The concept of viral vector vaccines like the J&J were introduced back in 1972. By 1982 we had successfully engineered a viral vector. The first clinical trials of viral vectors for therapeutics was in 1990. (
source)
No vaccine is 100% safe and effective in all cases and all persons, that has never been the case, as it is with pretty much every other drug (and things like effectiveness rate is published and well-known).
COVID won't give you a guarantee that you're not in the 2% that die either, but a vaccine will reduce that 2% to well below 0.01% AND ensure you're not spreading the virus while you're incubating it, which can lead to new mutations.
Would be good to learn a thing or two from history as well. We largely erradicated diseases like Tuberculosis (the BCG vaccine recently turned 100 years old), Polio (first successful vaccine in 1955), etc thanks to mass vaccinations. None of those vaccines are 100% safe and effective either, but they wiped out those diseases, and nowadays, we even rarely vaccinate against them anymore. They have saved millions of lives.
So, yeah, the anti-vaxx is largely political or simply a case of ignorance. Neither is an excuse. If there wouldn't be a chance for the virus mutating and rendering vaccines less effective and having to continue to fight this due to stupidity, then I'll say go have a talk with Darwin and I couldn't care less, but unfortunately I do have to care.