If your reason to not get the vaccine is to avoid yet-to-be-discovered side effects, wouldn't that apply to this drug as well though? Not to mention that the vaccines now have a year-long track record of safety despite widespread adoption, where as this one has yet to be deployed on such a large scale.

Also, the vaccines work on a principle that's somewhat well understood, accepted and deemed safe: training the immune system by giving it something that looks like the virus so it can learn. The only novel part is how this "something that looks like the virus" is created (mRNA as opposed to weakened but real virus). On the other hand this new molecule has a totally different mechanism of action and the potential for side effects may be higher.