Do you know someone who is vaccinated?
Do you know someone who isn’t?
And you love them, right?
But you’re mad at them too, aren’t you? You don’t understand why they can’t—or won’t—understand and accept your stance.
I can understand that. But what I don’t understand is why people would rather risk their lives—along with the lives of those around them—than take a gratis vaccine that, depending on the manufacturer, either has been or is soon to be FDA approved and is scientifically proven to reduce the spread of illness and risk of death during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Depending on your genetic makeup, there are risks involved, yes, as articles from The BBC and New Hampshire’s The Conway Daily Sun can tell you, and we’re right to acknowledge and pay heed to them. On the other hand, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge the calculated risks we take when subjecting ourselves to like vaccines, such those that protect us against measles, tetanus and seasonal flu viruses.
There are risks, and then there are likelihoods, and those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 are not only more likely to contract the disease but 11 times more likely to die from it. (Here’s a link to the data the previous link references: CDC study.)
As I said on my Facebook page, safety is an illusion. No one can ever be 100% safe in this life—there are no guarantees. I say this not to frighten but to share truth, and the truth is that those of us with access to a preventative medicine should care enough about ourselves, each other and our future together to take actions that will make us safer than not, starting with taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
Disagree? Here are 3 reasons why, unless you physiologically cannot take the vaccine, you should reconsider:
1. To protect yourself.
And not just from contracting COVID but from the severity of its effects if you do happen to fall ill.
Full disclosure: I fell ill earlier this month after attending a lakeside wedding. As you can see, I’ve been vaccinated since spring—as have my best friend, her husband and many of their guests—but I still caved in to the desire to fit in and, upon arriving and spotting no one else in a mask, kept mine in my purse. It was cowardly, and I am ashamed to admit I have done the same thing before. I’ve been wearing masks in public for the last year and a half and yet, 4 times, have chosen social acceptance over safety in high-traffic areas. I don’t wish to rationalize these unwise and potentially dangerous decisions, as social anxiety/personal comfort, in my eyes, are not valid excuses. No one made me go maskless but me. I was wrong to take the risk, and I paid for it, starting on the drive home from the venue.
My sore throat carried on to the morning. No big deal, I thought upon waking with a scratchy voice. It’s not like I wasn’t chatting or shouting over music for 4 hours. It’s probably a chill (it was windy AF all afternoon).
A day later, I could barely swallow. The day after that, strange headaches that encircled the occipital region of my brain came and went, as if I were crowning and recrowning myself with an ill-fitting diadem throughout the day—I started canceling appointments and called in sick to my volunteer job then.
My paranoia regarding COVID increased as existing symptoms worsened and new ones—fatigue, muscle aches/swelling, chills, foggy thinking and a dry, hacking cough—appeared. As I camped out in my bedroom, part of me couldn’t help but wonder if I was being cosmically punished for my irresponsibility/late-in-the-game hypocrisy.
Fortunately—thankfully—the malady only lasted about a week, and after 10 days of quarantine, I felt well enough to leave my room unmasked. My mother, with whom I live and from whom I continued distancing, never became sick, and as far as I know (via Facebook), nobody with whom I had contact at the wedding did either.
To clarify, I believe it was a cold, due to the length of the illness and some missing key symptoms of COVID (fever, exhaustion, loss of smell), but we’ll never know for sure. I didn’t venture out to take a test.
Moral of the story? Some things are worth some risk.
Was it worth some risk to attend my best friend’s wedding? To me, it was. I love her and trust her, her husband and their judgment regarding their inner circle.
Was it worth some risk to go completely unmasked? No, because I did get sick and possibly could have gotten others sick. At this point I can only pray I didn’t.
And was it worth some risk to get the COVID-19 vaccine? Yes—and the flu vaccine too—because even though I probably had a cold, if it had been COVID (or the flu), there is no doubt in my mind that the rib and muscle pain, dizziness, labored breathing and continual cough I experienced would have been far worse.
Some things are worth some risk, right? Please don’t let your health be one of them.
Think about it. Think about all the stories you’ve heard over the last year and a half about the people who have perished from this disease.
Now think about the people. The parents. The children. Spouses. Siblings. Friends. Students. Doctors. Nurses. Caregivers.
This isn’t just happening “out there” to other people. If you are unvaccinated and as negligent as I was at my friend’s wedding, it could very well happen to you. This is not alarmist propaganda—really, would the entire free world invest this much time, energy and money into a smoke-and-mirrors, health-scare hoax of this scale?—so much as a concerned warning. The pandemic only continues to receive so much coverage because there are informed individuals “out there”—and around the block—dedicated to informing you how to best protect yourself.
That being said, please don’t mistake me: There are also individuals, administrators, officials, politicians, corporations and bureaucrats who genuinely do not care whether you or I live or die so long as they can go on living their best (read: easiest) life. It is a terrible truth, but such people have existed and will until the day humanity ends. The other immutable fact we need to focus on is that people you love care about your health and well-being, as do people you know and even people you don’t know.
Photo by Valentin Antonucci on Pexels.com
Someone cares. Someone wants you to be safe. I’ll throw my hat in that ring. ❤
I’m not advocating that you trust everyone or everything you hear—trust me, heh—but this pandemic isn’t going to end anytime soon if more people don’t align themselves with a reasonably informed source that, more so than not, has their and the public’s best interests at heart. Such sources exist. You just have to find them, for this is the time in which we live. A time in which a pandemic is happening now and people are dying now, the vast majority of them unvaccinated.
Please take care, and take the precautions necessary to make sure you’re around to tell your story—and keep living it.
2. To protect others.
Like others have or have not protected you since this pandemic started. Like I have and have also failed to do the 4 times I entered a high-traffic area without a mask.
