For sake of the family

In the next 12 months, thousands of people are going to experience debilitating side effects for life or die from covid.

Every one of those people infected will have been infected by somebody else. We now know it only takes one person to start a worldwide pandemic of 4 million dead and 200 million stricken.

In the months I was waiting to qualify for the vaccine I realized that many people would question the safety of something so new. It’s untested, it’s not reliable, etc. It turns out to be no more risk than other vaccines.

Since everyone that is infected is caused by someone else (a carrier), if I became a carrier, could I live with causing side effects or death of family members, friends, neighbors or all three? I decided I could not.

What about the people who can’t live with knowing what they caused and the people that catch it from them and the people they give it to, etc.? It is up to each of us to protect our loved ones from us. Only we can do that.

When we look in the mirror every morning for the next 50 years can we not think about what lives we may have devastated? I know only a small number can say yes.

Some people say: “My family has never been vaccinated for anything.” Well, we’ve never dealt with a virus like this one. Some of you reading this will lose this time. Thousands have already died or been debilitated that made that statement. The vaccinated people that love you were vaccinated for themselves and you.

Talk to your minister, doctor or any survivors for their opinion. Some of you who are reading this have to be one that dies in the next 12 months. It does not have to be. People who love you that are vaccinated have begged you to be vaccinated for the sake of the family. But your life is not their call. Your life is your call.

GEORGIANA TATUM

Dardanelle