the vaccines were probably pretty safe, but we don't actually know, and we won't know for a while. my larger concern is less that they were unsafe and more that they didn't actually work. it was helpful for media to try to explain that these were not traditional vaccines, and that the population was undergoing an experiment that most people did not fully understand that they were participating in.
america has a history of making draconiain decisions when it's in crisis that are condemned by history, such as, for example, it's periodic crackdowns on union organizers, including putting eugene debs in jail for dissenting on america's role in world war one. the period of investigation into government abuses in both canada and the united states during the pandemic is just beginning and needs to be rigorously and thoroughly conducted, and parties that made mistakes need to be held accountable.
there should be changes made to the law in both countries that prevent this kind of interference from happening in the next crisis we go through. the important thing is that we learn from our mistakes.