Not vaccinating has far-reaching effects

Fox News and other media outlets continue to push the false narrative that vaccination is a purely personal choice that does not affect others and the idea that COVID-19 is no worse than the normal flu.

Yes, percentage-wise the risk of serious consequences for any individual person is very low. Indeed most of the transmission happens via completely asymptomatic people. However, by choosing to be part of the chain of infection transmission, an unvaccinated person is quite likely to cause the death of somebody albeit maybe five or six disease transmission cycles removed from their own infection.

As long as a significant percentage of people remain unvaccinated, the virus will continue to circulate. A conservative value would certainly be to “defend America.” It is puzzling why this doesn’t translate into “defend your community.” Deciding to remain unvaccinated affects a much larger group than “me, myself and I.”

— Marshall Thomas

Santa Clara