Anti-vaxxers need dose of reality

At a hospital in the last week, this author saw a father running to the emergency room with a limp child slung over his shoulder, the mother barely able to keep pace because she was sobbing so hard. It was COVID-19, just one of many cases that day.

But it’s just an overblown flu, affecting only the old and obese, yes?

A conservative talk-radio host, who had railed against coronavirus vaccines and the CDC, just succumbed to COVID. Another, who also downplayed the virus and was openly skeptical about COVID vaccines, is clinging to life on a ventilator.

But it’s just a hoax, right? And anti-vax politicians who voiced intense doubt about both virus and vaccine continue to drop, adding to C-19’s death toll.

But it’s all just a ploy by government and Big Tech to control your life, correct?

The stubbornness of many anti-vaxxers is only surpassed by their ignorance, as their arguments have reached the point of absolute absurdity. The $64,000 question is, “What will it take for these people to come to their senses?”

Some will question even writing this column, assuming the anti-vaxxers are so adamant in their beliefs that they won’t change. Not true. Many who oppose vaccines based on political ideology or scientific misinformation lack true conviction, and they most certainly can be reached.

If people choose not to get vaccinated based on unknown longterm effects, vaccine ingredients, or the “Warp Speed” in bringing these medications to market, that’s one thing. These are reasonable positions, and therefore, these people can be reached. But foregoing vaccinations (and demonizing those who get the shot) because a politician or radio host told them the pandemic is fake, or they think Bill Gates put nanobots in each dose, or that the jab is the Biblical “mark of the beast,” is the height of delusion.

Here’s a newsflash for antivaxxers: You can take all the Vitamin D, zinc, colloidal silver and snake oil you want, but none will protect you against increasingly virulent strains of C-19. That’s medical fact.

While we’re at it, let’s clear up some other myths that anti-vaxxers grab off internet and post on social media as “fact,” which of course generate “likes” from the echo-chamber peanut gallery and comments such as, “Wow! It must be true!”

Immunity derived from having had COVID (via antibodies) is not as strong as the protection derived from vaccines, nor does it last as long. Further, the amount of immunity a person receives from being infected is directly correlated to the severity of disease in one’s particular case. Those who had mild or asymptomatic infections of the original variant have a substantially lower threshold of protection against re-infection, especially regarding the delta strain. So the unvaccinated face a triple whammy: lower protection, shorter immunity periods, and new variants all combine to place them at high-risk.

The truth is, short of the virus burning itself out quickly (highly unlikely), the only way we’re going to rid ourselves of COVID is by following a threestep plan: vaccines, vaccines, and vaccines.

Here’s the thing. The longer a virus moves among an unvaccinated population, the more chances it has to mutate, often into more contagious and deadly strains, which is exactly what COVID did. After a majority of older Americans became vaccinated and successfully thwarted the virus, C-19 mutated to more efficiently infect children and younger adults.

The result? Tennessee’s Department of Health stated that it expects every single bed, in every children’s hospital statewide, to be filled by next week. And Florida has the highest number of children hospitalized from COVID of any state in the country. Yet in both states, pols trying to be Trump-lite have eviscerated virtual learning and mask mandates in schools. If these potentially deadly policies aren’t a ringing endorsement for vouchers and school choice, nothing is.

And how heartbreaking when children must battle COVID alone because both unvaccinated parents are in other hospitals fighting for their lives.

The delta strain changed the game regarding transmissibility, as vaccinated people can also spread COVID. But that’s the life cycle of a virus, so deal with it either by getting vaccinated, or being shut out of society. There is no third option. (And as the vaccines gain full FDA approval, watch for countless more businesses to issue vaccine mandates.)

What’s the “solution” for the deniers? To “de-vaccinate” people so that no one’s protected? We already lived through that. It was called 2020, and millions died. Case closed.

So get with the program. Get vaccinated. Or, in the words of the president, get out of the way.

And there’s no masking that.