Get Vaccinated – Part Two
Sunday, August 8th, 2021
Listening to the news all week, I think it is time to up the “appeal” for an increasing number of people to be vaccinated. So here are some things to consider:
It is almost time for k-12 schools to start and we are heading into the third consecutive year where schooling is likely to be severely disrupted. The impact upon children, teachers and administrators is going to be long term. 91% of children are vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella. As soon as the vaccine gets approved for the children, please, let’s get it done. As for adults, time’s up… do the right thing for the kids you care about. Get vaccinated.
You don’t want the economy to be disrupted again. We are over 100,000 new cases a day and climbing. That is where we were at the beginning of February. Businesses are postponing requiring their employees to come back to the office. We want to find out what the new workforce looks like. We need to put the virus in the rearview mirror. Get vaccinated
The data is pretty clear: If you are vaccinated you will not die and it is extremely unlikely you will be hospitalized if you get the virus. But the longer the virus finds people that are not vaccinated the greater the chance that we are heading to the next variant as the virus continues to mutate. Each time, we will have to hold our breath to see if the current vaccines still work. On behalf of all the people who did get vaccinated to all those who didn’t, you are hurting the rest of us. Get vaccinated.
We have slightly less than 60% of the country that is fully vaccinated. That is roughly the same number in New York. We need that number to get past 80%. Remember when this all started with the concept of herd immunity? My other definition for the “delta variant” is this: The 20% difference that we need to get vaccinated if we are going to live with the virus like we do the flu and pneumonia. No more lockdowns. No more mask wearing. No walking around with proof of vaccination. Get vaccinated.
This is a healthcare issue not a political one. 613,000 people have died.
This week Alex Azar, the former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump Administration wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times:
“I’m glad former President Donald Trump got vaccinated, but it would have been even better for him to have done so on national television so that his supporters could see how much trust and confidence he has in what is arguably one of his greatest accomplishments.”
Operation Warp Speed, the federal program to create a vaccine happened during the Trump administration. Azar wrote, this should be a “victory lap” for Republicans and Conservatives as data shows more of these groups remain unvaccinated.
Vaccine hesitancy – “The vaccine was developed too quickly.” Not true. We need to explain that the method of delivering the vaccine through messenger RNA has been worked on for years. Operation Warp Speed enabled the prior work to be brought to distribution with financing for testing and funding for the development of millions of doses. This did not come out of thin air.
We need to get another 20% of the country fully vaccinated. Please encourage your neighbor to do so, so we can get past this period in our lives. If not we are looking at more unnecessary deaths, people who will be debilitated for extended periods of time (the long haulers) and further disruption of our economy. Winter is coming and every sniffle, sneeze and cough will be questioned, “Do I have Covid?”
Lastly, every night on the evening news, there is a story about someone who has been hospitalized with Covid and they gasp, “I should have listened and got vaccinated.” Please show these clips to those who have not been vaccinated.
Like it or not, we are in this together.
