I"m not an anti-vaxxer at all, and despite what I'm about to tell you, I do think the COVID vaccine is a good idea for most people.
My MIL just died as a result of her second Pfizer shot. It was a rare side-effect that's happened to less than 100 people in the US, according to another person in my neighborhood who I found out had the same thing as my MIL happen to him, who is more informed than they normally allow a patient to be, purely due to the fact that his heart tissue is being used by Mayo Clinic.
Both him and my MIL went into cardiac arrest a few hours after their 2nd shot, while suffering a fever from the shot. He is 35, healthy, and fit, with no heart issues. My MIL was early 60's, no heart issues detected after a week of doctors testing her while she was on life support. He was in Colorado. She was in Omaha at Nebraska Medicine, which is a solid hospital.
Her death was not investigated "thoroughly" at all. The team eventually reported it to the VAERS system and stated to us that their opinion was that it was vaccine induced. They did nothing beyond that. The only reason her case is now being investigated is because when I got back to Colorado, a neighbor heard my story and introduced me to another neighbor, the 35 year old, who went through it a month ago. He survived because he was young. His case was being thoroughly investigated, but nobody did shit for my Mother in Law. I had to contact the researchers myself and point them to the hospital in Nebraska to initiate anything.
It was sheer luck that I encountered this guy, and that he happened to be in comms with researchers on his case. In both cases, the doctors gaslit both families for days, ignoring and dismissing any connection with the vaccine, until they eventually arrived at no explanations after test after test.
My experience is an anecdotal data point, but based on it, I have ZERO confidence that the majority of cases like my MIL are being investigated. The doctors were clearly getting pressure, likely from their employers and especially from licensing boards, to not talk about it. The lack of curiosity was the most shocking part for my family and the 35 year old's family. Our experiences in 2 different hospitals in 2 states were shockingly similar in how horrifying they were.
At this point, the researchers have found that the team in Nebraska didn't conduct nearly as many tests as they did, and their research into her case is being hampered due to this. Because she was on life support for over a week and a half after the initial incident, and we had to remove her from life support and let her suffocate, an autopsy isn't useful. They needed samples taken initially, but the ones that should have been taken weren't.
This is a long reply, but I wrote it because I think your trust in our health institutions is misplaced in the face of the social and cultural pressures for this vaccine.