I have friends and acquaintances that I admire and respect that have not, or have not yet, gotten vaccinated. I am sure that they have thought about this seriously, and that they are doing the best they can to protect themselves - and to protect those that breathe their air - from COVID-19. I would just like to take a moment to share my reasons for being vaccinated. (I have links to each item below to click through if you like)
1. VACCINES WORK - pandemic hospitalizations and deaths were rising geometrically prior to this January when our new president enacted a nationwide vaccination program, and then the hospitalizations and deaths dropped off a cliff to dramatic lows. Sadly, with the mutation to the Delta variant and a refusal by one political party to vaccinate or wear masks the hospitalizations and deaths are spiking again.
2. MERCURY - Mercury can enter the body in two forms - Methylmercury, which is in fish and which can build up in the body over time (one of the reasons I usually avoid fish); the second way is Ethylmercury (thimerosal) which is a disinfectant in vaccines to keep deadly bacteria out, and this form passes more quickly through the body. Mercury does not build up in the body from vaccines.
3. DNA - the mRNA vaccines do not change or affect DNA. They don't enter the cells where the DNA is. They don't interact with DNA. They don't alter DNA.
4. SCIENCE - I believe in science. I know that the sun is 93 million miles from the earth, on average, even though I never took a tape measure to see for myself, because scientists figured that out and wrote it down. I know that water is made of molecules made up of Hydrogen and Oxygen, even though they are too small for me to see, because scientists told me. I know that photons exist as a wave of probability prior to observation and become a particle upon observation because scientists figured out a way to know that and tell me so. And I believe that vaccines are safe because those scientists that are qualified, real actual epidemiologists, tell me so...... Are there reasons to distrust scientists? Hell yes. The tobacco industry had scientists who where were paid to lie to protect the tobacco industry. The fossil fuel industry has scientists who deny human impact on Climate Change. Does the Pharmaceutical Industry have unprincipled scientists promoting the industry? Undoubtedly. So, I have to take it on a case by case basis, and the overwhelming message from the most qualified medical scientists around the world is that the vaccines are safe. I do not for a minute think they are just out for the money. I think they are trying to save the world.
5. SAMPLE SIZE - Because of the dire emergency of an entire world getting, spreading, and dying from COVID-19 the vaccines had to be rushed to the world faster than normal. But, for goodness sake, there have been over 200,000,000 vaccines in the U.S. alone. So this is the largest sample size in human history. Result? about 6207 (.0018%) deaths from allergic reactions to the vaccine, and over 650,000 have died from COVID-19. Hospitals are not filling up with vaccine reactions. These vaccines have been proven, deeply proven, to be much less concern than the COVID-19 itself.
6. MUTATIONS - The longer COVID-19 exists, the more it will mutate to more and more deadly versions. We are now dealing with the DELTA variant, which is about ten times more transmissible than the original virus. There is already a mu variant. In the past we have stopped deadly plagues with vaccines - polio, scarlet fever, chickenpox, smallpox, tetanus. A sad experience is to go to an old cemetery and see many tiny headstones of children who had died from communicable diseases prior to vaccines.
7. RUSSIA - Putin's Russia has been spreading anti-vaccination disinformation and propaganda long before the advent of COVID-19. Russia's "Active Measures" in America and Europe is to find disagreements in a country and use social media to turn people against each other. America is a rich target for them. Race, class, religion, etc. are all areas of disagreement, and with Russia's toxic input they become areas of hatred and and violent disagreement. Destroying America's trust in vaccines serves two purposes - weakens us by making us more sick than we need be, and more importantly, weakens us by making us distrustful of science. Remember that America beat the Soviet Union to the moon, and signature scientific glory. So, what better to do for Putin than to weaken America's scientific standing in the world?
So, this is why I have chosen to be vaccinated.
I know that some of the people that I admire have different reasons for themselves, but I confess that I do hope that some of my thinking might help them decide to join me amongst the vaccinated (and masked, of course). (I think a few of my friends have medical conditions, or very tender metabolisms or immune systems, and expect that a vaccine can throw their carefully balanced and precarious system out of balance. So, I see them as a justifiable exception, and wish them the best).
I don't really have any expectation that the politically motivated non-vaxers and non-maskers in the deep red portions of the country will pay any attention to the above because their stance seems to be based upon a notion of manhood and tribal loyalty. They are proud to proclaim that the government is not going to tell them what to do (silly, the government tells them not to rob banks, or kill someone you are mad at, or drive drunk, or ignore stop lights, and they obey in those cases, but....)
But, even there I do have a bit of hope.
If my non-vaccinated friends continue to stay un-vaccinated, I trust that they will take extra measures to make sure that they do not inadvertently infect others. I know I am doing my best to mask up during this Delta time, knowing that I can transmit even though I have no symptoms, and am vaccinated myself.
