Seeing the light: Vaccination is the path back to normal
The rollouts of the Pfizer-biontech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are very powerful signals that we are close to ending this pandemic. As the calendar turns from the old year to the new one, I finally see light at the end of the tunnel. I have hope that the end to the virus that has severely impacted our economy and employment, hurt families, stretched our health care systems to the limit, disrupted our social lives, and profoundly impacted the finances of colleges and universities is within reach.
Given the enormity of the vaccine distribution effort, I know that it will take some time for us to reach population immunity. Until we make the COVD-19 pandemic a thing of the past, I encourage everyone to continue to do the things that science tells us will reduce the spread, such as wearing a mask, staying six feet away from other people, washing your hands, avoiding crowds, and staying home when you are sick.
I would also like to take a moment to point out what a monumental human achievement it is to have two vaccines approved for distribution less than a year after work began on them in early 2020. However, this rapid response is also what makes some people fearful to take a vaccine and the reports of misinformation and fear-mongering about them is discouraging. A Dec. 20 article by Renée Diresta in the magazine The Atlantic states that “Within 48 hours of the first people in the U.S. receiving the Pfizer vaccine, anti-vaccine activists were amplifying stories of allergic reactions and sharing claims about friends of friends whom the vaccine has supposedly injured or killed.”
I understand that some people may choose not to take the vaccine for religious reasons or fear of the potential side effects. The religious discussion notwithstanding, I believe that health officials, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and vaccine manufacturers have been committed to developing and administering only vaccines that are shown, through scientific evidence, to be safe. I trust that the FDA approval process includes proof from manufacturers that it is safe and will help save lives. As an educator, I stand with our health experts who overwhelmingly believe in the science and data behind the vaccines.
According to the Health Resources & Services Administration data, “the United States has the safest, most effective vaccine supply in history. In the majority of cases, vaccines cause no side effects, however they can occur, as with any medication — but most are mild.” They go on to say that “for every one million doses of vaccine that were distributed, one individual was compensated .” So your chances of injury from taking a vaccine are one in a million. Those are pretty good odds.
I would also like to point out that widespread population immunity through vaccination is the only way we will be able to get back to work, to school, to some sort of “normal” any time soon. And the return to normal cannot come soon enough. Although I believe that the faculty and staff of College of the Redwoods rose to the challenge and delivered high- quality instruction and student services virtually this fall, it is clear through enrollment numbers and retention and student success rates, that this is not the ideal delivery system for higher education. Our students have told us that they prefer face-to-face. I am also aware of the mental, emotional, and academic consequences moving to remote learning has caused our students — especially our nontraditional, low income and marginalized students and this is why I am focused on planning to return to face-to-face instruction in fall 2021.
Which brings me back to the vaccine: I am confident that our collective commitment to wearing a mask, social distancing, washing our hands, and urging everyone to trust science and data over fearmongering and misinformation and get vaccinated will set the stage for a reopening of the economy and a return to some level of normalcy for College of the Redwoods.
Lastly, I wish I could acknowledge the herculean effort it has taken my colleagues to accomplish what they have over the past 11 months in this article, but I do not have the space. Let me instead just say how humbled and thankful I am to work with several hundred consummate professional, dedicated, and selfless faculty and staff.
Happy New Year!