I'm 60+ years old, retired, spent almost 20 years working at the health department in IT, so I'm not a medical professional but had to attend all the first responder trainings after 9/11. Being an IT type I'm curious about a lot of things and paid attention to my training no matter what it was. In the 2000's we had a couple of true pandemics that no one gave a shit about. We didn't even wear masks at the health department at the HIV clinic, a human pox we didn't have a handle on yet.
Fast forward to today. My wife of almost 40 years, who (I think) has been voting conservative all this time, is shrieking (not exaggerating) at me for refusing to get the "vaccine". And every other conservative I know has gotten in line to get it. The stupid part is, if YOU have been vaccinated, and you believe it's effective, then why the hell should you care if I've had the shot or not? I can't make her understand this.
I didn't see this kind of hysteria with HIV, and we thought that might kill us all. Something has gone terribly askew on the treadle.
I can see why your wife might care. She doesn't want you dying of covid...
Given your age the vaccine likely is safer for you than contracting covid-19 but personally, I'd rather trust my immune system than a novel vaccine that hasn't undergone proper testing but I can definitely see your wife's angle.
As for the rest of the conservatives. Most people are easily brainwashed by the media and the culture of society. I'd say older people are more prone to it. Younger people seem to be more readily waking up while old people still trust their government and trust the institutions to do the "right" thing. My mother who is 64yo basically told me "they wouldn't be telling us to get a vaccine if it wasn't a good thing".
This isn't a vaccine though. She thinks it is, and believes it's not possible for me to understand the difference because I'm not a trained medical professional.