Jan 19, 2022 4 min read

President Macron of France was recently quoted incorrectly. He said he wanted the unvaccinated of his country to be “ped off.” His actual verbiage was not easily translated, but in reality was a much worse wish for them. He and several other world leaders are also taking a tougher stand toward the unvaccinated because, as they assert, “By not getting vaccinated, this plague will go on and on as the COVID virus continues to mutate.”

This pandemic has fed into an incredible politicizing of the Red vs.Blue gangs here in the United States and that politicizing has been used to encourage 40-plus million people not to get vaccinated. If you’re a French citizen, unless you can prove you received your vaccination, you can’t even sit outside of your favorite café for a glass of wine or a cup of coffee

Because I’ve spent the past 30-plus years working with physicians and scientists, my personal belief is we should follow the path of science and do whatever we can to stop this plague. That suggestion, however, simply re-engages the anti-vaxxers.

Some deniers are many times stoked by the fear created by those who would passionately like to keep us hating each other. These distractions are intended to prevent us from facing the root causes of the true problems we’re enduring both individually and as a country.

We have witnessed the destruction of the middle class, the deportation of jobs, loss of pride, and a dissolution of opportunities. The wage gap has become exponentially greater. Instead of directing our ire and frustration toward those responsible for the decisions that have created this wage gap, this loss of manufacturing jobs, and the deterioration of our middle-class, we are consistently encouraged to turn our hatred toward our fellow American citizens.

It’s amazing to watch the manipulation that occurs daily on social and broadcast media. Add to that the distorted speeches of some politicians intended to keep us from focusing on the real issues. Because, if we can be encouraged to hate our neighbors, it will keep us distracted and prevent us from concentrating on those decision makers in charge and then unselecting them at the ballot box.

I remember a few years ago when my son described the new world order he was observing as even more driven by greed and self-gratification. He said it was a new morality free-zone where it is really difficult to find people who still care about fairness, justice, and patriotism over profits and political fund raising. What has happened to doing the right thing like caring about our fellow human beings? This new greed, this self-centered, self-delusional, social media driven fear is actually killing us.

Our political unrest will continue to percolate as long as our leaders can make money from our self-inflicted wounds, and this beautiful experiment called democracy could become just another lesson for the history books about what went wrong. There appears to be no bottom to this greed, no end to the egos, and no guard rails for those seeking to gain or maintain power.

I’m not here to say there are not any potential side effects to medicine based on our personal genetic makeup. I am here, however, to say the reward is greater than the risk. The polio vaccine was only 60% effective, but we successfully wiped out polio by creating an immunity via vaccination.

This pandemic will rage on as long as we don’t vaccinate. There will be new variants every few months like the new deltacron variant because that’s what viruses do. If you think the vaccines were developed too fast, read the book “A Shot to Save the World,” by Gregory Zuckerman. This effort to find pathways for our own bodies to recognize and attack invading viruses started when our country was just a few years old. We have a chance to stop this plague, but selecting to avoid the vaccine will result in thousands more deaths.

Nick Jacobs of Windber is a Senior Partner with Senior Management Resources and author of the blog healinghospitals.com.