Vaccines are very controversial. People see them as a good or bad thing. People who trust these vaccines have good trust in the government and the health care system. People who are opposed to it, don’t trust the government or the health care system. The use of vaccines has also been mentioned in Metaphors. Metaphors are used to compare two completely different things. Examples such as “It’s Raining Cat and Dogs” or “Life is a Rollercoaster.” Metaphors are especially used in the medical field describing a patient that has cancer, you would say “ He’s fighting a battle with cancer.” On Immunity by Eula Biss, she mentions that some people make metaphors comparing slavery to vaccines. Trying to get a vaccine for someone is like giving up the rights to one’s body. Slavery is looking at people as less, as an object, and also involving no rights to the individual. The people Eula Biss mentioned in her story talk about how they want to have their choice to do what they want with their life instead of being forced to do it because someone said too. This is also in comparison to another metaphor: “ Vaccines are Seat Belts” which can be used to converse on things that hold you back as an individual and strip you of your rights. It can also show a different perspective that it can also act as protection. It can show that vaccines are also meant to help you like seat belts. This is an important topic to cover because people like to feel safe but don’t know who to trust. It’s controversial and as future doctors there are going to be times when dealing with patients who might need certain things and will decline because they don’t know who or what to trust. 

Some people were willing to not go to work to not take the vaccine. Some of those did this only because those people still needed a source of income to stay alive. Eula Biss mentions statements about people on vaccines saying “ Vaccination, like slavery, raises some pressing questions about one’s rights to one’s body ( Biss 26 ). This goes about how people feel about the COVID-19 Vaccine. People were divided between that vaccine. I remember my aunt who was from Haiti didn’t trust the COVID-19 Vaccine. She said that she was “giving up your body to the government” to get a vaccine that can make people feel worse. My aunt’s statement also relates to another of what Biss said, that “vaccine resisters saw their bodies not as potentially contagious and thus dangerous to the social body, but as highly vulnerable to contamination and violation” ( Biss 26 ). Some people are scared and don’t know the exact roots where this is coming from. Some people can’t trust the health care system because they see the results of what happens to some of those people and leave them to not want to get vaccines. This metaphor explains why some of those people don’t want to get it. 

Vaccines are very controversial. Another thing that is just as controversial is seat belts. Seat Belts back in the day used to be very controversial when they were first implemented. Now seat belts are widely accepted in society. The metaphor “Vaccines are Seat Belts,” creates two different perspectives about seat belts. One of those perspectives is being seen as restricted as a human. Some people don’t like the feeling of being forced to do something. The COVID-19 is still a good example of this. Being required to take that vaccine to work raised lots of controversy in 2021. People felt like it was unfair to those who didn’t want to take it. Seat Belts are somewhat similar in a sense. The way people reacted to the COVID-19 Vaccine is similar to how people behave towards seat belts. Sometimes some kids don’t want to wear their seat belts. They usually like to retaliate. There are even some grown teenagers who don’t wear seat belts on the bus. I remember one day I was taking the bus to school. There was a new driver and his rules were that everyone needed to wear their seat belts. I was fourteen years old at this time so I thought this was weird. I  got on the bus and never put it on. Another kid got on the bus and the driver said the same thing to him. Once the bus got halfway to school, the driver stopped the bus to see who was wearing their seat belt. The driver came up to the kid and asked “Why aren’t you wearing your seat belt.” He said that “there isn’t much of a need to” and he threatened to kick him off the bus. The kid tried to argue with him but gave up and put on the seat belt. It goes in hand with this perspective of the metaphor. The perspective to look at his metaphor is looking at it as a way of protection. Vaccines are also a way of protecting you, which is why they released the vaccine. Seat Belts are also another form of protecting you when you’re driving or even a passenger to stop you from an accident. Another situation where you have a seat belt is when you are on a rollercoaster. For example, if you go to Six Flags and go on the Nitro ride, you want to make sure you have a seat belt on, or else things could go bad for you. This metaphor explains why some people want to get vaccines. People want to feel safe and protected. They want to not have to worry about a virus that could put people in the hospital. Now with seat belts in today’s age, they are widely accepted and needed. It might be due to the fact that it provides protection like protecting someone in a crash reducing the impact and increases the chance of living. This has been shown to work multiple times and why people embrace having seat belts. To add on to this, there was even an argument for vaccines and seat belts saying that wearing a seatbelt lowers the chance of getting into a bad car accident and vaccines lowers the risk of exposure to certain diseases or viruses (de Miguel Beriain). This example shows that both are meant for protection for your life and not meant to harm you. These things wouldn’t be created if you were going to do more harm than good.

When it comes down to safety against trust, it causes a problem in society. When looking at what Biss wrote about people’s opinions about vaccines and comparing that to slavery, we get an understanding of what those people’s opinions on it are. People have a hard time trusting what will benefit them. Based on Biss and the “Vaccines are Seat Belts” metaphor, it shows the details of why people are split between different perspectives. People don’t like the feeling of their rights getting taken away but at some point, you need to value your life and protection first.