It\u2019s been sixteen months since the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent. Here in the United States, today we are breathing a deep sigh of relief. If you watch our behavior, at the store, at the playground, in the movie theatres and the restaurants; the pandemic is over. While some parts of the rest of the world are still suffering, in the US, the hospitals are nearing normal levels, and we are moving ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, of course, it\u2019s not over. Like the measles and polio, the COVID-19 virus hasn\u2019t gone away. In fact, the virus has mutated to become even more infectious with the \u201cDelta Variant\u201d. While it\u2019s easy to say that\u2019s someone else\u2019s problem \u2013 the virus still remains an American problem as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why? Because the United States, after performing miracles of both vaccine development and vaccination efforts, has stalled. That\u2019s not a political question, it\u2019s a fact. We have the vaccines, and we now have the capacity to vaccinate everyone. You can go to your doctor, to your pharmacy, your grocery store, or your local public health agency and get protected. But we are struggling to reach even a seventy percent vaccination level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A year ago we were talking about something called \u201cherd immunity\u201d. At the time, the concept was used as an excuse for not taking reasonable preventive measures like social distancing and wearing masks. The idea: let everyone get COVID, and for those who survive it, they will have some term of immunity to the disease. Then we can go on about our normal lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The politics of COVID and America, unnecessarily cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Now we are faced with a similar situation. We don\u2019t need folks to risk getting sick. We just need them to go to the local store and get vaccinated. The current vaccines in the US: Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson, are effective against the Delta strain, and are amazingly safe. How safe are they? Every form of vaccination can have side effects, but the COVID vaccine side-effects are literally measured in single digits per million people. And even more than that, those side effects so far are almost always recoverable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a chance to put COVID \u201cout\u201d, just like we put polio and smallpox \u201cout\u201d. But it\u2019s not going to happen here in the US, because there is a significant segment of the population, near thirty percent, who are \u201caverse\u201d to getting immunized. So instead of reaching \u201cherd immunity\u201d, and perhaps more importantly, putting COVID \u201cout\u201d so those who legitimately can\u2019t tolerate the vaccine are out of danger, we have allowed \u201cthe shot\u201d to become a political issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio there are old coal mines on fire. They have been burning for decades, heating the ground, causing sink holes and smoke leaks. They cannot be put out \u2013 they are burning through ancient seams of coal that stretch under roads and towns and houses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of putting COVID \u201cout\u201d, we are letting it fester like those old coal mine fires. Instead of polio or smallpox, COVID is going to be the measles, breaking out and taking its toll on the unprotected, year in and year out. Only it\u2019s not the measles, it\u2019s so much more serious, and deadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for those of us who are vaccinated, it seems reasonable to say that those folks who are making the choice to avoid \u201cthe shot can pay the price. But there is an additional problem. Allowing the continued transmission of COVID vastly enhances the chance that the virus will mutate into something the vaccines do not prevent. So not getting vaccinated, just like not wearing a mask was six months ago, isn\u2019t just a \u201cyou do you, I\u2019ll do me\u201d thing. It\u2019s putting us all at increased risk, more of a \u201cyou do you and it will screw me\u201d thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the current politics of America has somehow devolved to the \u201cfreedom\u201d to not get vaccinated against a deadly disease. We can, with only a couple of clicks on the Internet, find all of the justification needed to not get protected. It\u2019s stupid, and it\u2019s selfish. And it\u2019s America today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"