory Zue, an American software developer in South Africa, that he posted on his blog last week. This is one of the best pieces I’ve read by someone who has chosen to remain unvaccinated for entirely rational reasons – and it resonated with me because I’ve decided not to get vaccinated after having had the same argument with myself as Cory. Here is an extract from near the beginning:

For most people my vaccination status is surprising. For many, it’s incomprehensible.

How could an MIT-educated, well-meaning, rational (hopefully), Massachusetts-born, Democrat who works in public health still not have a Covid vaccine?

I’ve been asked this question many times – sometimes in good faith and sometimes less so. And each time, I’ve struggled to fully satisfy people with my response. So I thought maybe I’d try writing it down.

This essay is my attempt to explain my vaccination status as best I can. It’s a complicated answer, which touches on family, science, policy, and morality. It’s a topic that is simultaneously very personal and very broad; difficult to talk about, and yet also important – perhaps, now more than ever.

What follows is likely to anger some of you, but I hope that it makes more of you curious, or even empathetic, to my position. We’ll see if I can pull it off.

Not only does Cory pull it off, but he does so with a good deal of humour and panache. This is very much worth reading in full and if, like me, you’ve chosen not to get vaccinated, it’s worth sharing with others who find it hard to understand that decision.

You can find Cory Zue’s blog here.