What’s happened to us, America, that we think so little of a life—be it ours or someone else’s—that we can disrespect and endanger ourselves and one another so easily and, often, so mercilessly?
Do you remember this 2020 news story about the woman who purposely coughed in the face of a masked woman who, unbeknownst to the assailant, was fighting brain cancer at the time? I remember when one of my other best friends sent me a message about it.
Rarely have I seen him ruffled, but as someone living with cystic fibrosis, he especially has every right to be. The incident occurred at a time when there were no vaccines available, and we grimly mulled over the fact that if this had happened to him, he most likely would’ve ended up ill at best…
Granted, I don’t know how everything went down, as we can only interpret the footage and hearsay of the involved parties secondhand, nor do I presume to pass judgment on what the assailant was doing up to the point of the assault or whether or not the other woman should’ve been filming her, but…
…I’ve had enough mental health training, enough practice taking responsibility for my worst traits, emotions, decisions and actions, to know that willfully coughing in a person’s face in the middle of a pandemic—as well as inundating the party at and admitting fault with death wishes—is beyond irrational and offensive. It’s hazardous to another human being’s health.
However, if the woman fighting cancer had died from complications of an infectious disease, the woman who chose to cough on her would, more likely than not, have been a contributing factor.
You never know, do you? Who you could hurt and how…with which action or inaction…or exactly how much…
I find it torturous. I’m curious as to why others do not.
But when one makes a decision that is definitively going to have an impact on others, one way or the other, for better or worse, one should take the time to ask oneself, “Is this something I can live with having done?”
Shouldn’t they?
What do you think? Is this woman’s action something you could live with the rest of your life, if you were more than an observer after the fact? If you were the perpetrator, the patient, a witness/bystander or parent?
If so, let’s go big picture: Do you think this is the kind of thing our “great” country stands for—the right to play fast and loose with each other’s lives?
Yeah, maybe. All right, I’ll grant nihilists that. But is it what our soldiers, doctors, nurses, police officers, EMTs, firefighters, teachers, caregivers and ancestors fought, sacrificed and died for? Yes, they fought for our freedom and survival, and I suppose they did fight for our right to kill—but for the right to kill without recourse? To harm others purposely, senselessly? To endanger their entire well-being in the heat of the moment?
I don’t believe so.
Furthermore—and to further clarify—I don’t believe choosing to remain unvaccinated is necessarily tantamount to coughing in the face of a stranger during the pandemic. However, I do think said choice, depending on where it’s coming from, tends to skew closer to that act than not, because the longer vaccination rates lag, the more time the virus has to mutate and develop more variants, which will not only prolong our collective ordeal but put even the vaccinated at risk.
Click here to read how, which brings us to the final point.
3. To contribute to herd immunity or hybrid immunity.
In terms of a pandemic of this scale, with symptomatic and asymptomatic people transmitting COVID-19, working toward herd immunity is of paramount importance. Not only would it allow us to get and stay ahead of variants like the Delta and Gamma strains, it would provide blanket protection to those who choose to stay unvaccinated as well as those who are immunocompromised, cannot otherwise receive or have yet to receive the vaccine, such as young children.
But in order for people who do not wish to be vaccinated to reap these benefits…some of them are going to have to change their minds and be vaccinated. Herd immunity requires a majority—a collective effort, a united front. A sacrifice, even, in the pursuit of our future well-being.
Then again, what could be more patriotic than banding together to defend the world against a common, deadly enemy? That’s a big reason everyone likes alien invasion movies, right? Because no single group of humans is the main antagonist/everybody manages to put their differences aside, stop pointing fingers and work together long enough to save the world from destruction.
Gif credit: micdotcom via Tumblr
It’s just…if we can all appreciate those stories, you have to wonder why we’re having so much trouble closing the chapter on a similar crisis…
But in all seriousness, at the end of the day, you’re right. You do have a choice, and you’re not wrong to be cautious. But please, don’t be careless. Believe me, it’s not worth it, physiologically or psychologically. Invest in yourself and your community. In unity.
Side note: Have you noticed that the coronavirus pandemic has turned those who identify as pro-life pro-choice (ex. “This is a private matter/I have the legal right to abstain”) and those who identify as pro-choice pro-life (ex. “You don’t have the moral right to willfully infect/kill others”)?
For as divided as we are, America, we’re still not all that different…
And if it’s a matter of faith, I challenge you to consider that science and faith can coexist in harmony. I assure you, they can (personally, I see the vaccine as a combination of God’s doing/blessing and the hard-won advancements of modern medicine vs. a mere aberration of nature or political tool/loyalty litmus test), same as civic duty and freedom (please note that not once in this think piece have I outright commanded you or anyone else to get vaccinated; rather, I’m attempting to convince you).
Even so, I understand that not everyone who is eligible for the vaccine will take it, and while that choice is honestly difficult for me to respect, I do accept it—and implore you to be the person who changes their mind.
If you haven’t already, please (re)consider getting the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s the best defense we have against this pandemic thus far, and as any athlete, coach or fan of a team sport can tell you, “Defense wins championships.”
…Because if we don’t start making serious, committed efforts to stand together and heal the rifts tearing our nation and the world at large apart, whether it’s 1 year or 10 or 50 or 100 years from now, we will fall together.
And no one—scientists and theologians alike—will have the right to be surprised.
With (a heavy dose of tough) love,
Britney
P.S. Suggested reading for those interested in this topic:
• https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/covid-vaccine-hesitancy/20210902/mistrust-politics-and-vaccines-how-we-got-here-how-we-fix-it
• https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210916/cdc-safe-to-get-flu-covid-vaccines
• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/health/covid-herd-immunity-vaccine.html
• https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/hybrid-immunity-people-covid-still-get-vaccinated-rcna1974
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