Depends on the relative risks. I can imagine an 80 year old in a US nursing home jumping on the barely tested vaccine while a 23-year-old New Zealander waits for more information.

I'm in an elevated risk group, and I'd like the right to decide for myself if taking the vaccine is worth the risk.

The problem is that others will have to take the vaccine as well. Not to protect themselves, but to protect others. It would be nice if they could do that without (fear of) risking their personal safety.

Every vaccine/drug can have potential side effects, possibly in the 1 case to millions of doses. There's no such thing as a non-side-effect product.

However today there are ready armies of lawyers to sue for those very rare side effects that have a much lower fatality rate than the disease itself.

Are pharmaceutical companies the pinnacle of honesty and ethics? Of course not. Would it be worthy pulling a covid vaccine out of shelves if it caused a 1 in 1Mi serious side effect? No way.

Sure, you can try to identify and quantify the risk so maybe don't give this vaccine to people who might have a worse outcome, still, nothing is perfect.

> The public are acutely aware of the predicament that governments have created

What predicament? The gov't didn't create covid.

> especially if a regulator says 'sure its totally safe'

To my knowledge (and I did work in this area) no regulator will ever declare a drug 'totally safe'.

> most will be very skeptical of a vaccine that's been rushed through like this

Yeah well, you're speaking for a rather large population whose minds you don't know so please don't. Also covid is dangerous so people may be skeptical but still take it.