Use common sense and intelligence, and get vaccinated
My God, what are people waiting for, and why?
I can “Monday morning quarterback” the fact that the Trump administration downplayed the severity of COVID-19 for too long.
Even as it became obvious that we were dealing with a pandemic, primarily Republicans railed against wearing masks, keeping safe distances, and getting vaccinated.
They invoked “freedom” in fighting against mandates issued to protect employees, consumers, and the public in general. And the hospitalizations and deaths continued to mount.
We have almost 800,000 deaths in the U.S. alone. Millions have gotten vaccinated, and the only long-term effect has been their ability to avoid severe cases of the virus and hospitalization.
But, for all his determination to battle COVID-19, people accuse Biden of being ineffective. Has his message been wrong, has his advice been wrong, has his attempt to establish rules and regulations been wrong?
What has been wrong is the selfish and childish attitude that, “No one’s going to tell me what to do!” The record of the vaccines is that they are safe and effective. The record is also that those without vaccinations are more likely to catch the virus, have more severe episodes, require hospitalization, and die.
By refusing to vaccinate and take other common-sense measures, they both endanger everyone and make the likelihood of variants more possible.
Like the joke about the man sitting on top of his house because of flooding and crying out to God why God hasn’t saved him.
God’s response: “I sent the first responders, I sent the row boat, I sent the helicopter and still you rejected all of them.”
God has provided man with the intelligence, the ingenuity, and the resources to develop life saving measures like medicines, hospitals, and yes, vaccines to help us live our lives better.
Please respect the gift these vaccines are to humanity. Do your best to avoid infecting others and incubating further variants of the virus.
Please get vaccinated.
Joe Barmess, Pataskala
Kidney donation wonderful, but not ‘simple and pain-free’ process
In response to Neil Raisman’s guest column, “The hate/love relationship with a machine,” a year and a half ago, I went through the kidney donor process to become a non-directed donor (i.e., donating to anyone who needed a kidney – what Raisman is asking us all to consider), though my donation was canceled just a few days prior to surgery due to abnormal labs.
Raisman describes kidney donation as “simple and pain-free,” and it is neither.
In no way do I mean to deter donors as I am obviously a firm believer in donation, but I do not think it is accurate to represent anything about the process or surgery as simple.
One does not simply show up the morning of surgery. Significant testing and commitment are required on the part of the donor as well as time off work for the procedure and recovery.
Even as a very healthy donor, I was required to have many blood draws, 24hour blood pressure testing, 24-hour urine collections, a full-day appointment at the transplant hospital consisting of meetings with doctors, nurses, a social worker and psychologist as well as more labs, x-ray and CT scan. The process took nearly a year. Donating is not without risks to the donor, and donors will have a decrease in their kidney function (blood-filtering capacity) following donation.
I encourage everyone to consider being a living kidney donor, but I don’t agree with misrepresenting the donation process or suggesting people are selfish.
I suggest instead an honest discussion of the need for donors, the process one must go through to donate, and the wonderful chance to save a life.
Kim Mays, Granville