LETTER: Get vaccinated now
Here is a term that I bet you haven’t thought about or used recently: herd immunity. You know, the thing all the anti-vaccine folks were smugly waiting for – a sort of natural selection/mutation immunity protection theory that would make this “flu” a thing of the past? Oh, dear me, what has happened to this inevitability now?
Surprise! While the anti-vaccine folks are sitting around waiting for the world to fix itself, a nasty little thing is happening: COVID is gaining momentum, is strengthening, kind of like a hurricane that hasn’t made landfall, and has mutated enough to be deadlier than before, a fourth wave. In over 98% of the new cases, it has targeted the unvaccinated. Last week, I saw a news report about a middle-aged man, in a hospital, with oxygen tubes in his nose, vowing that he still wouldn’t take the vaccine if he could do it all over again. Too dangerous … and dancing with death isn’t?
This whole thing infuriates those who have taken the vaccine, and rightly so. There is still a small chance that they could contract the virus from an infected, unvaccinated carrier.
Other parts of the country are starting to reinstitute preventative mandates and shutdowns. Isn’t that something to look forward to? Don’t think that such things aren’t going to happen here. Remember how we felt when the initial outbreak started “over there?” If you haven’t gotten your vaccine yet, get it now or we will be right back to the doldrums we suffered through last winter. It just isn’t fair to those who have done the right thing. They have rights, too!
Sally Brown-Pawlosky
Hickory