'I just have to bite the bullet and do it': 'Hard-core' anti-vaxxers changing their tune when faced with COVID-19

According to a report from The Daily Beast, faced with over 450,000 U.S. dead and millions infected, "hardcore ' anti-vaccination proponents are setting aside their fervent opposition to government health mandates and clamoring to get the COVID-19 vaccine for themselves and their families.

With President Joe Biden's administration pressing pharmaceutical companies to rush as much vaccine to the public as soon as possible, anti-vaxxers -- who have pushed discredited theories about childhood vaccines causing autism among other maladies -- view the coronavirus pandemic in a different light even though the testing of the new vaccines weren't subject to the longterm testing normally used when being a new drug to market.

As one self-professed anti-vaxxer who suffered "a rare, severe reaction to the pertussis, or whooping cough, vaccine," -- that was later taken off the market -- explained, the COVID- 19 pandemic is an all-together different issue.

After stating she has done the bare minimum for her children when it comes to vaccines so that they could attend school, midwife Caitlan Murphy is approaching the new vaccine differently.

"She refused all vaccines for herself, and continued to refuse to get her kids vaccinated for the flu, chickenpox, and hepatitis B, among others. She still believes vaccine ingredients are inherently dangerous, and that they interfere with 'natural' immunity, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are safe," the Beast's Isobel Whitcomb wrote before adding Murphy, "... who is immunocompromised, recently began to consider what it would mean for her family if she were to get sick with coronavirus and prove unable to fight it off. Now, she's gearing herself up to do what would have seemed unthinkable even six months ago: getting the coronavirus vaccine."

"I just have to bite the bullet and do it," the 31-year-old explained.

According to Whitcomb, Murphy is not alone.

"Until now, many anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics in America have had the luxury of refusing vaccines while still avoiding illness. They've benefited from herd immunity, the threshold at which enough people are vaccinated against a disease to prevent it from spreading through a population," she wrote. "So some anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics suddenly find themselves becoming fierce vaccine advocates—even if just for this moment."

Sierra Dell, a 38-year old living in Oregon, passed on vaccinating her son previously, saying, "At a time, vaccines were very important. But you know, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, I didn't think was necessary."

However she now waiting to see when she is eligible for the COVID vaccine.

"There are so many people dying. And it's real." she explained. "I choose not to vaccinate at all, in any other way, but this one I'm going for. Because I owe it to society. I need to stay here for my kiddo. I don't want to end up on a ventilator, or dead."

According to Dell, who is immunocompromised -- that has put her on the outs with other anti-vaxxers.

"Lately, she's become annoyed whenever her friends mention their intention to skip out on the COVID-19 vaccine. They 'haven't walked in the shoes of somebody that is immunocompromised,' she said. 'It's almost like a dose of my own medicine, because I used to talk like that.'"

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