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Absolutely true. There are examples of vaccines that were rushed and poorly tested. We have a vaccine-induced strain of polio out there, and some children who died because of a Dengue fever vaccine that actually increased their risk of contracting a more severe case of the disease.
Though it's impossible to create a vaccine that is 100% risk free, and there are always a small percentage of people who can't safely be vaccinated and must rely on herd immunity. The goal is to create one where the risk for most people is substantially lower than contracting the disease. We don't routinely vaccinate people in the US for yellow fever, for instance, because that disease is exceedingly rare in anyone who hasn't traveled to a place where it is endemic. Regardless, when and if we get a Covid-19 vaccine, even if it is very safe, there will be people who will refuse to take it, and any side effects (however rare) will be cited as examples of how dangerous it is.
The thing is, people are really lousy at risk assessment, and unless people are dying in the streets and vomiting blood, with gory boils all over their bodies, some will insist they'd rather take their chances with a disease they assume will be relatively mild for them (because vanity and ageism means few want to think of themselves as "older" or "at risk," even if they are, and appealing to people's better nature not to be a vector of the disease doesn't seem to work for everyone either. Once a vaccine is available, I expect there will probably be protests by people who don't want to take it and are opposed to "forced" mass vaccination or vaccines being required of people before they can return to normal life.
There are also many people who are not categorically against all vaccines, but they have their own ideas about which diseases are serious enough to warrant them. They don't think the flu is a big deal, or they convince themselves that the flu shot doesn't work anyway, so they skip it. Or they think of measles as a mild childhood disease where you get blotchy and get to stay home and watch TV for a week or so. Some of those people might also think Covid-19 isn't a serious risk for them, so they'll skip it when it becomes available--unless there are strong legal incentives, like not being allowed to return to school or work without proof of vaccination. Many of these people are convinced that there are long-term effects of vaccination that aren't borne out by data and will blame every case of cancer or autoimmune disease they hear about on being "over vaccinated."
We don't want to toss fuel on that already crackling fire by putting a vaccine out there that is riskier than it needs to be.
As an aside, the argument that vaccines represent a cash cow for health care providers is also a bit puzzling, as generally there is more money in drugs and treatments for diseases than there is for a couple of shots that prevent a disease. If "big pharma" and health care providers were in cahoots to over vaccinate everyone to make money, wouldn't they also be loading us up with vaccines for diseases that are very low risk?
