You don’t have to suffer to benefit from COVID-19 vaccination — but some prefer it Today, Americans are once again surprisingly willing, even eager, to suffer a little for the reward of immunity from a virus that has turned the world upside down. Written By: Arthur Allen / Kaiser Health News | 11:41 am, Apr. 28, 2021 × Eugenio Brito, vice president of Bodegas of America, receives a Pfizer vaccination shot amid the coronavirus disease pandemic, in the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City, April 23, 2021. REUTERS / Mike Segar / Pool / File Photo If you think vaccination is an ordeal now, consider the 18th-century version. After having pus from a smallpox boil scratched into your arm, you would be subject to three weeks of fever, sweats, chills, bleeding and purging with dangerous medicines, accompanied by hymns, prayers and hell-fire sermons by dour preachers.