There were several missteps by vaccine proponents that undermined their case. There was also a lot of hyperbole from vaccine hesitant people that made them look hysterical.
Really. What missteps were made? The hysteria from hesitant anti-vaxxers and political fear mongerers were real, I would call "hesitant" people the ones who realize vaccines are a likely necessity but didn't understand how the COVID vaccines worked and were probably influenced by lies from the ant-vax crowd.
What middle ground could possibly be made here regarding "truth"? Vaccine risks are known and fairly well established. The risks of early COVID strains were known. The only people straddling a fence in the middle are those who lack the knowledge of the risks or have objectively real medical problem with vaccines, not some made-up junk about mercury or something.
Vaccines are neither a 100% safe panacea, nor are they injectable death.
OMG this is binary JAQing off. Nobody suggests either of these and it's ridiculous to even posit this phrase.