Can you send me a couple articles to help me make an informed decision about the vaccine for myself?

This is exactly the kind of question that I would like to answer for my friends. Unfortunately, it is also overwhelmingly complicated, and I hesitate for fear of making things worse. I think one on one conversations are a good place to tease out where a person is starting from, and what matters to them in their decision making. For the sake of this writing, I am planning to share 3 articles, and hopeful I can give fair context to help place them in the informational ecosystem from where they originate.

To begin, I’ll bring up a role model who as a public figure, and alternative health author, has taken to social media to defend and promote the vaccine for public health reasons. Lissa Rankin is concerned that criticisms of vaccines lead to hesitancy which is actively harmful for public health. She has published her take on the various issues, and in the writing invokes a frontline physician and a vaccine hesitant intellectual, here: https://lissarankin.com/a-front-line-covid-er-doctor-a-vaccine-hesitant-intellectual-answer-the-question-should-front-line-health-care-workers-get-vaccinated-now/

From my perspective, the information playing field is weighted with the interests of the pharmaceutical companies being protected. I believe that the television news (CNN, ABC, NBC) and written and audio broadcasts including the NYT, NPR and even the algorithms on social media (twitter, facebook) effectively filter content in a way that does not allow representation of  valid vaccine criticism. From Lissa’s perspective, this may be a good thing because vaccine criticisms tend to manipulate and mislead their audience in a way that is generally harmful. So I advise using plenty of critical thinking and skepticism when engaging with content from vaccine detractors, but differing from Lissa, I do encourage you to consider their perspective for yourself. 

In my opinion, RFK Jr is the most well-balanced voice among the vaccine critics, and because of that status, he is often strongly rebuked in the mainstream media. His niece, who is a physician, wrote an op-ed which was published in the NYT criticizing both his arguments and his character. He wrote a response, but it was not published on the NYT, and instead is only available on the website associated with his vaccine critical advocacy, the Children’s Health Defense. Here is that article: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/new-york-times-kerry-meltzer-covid-vaccines/

Finally, as a 3rd option, here is a personal blog from a friend of a friend. I know little of the author, only that she is a scientist and vegan, and she is sharing her perspective much in the way I might try to do on this blog. Here’s that link: https://sarinafarb.medium.com/covid19-vaccination-one-size-does-not-fit-all-c5dbf55df688