Get the vaccine

EVERY day, the Ministry of Health, the many letterwriters to the editor of The Fiji Times and the religious leaders have been pleading with Fijians to get the vaccine for COVID-19.

Sadly, good advice falls on deaf ears in the intellectually challenged segment of our population.

A dose of reality may shock them to take action. So here goes. A man in America (and there are many stories like this) who spent four months in hospital with COVID-19 and ended up with a double-lung transplant, said he regrets not getting the vaccine.

“If I could do it all over again, I’d get it. No doubt. What I went through is probably the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Josh Garza, 43, told CNN that he didn’t get a vaccine because he thought he could avoid getting infected and because he was worried about its safety.

“I didn’t want to be the guinea pig. I was just opposed to it.”

Mr Garza told CNN that he ended up days away from dying, but got the transplant in April. Mr Garza urged other people to get the vaccine. “Think about your family. Because what I went through, I had to put my family through also.

“I wish people would at least reconsider or at least listen to what we went through, and hopefully you never have to go through that – ever.”

CNN noted that Mr Garza has diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions that make him particularly vulnerable to the virus.

And the last time I looked, Fiji does not have the capability to do a double-lung transplant.

Unfortunately, the antivaxxers do not read the The Fiji Times but resort to inane and mindless conspiracy theories on social media by morons who have nothing better to do with their lives.

These cowards get cheap thrills by posting trash under the cover of anonymity. A pathetic and despicable lot. So I guess the onus is upon us to remind those among us to take the jab.

The question is what will it take for them to listen? ARVIND MANI

Nadi