It is important to address the ignorance that is at the heart of resistance to Covid-19 mitigation measures.
I remember a sentiment that goes something like ‘your freedom to swing your fist ends where it touches my jaw’. More generally stated, personal freedoms end where your choices have a likely potential to harm others.
This applies to many of the public health measures implemented to minimize the harm caused by Covid-19: masks, public gatherings (religious or otherwise) and now vaccines.
Masks – It is the rare person who medically can’t tolerate some kind of mouth and nose covering – proven to reduce the spread of virus-laden droplets expelled by infected persons. Refusing to mask-up because you think it is some kind of infringement on your personal freedoms, or because you don’t believe the science, or simply because you don’t want to, is both selfish and stupid.
Public Gatherings – The Supreme Court was wrong when it struck down Covid-19 prohibitions of church-related public gatherings. Religion doesn’t happen in buildings – it exists primarily in the mind of the person. Religious values are expressed in how a person lives their daily lives. Attending church services in person has little to do with it. In fact, I find risking lives by attending crowded church services to be profoundly un-Christian.
Vaccine Hesitancy – I understand vaccine hesitancy in the early days of the administration of vaccines – clinical trials don’t always uncover serious issues. At the same time, I know of no occurrence in the history of vaccines that had hidden, long term negative side effects.
Both mRNA vaccines have been administered to tens of millions of people with no serious side effects. Even the potential blood clot risk of the Johnson & Johnson / Janssen vaccine is less than one in a million. Your risk of dying in a car accident is far greater than that, as is the risk of lifetime health issues to you or someone close to you, should you contract Covid-19.
Anti-vaxer assertion:
Since vaccinated people are ‘protected’, they have no right to complain about unvaccinated people.
Seriously?
So, those who get vaccinated have no stake or any interest in the end of the pandemic? That is a very self-centered perspective, and flat wrong.
The pandemic will not end until community spread in our nation nears zero – and the same is true for the rest of the world. As long as world-wide community spread is still producing potentially resistant and more deadly variants, Americans will continue to be at significant risk.
While all three vaccines are 100% effective at preventing serious illness and death – at least for current mutations of the virus – vaccine efficacy numbers of ~95% for the mRNA vaccines mean that one in twenty vaccinated people can potentially become infected, and the about 66% efficacy for the J&J / Jannsen vaccine means that one in three vaccinated people is susceptible ‘breakthrough’ to infection. These are vaccinated people who can become infected and in turn (potentially) infect others, as well as spawn resistant variants.
If 99% of those infected recover, that means that one in a hundred dies. And what about the 10-30% of infected that experience long-haul symptoms or permanent heart or lung damage. That’s NOT OK.
Unfortunately, far too many people trust what they hear from right-wing, MAGA media propaganda outlets, arguably the most destructive forces in America today. Factual information, vetted by the vast cadre of legitimate journalists and subject matter experts who contribute to main stream media reporting, is far more trustworthy.
Unfortunately, for far too many anti-vax’ers, facts don’t matter a bit. The harm they can cause to others doesn’t matter a bit. If that’s you, good luck living in your false reality. Just don’t call yourself a Christian, because the essence of being a Christian is caring about other people and the impact you have on them.