where does anyone stand on vaccines? and why get one?

Trump gets no credit for his Operation Warp Speed, which expedited the process of making COVID vaccines (some curmudgeons note these are less vaccines and more like gene therapy... I see a lot of terminology-related complaints in the comments at Instapundit). At the time, the left was against vaccines because, well, Trump. Now, of course, the left has done its usual 180 and is entirely pro-vaccine, and they once again paint the right as anti-science troglodytes who want to kill Grandma (despite the fact that Andrew Cuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, and other Democrat governors have done a pretty good job of that themselves). Then today, I saw this quote at Instapundit from John Hinderaker:

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were themselves the most prominent of anti-vaxxers, and if some people took their skepticism too seriously, they have only themselves to blame. But there is more: Drew Holden did an excellent job, back in November 2020, of reminding us that anti-vaccine sentiment was widespread on the Left right up to the 2020 election. . . . Did the Democrats’ relentless attacks on the vaccines that were expedited by President Trump get some people killed? I suppose they probably did. But I am not aware of a single Democrat who has expressed remorse for discouraging people from taking advantage of the vaccines, or who has acknowledged their party’s 180 degree turnabout as soon as the election was over.

This is because the left has no memory and no firm principles, and is deaf to its own hypocrisy. (You could make similar arguments about the right, but that's for another post.) The left also has no sense of shame, which is great when your agenda amounts to little more than raving loudly for the sake of raving loudly. If you're a liberal, I'd respectfully advise you to do what you can to dissociate yourself from this lunatic fringe. I mean, the right has its loonies and bigots, too, but come on, man!

Meanwhile, I have to wonder why a conservative rag like The Epoch Times keeps trying to undermine Trump's work by reporting on vaccine-related illness and death without ever reporting anything good about the various vaccines that are out there. What's more, plenty of people on the right pronounce themselves suspicious of vaccines, which were rolled out rapidly thanks to Trump's efforts. So the message is mixed: is the right for or against vaccines? It's hard to tell these days. It also doesn't help matters that after you get vaccinated, you enjoy no special benefits or privileges. What's the point, then, of getting vaccinated? 

I personally think the vaccines probably do help to slow the spread of the virus, but I've seen some arguments that simple exposure to the virus can be enough to help a healthy person build immunity. I don't understand virology enough to have a strong opinion either way, but from what I've seen, getting vaccinated doesn't strike me as imperative, but it also doesn't seem as though it would hurt, either (unless, like The Epoch Times, you're obsessed with focusing only on the small number of deaths resulting from getting jabbed).

I don't really know what to think about any of this.