Vaccines, including for COVID, save lives

I just don’t get it. Thank God people took vaccines for polio, tetanus, measles, influenza, hepatitis, rubella, hib, whooping cough, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, mumps, chickenpox and diphtheria.

Many years ago, I came down with a bad case of shingles and I was very uncomfortable for a long time. Years later I found out that there was a vaccine to prevent shingles. My wife and I went to our pharmacy and received the vaccine; thankfully, we never got shingles again.

When I hear someone say, I don’t want to get vaccinated because I had a bad reaction from a vaccine years ago, I think it is ridiculous. All of the other vaccines for these conditions are very different from the COVID-19 vaccine. I have never heard of anyone dying from the vaccine injection.

Almost every patient in the hospital with COVID-19 said they wished they had gotten vaccinated. Getting vaccinated protects you, and most important, protects others. When I hear parents say they don’t want their children to wear masks in school, I find it hard to believe they don’t want to protect their children and the other children in school. If their child comes down with COVID they will probably want to sue the school and the city.

We can end this pandemic if we all get vaccinated. Can you imagine what would have happened if we didn’t get the polio vaccine or vaccine for any of the other diseases?

The doctors, nurses, hospitals and medical personnel have their backs against the wall because of those who didn’t or won’t get vaccinated. We can win this COVID-19 war as we did with the other diseases, but we all have to participate. It won’t kill you to participate, but it will kill others if you don’t.

Bill LaVelle Hamden