Protect yourselves, your neighbors and your fellow Americans. Get vaccinated.
It’s a new year, and like many of you, I was hoping not to be dealing with COVID. But here we are, still awash in coronavirus because of a lack of true American values among those who refuse to get vaccinated.
Just before the New Year, Broward’s mayors held a conference call with the county Emergency Operations Center because of the skyrocketing number of COVID cases due to the omicron variant. Infection rates, which were in the low single digits just a few weeks ago, are now over 20%. And sadly, emergency officials informed us that over 80% of those arriving at the hospital with COVID symptoms have not been vaccinated.”
I keep thinking to myself, how could people be so challenged, so afraid, as to not simply go and get a shot?
We have had vaccines for over two centuries. Messenger RNA, the basis for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines that are so controversial among the unvaccinated, was discovered more than half a century ago. None of this is new.
Also not new: vaccine mandates. Children cannot attend school without having received vaccines that prevent life-threating diseases and, more importantly, the spread of these diseases — diseases like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, influenza type B, hepatitis A and B and even a shot to prevent viruses that cause certain cancers. Some of these diseases, such as measles, were all but unheard of in our schools until some of the very same anti-vaccine rhetoric that has allowed COVID to continue to spread in our community.
And it’s not just schools. Hospital and health workers for years have been required to have flu vaccines to go to work. But now, many are refusing to get a proven, safe vaccine. Can you imagine having an elderly parent in a nursing home knowing someone could give them COVID? It is inconceivable.
My biggest complaint is this freedom argument. My father, like many young men of his generation, went to fight for our freedom overseas. They made sacrifices, not seeing their loved ones for years, living day to day not knowing if it would be their last. Sadly, many died as heroes truly defending the freedom we enjoy today.
Doing more to protect your fellow Americans is real courage, real strength. That’s true patriotism. Now, we have individuals that aren’t even patriotic enough to take a shot for our country. The vaccine is safe. While you may be young and healthy, it still does not mean you cannot die from the complications of COVID. More importantly, you are endangering those at high risk. I challenge these individuals who claim to be standing up for our patriotic values — you are not patriots at all.
For 2022, everyone should be resolved to go and get a vaccine. You should stand up and talk about this issue. I have resolved that I will not be silenced. I will call out those that are hurting others by not helping to stop the spread of COVID, crippling our health system and stifling our economy while hiding under the guise of freedom.
Have we really become a country of selfish cowards? I hope not. The silent majority needs to speak out and put an end to this nonsense.