I always remember how some of the earliest vaccines were extremely dangerous. For instance the earliest smallpox inoculations had a very non trivial chance to kill you (I'm talking mortality rates comparable to COVID). But smallpox mortality reached up to 35%, and it was so infectious that during a bad outbreak, you'd be very lucky to escape it. So despite the fact that the vaccine was extremely dangerous to a degree that it would never, ever even be considered today, people still did it because of how horrible smallpox was.

Now COVID is obviously nowhere near as bad as smallpox. But the Pfizer vaccine, even if we take the most pessimistic and skeptical of stances, won't be anywhere near as bad as early smallpox variolation. I was prepared for this to have much worse or more common side effects. I'm relieved it seems fine so far, despite 3 allergic reactions. Allergic reactions can be dealt with, and they are rare anyways. If a vaccine was basically guaranteed to give me nasty fever for 5 days, I'd still do it, even though that would probably be worse than what covid would do to me, if I knew that I won't be able to transmit it any more or at least be less likely to transmit it, because I wouldn't have the horrible stress of giving it to all the sensitive people I know. But I wouldn't expect other people to do it. But now? Well, if it is indeed as safe as it looks so far, I don't think there is a good reason to avoid it unless of course you are allergic or pregnant or immunosuppressed or whatever.