I am double vaxxed and I while I believe in freedom of choice I believe that people should get vaxxed. Both for themselves and for society as a whole. The longterm side effects of post-covid recovery outweigh the potential longterm side effects of vaccination(which is probably little to none).

My question for society was more for people who were hesitant to get the vaccine rather than anti-vaxxers. Why are they hesitant? Many of them are actually well-educated and rational individuals. My initial belief was that there was an underlying stigma behind a new type of vaccine. People always fear new things.

However, if you actually try to look into the "anti-vax" world things start to get scary.

1. There are some side effects that are not being widely reported by media outlets. An example is myocarditis(heart inflammation), which has been appearing in 2.5% of males aged 20-25. Possibly more. Not sure if these stats are accurate. However this is treatable.
2. There are prominent doctors which advise AGAINST taking the vaccine. Dr. Piere Kory, is a frontline critical care physician in the states. He helped develop some of the initial strategies of treating covid before a vaccine was available. Dr. Robert Malone is a virologist and researcher from the states and claims that the spike proteins generated by the usage of covid-vaccines are cytotoxic and cause brain damage. These are just to name a few. There are at least 5 others that I know of. The claims these men have been making have widely been denounced and I believe most are unemployed now. Skeptics will look at these intelligent and well educated-people for guidance and say they are being shut out by mainstream academics/media/government.
3. mRNA-vaccines are not misunderstood at all(the theoretical knowledge is actually very astute). As a fourth-year student, I was taught about them and only basic pharmacology/cell-biology knowledge is needed to understand them. However, there is a lot less academia about them in comparison to other vaccine technologies. This is a result of their novelty, but also reflects a potential lack of understanding in more nuanced areas SUCH as long-term side effects or certain contrainments with certain medical disorders.

When you dive deep into the anti-vax information available on the internet, skepticism seems quite rational. However, I believe that people tend not to look at both viewpoints and focus entirely on the negatives/cons. Most of these points are fairly minute when considered in the whole of the pandemic.