It’s simple: vaccines save lives.
While I’ve been blogging about my summer cold, I’ve also been innundated by ads on YouTube, news stories on the web and radio, and Twitter posts practically begging people to get their COVID-19 vaccinations. The fact that people are not doing this blows my mind. Why wouldn’t you get a vaccine that could prevent you from getting a potentially fatal illness?
Apparently there are a lot of folks out there who believe conspiracy theories about the vaccine putting a chip in them, magnetizing their skin, or being “experimental” and, thus, dangerous. (I guess these are the same people dumb enough to believe the earth is flat, we never landed on the moon, and jet contrails are full of mind control chemicals. Does the stupid ever end?)
I’ve got one thing to say to these gullable morons: wake the fuck up.
Vaccines save lives. We no longer have to fear polio, smallpox, measles, and other serious, life-threatening illnesses because of vaccines. This has been proven again and again all over the world.
And to everyone out there who says they’re not getting vaccinated because “COVID is 99% survivable,” understand that there’s a huge difference between having an illness — whether it’s the common cold (which I appear to have), the flu, or COVID-19 — and dying from it.
Sure, there are folks who have gotten COVID and have survived. Lots of them. Maybe even 99% of them.
But are you considering the percentage who have been bedridden for weeks or months due to symptoms? The ones who have lost their jobs because they simply can’t do them anymore? The ones who have been hospitalized and separated from their friends and families? The ones with ventilator tubes painfully inserted into their airways, making it impossible to breathe on their own or even talk or eat? Do you think those folks are glad they weren’t vaccinated even though they survived (or have survived so far)?
Do you really want these symptoms for months or years? This scares me more than dying. At least when you’re dead you’re not suffering every damn day of your life.
And what about the ones who survived but are still dealing with post-COVID symptoms, including “long COVID” sufferers who still feel weak or achey, suffer from headaches, or can’t taste their food? And those with permanent brain or organ damage?
And what about the ones who survived but infected friends or family members who weren’t so lucky? The ones who have to carry the weight of someone else’s death on their shoulders because they so stupidly believed in conspiracy theories or disregarded science?
Don’t be a statistic like the folks in this Washington Post article:
A coronavirus outbreak at a Florida government building killed two people and hospitalized several others who were unvaccinated against the virus, a county official said.
The Manatee County Administration Building reopened Monday after the virus that causes covid-19 spread throughout the county’s IT department and forced the building to shut down on Friday. Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes, who is also an epidemiologist, said six unvaccinated employees, including five in the IT department, tested positive for the virus within a two-week period.
The two IT employees who died last week were identified in local media and obituaries as Mary Knight, 58, and Alphonso Cox, 53.
Hopes said that the one IT employee, 23, exposed to the virus who was vaccinated did not get infected.
Do you see a pattern here? I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more pieces like this one. Don’t let yourself or a loved one be featured as one of those killed or permanently disabled by their own stupidity — or yours.
Wake up and get vaccinated now.
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Yep.
Just yes.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Our neighbor when I was a kid was on the Iron Lung. She was one of the unlucky ones that didn’t get the polio vaccine in time. If she were alive today she would explain the importance of getting the vaccine more eloquently than I ever could. Get the damn vaccine.
I agree with you, Maria – I’m getting my first jab (Pfizer) on Thursday July 1!
Good work! Be sure to get the second one, too!
I don’t know what you’d call me but I’ve always thought the elderly, like me, should be the first to die from Covid. Most of us are no longer productive but are a big drain on our government’s assets. I’ve been retired 28 years and receive a monthly pension many times over what the pittance I paid in to the retirement system could possibly generate! But I was among the first to be vaccinated. I was not happy when I learned that black friends were being harder hit by Covid. I’ve always wanted our first responders and other productive members of society to be vaccinated first. Now I don’t care if stupid people who choose to avoid vaccination suffer and die. That is their choice, and good riddance. Guess my thinking is not shared by others but I still attempt to be somewhat productive, at least by helping others less fortunate than I.
I am 100% with you on this. I’m actually thinking that this is a great way to get stupid people out of the gene pool.
Thank you Maria. Your response means a lot to me because I respect your opinions so much. You are always right on!
I’ll pass along a couple of references.
(1) “Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, Scottish Doctor, author, speaker, sceptic” ( https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/ )
He wrote a great book on cholesterol: “The Great Cholesterol Con”. Tends to be an independent thinker and knows more than I do, though I make my own decisions and am not a true believer. But he’s a good resource. His post “COVID19 – the spike protein and blood clotting” is really interesting. Illustrates a lot about how all vaccines work.
(2) “Sebastian Rushworth M.D.” ( https://sebastianrushworth.com/ )
Again, I think he may be an independent thinker who verges on the “I’m right and you aren’t” category, but might have some useful info for you and others. I did read his book, “Covid: Why most of what you know is wrong”. I usually stay away from the “everything you know/they say/the system promotes is wrong” category, but this book does give detailed information on how scientific trials are run, and the role of statistics in interpreting them.
Personally, I’ve never known anyone in an iron lung but I saw one once, and remember life before polio vaccines, when swimming pools were closed and everyone lived in fear that their kids would spend decades flat on their backs inside a metal tube, able to move only their eyes. Seeing an iron lung is enough on its own to scare a person into getting vaccinated. All us gradeschoolers lined up joyously to get our Salk vaccine as soon as it was available. Same for the Sabin vaccine a little later.
And while I’m at it, I’ll also recommend “Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82”, by Elizabeth Anne Fenn, for anyone who wants to know what life was like when you fervently hoped to die quickly if you got sick. Truly, deeply frightening.
I firmly believe that the ONLY way out of this pandemic — short of wearing 100% effective masks 24/7/365 everywhere we go — is vaccination. Vaccinations have just about eradicated polio, smallpox, and measles. Why would anyone think that they couldn’t be a first step in eradicating COVID-19? I have ZERO tolerance for vaccine deniers, and I don’t care how much education, letters after their name, or experience they claim to have. I want life to return to normal and it simply WON’T unless everyone who CAN get vaccinated does.