This is probably obvious, but will bear stating. Two major reasons for physician silence regarding covid vaccines:
There is a lot of impressive data, and many impressive authority figures, touting the safety and efficacy of covid vaccines
There are a lot of threats to professional reputation, and to livelihood, for physicians who criticize covid vaccines
Point number one is somewhat obvious, as MDs consume the same legacy media as other members of the population. In addition, their professional associations are largely enthusiastic regarding covid vaccines. Finally, there is the traditional “detailing” that pharmaceutical companies carry out, where they directly promote their products to MDs.
For point number 2, I will use myself as a case in point. In the month of June 2021, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) sent me an email informing me that I was being investigated for my use of social media. I had experimented with emailing medical leaders and politicians, writing on LinkedIn, and participating in covid-focused health care groups on Facebook, at the inception of covid. It does not appear that any of that activity was of interest to the CPSO. Instead, they hired another physician to write an assessor’s report, which was purely based upon my work on Twitter.
Why not just be silent?
Two reasons: 1) primum non nocere; 2) the ugly VAERS graph