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| Hospitalized COVID patient (NIH) |
Obviously I don’t really mean that. Some people just can’t help being stupid. They don’t deserve to die for that.
To say that those who refuse to be vaccinated are stupid is an understatement. Unless there is a solid medical reason not to get vaccinated - like there a serious allergy to vaccines or an underlying condition making vaccines dangerous to that person - there is no excuse for not doing it. I cannot understand the logic of even the vaccine hesitant. They say the vaccine is unproven and could be dangerous in the long term. Because it hasn’t been out long enough to be tested for its long term effects which is proven by the fact that FDA approval is only for emergency use.
That is true. What is also true is the fact that the vast majority of hospitalizations and death from COVID these days are people that have NOT been vaccinated. I believe the percentage is 99.5%! And the percentage of those who are vaccinated and yet got infected with COVID and died - is infinitesimally small.
Those areas of the country where vaccination rates are low, COVID hospitalizations are up sharply – spiking in some cases to pre vaccine levels. Almost all such patients are unvaccinated! On the other hand I don’t think there is a single vaccinated person that has has been hospitalized because of the vaccine. Even if there are the numbers are so low that there is probably not statistically significant. And should be measured against the huge numbers of unvaccinated that are seriously ill, hospitalized, and in some cases dying!
The numbers of people that have been vaccinated are in the hundreds of millions - in this country alone. Among them the people who developed and studied the data from the vaccine’s clinical trials. If the vaccine hesitant and antivaxers are right, why aren’t these highly educated medical professionals hesitant as well? Why have they all taken the shot? Could it be because they are not as stupid as the vaccine hesitant and antivaxxers? I think that may very well be the case.
One might ask if the vaccinated are protected from getting COVID, why get all exercised over it? The answer is the following. Although the vaccine generally protects against getting the virus, there are breakthroughs. Meaning some vaccinated people get COVID anyway. But those that do are either asymptomatic or at worst suffer mild symptoms. None are hospitalized - let alone die.
Here is the important part. The Delta variant is not only more contagious and more dangerous; it is currently the most dominant strain of the COVID virus. Meaning that people get sicker form tDelta than they did from the original COVID virus – unless they are vaccinated.
However, even though the vaccinated don’t get sick - or as sick, they can still contract and spread the virus to others. Including – you guessed it – their unvaccinated friends, neighbors, and family members. Furthermore, if you live in an area with a low vaccination rate – well do the math.
It should also be noted that most of the currently hospitalized patients now say they regret not taking the vaccine. Those fools that still feel that way despite being so sick from COVID that they are hospitalized… well as a wise man once said (quoting his mother) ‘Stupid is as stupid does’.
But even so, why should I worry if I am vaccinated? That answer to that is pretty simple too. Viruses mutate. In most cases becoming less contagious and harmful. But some mutations make them more contagious and harmful. Allowing them to spread more widely and increasing the chance of mutating more rapidly and becoming even more deadly. That is what happened with the Delta virus. Which as noted is the dominant virus in this country. The greater the numbers - the greater the chance of a mutation. And the chance that the vaccine will NOT be able to protect against it.
So you anti vax and vaccine hesitant people are not only selfish and foolish - you are also being more dangerous. Selfish and foolish because the chances of getting really sick and dying from COVID are exponentially higher than getting really sick and dying from the vaccine. Dangerous because you put everyone at risk.
And another thing. The social media platforms are not helping. They are facilitating the spread of misinformation. And conservative media personalities are encouraging antivaxxers and the vaccine hesitant to stand their ground as a matter of the personal freedom guaranteed by the constitution. Even some mainstream conservatives oppose the common sense mitigation efforts recommended by the most respected medical experts in the country for that reason.
That attitude encourages their constituents not to get vaccinated. How stupid can these politicians be?! Even if they are right about their personal freedom argument, they ought not be using to encourage the antivaxxers and the vaccine hesitant. They ought to instead be encouraging them to GET VACCINATED! ...and emphasize the fact that they got vaccinated themselves!
Exacerbating the problem are some of the conservative political commentators that double down on the antivax rhetoric.
I am just plain tired of this nonsense. If this sounds extreme, so be it. I do not mean to insult anyone by calling them stupid. But this is a wake up call that requires extreme measures. The consequences of not waking people up are dire. We all need to get vaccinated against COVID so that we can reach herd immunity and get rid of this disease the way we did with other diseases. Like polio and smallpox.
Why are so many people being stupid about this?!
This message will very likely land mostly on deaf ears. Anti vaxxers do not want to be confused with cold hard facts. They would rather believe all the conspiracy theorists that cite bad or outmoded data to make their case The vaccine hesitant are apparently just as gullible and buy into some of those theories too.
I don’t know. Maybe I just wasted my time. But at least I got it off my chest.