I just had to cancel my annual MEATFEASTRAVAGANZA.
With the rising case rate driven by the Delta variant, simply put, it would be irresponsible of me to get 50+ of my favorite people together.
I’m not Lord Farquaad.
Here’s to hopin’ for next year.
If you, or anyone you love, are vaccine-hesitant, I understand.
My first position on the matter, back in the early days of lockdown, was “I’m not so sure about fast-tracked vaccines. I don’t think I’ll be lining up first…”.
Colorado released the vaccine to the General Population on a Friday. We drove to Colorado Springs to get our shots that Monday.
What changed my mind? For me, it was a combination of personal protection and doing my part to protect public health. I knew it may not be perfect and without risk, but what in life is without risk?
Every statement in the following is factually accurate and I am happy to provide cited sources:
“I want to wait and see, to make sure the vaccine is safe.”
It makes sense to be cautious, but how long do you plan to wait? More than one hundred million Americans have received the vaccine and proven that the risk of a serious side effect is about one one-thousandth of one percent. But 2.3 percent of people who get Covid-19 die from it. That’s 1 person out of every fifty. Statistically, the vaccine is 2 thousand, 3 hundred times safer than the disease. You’ve waited long enough. It’s time to get the vaccine.
“What about the long-term effects?”
Negative side-effects from vaccines usually happen immediately and long-term effects show up within two months. Furthermore, the technologies that were used to create the Covid-19 vaccine have been safely used in other treatments since 2003. More than one hundred million Americans have received the Covid-19 vaccine and proven that the risk of a serious side effect is about one one-thousandth of one percent. Even if you survive Covid-19, the disease has long-term side effects. The vaccine does not.
“I think the vaccine approval was rushed.”
When thousands of people are dying daily from a highly contagious disease, medical researchers do become intensely focused and highly motivated. But the technologies they used to create the Covid-19 vaccine have been safely used in other treatments since 2003. The risk of a serious side effect from the vaccine is about one one-thousandth of one percent. But 2.3 percent of people who get Covid-19 die from it. That’s 1 person out of every fifty. You don’t want the disease. You want the vaccine.
These three messages courtesy of Roy H. Williams.
Personal Freedom: Finally, for any of you, my favorite people, who are focused on the infringement of personal freedoms; I think it would be a poor choice to choose this hill to die on. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote the following in the decision to allow states to require measles vaccinations:
“The Constitution does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. A community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic and may, at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand.”
The Court ruled that the state may regulate or curtail an individual’s freedom, even though it is guaranteed within the Constitution, in the context of preventing the spread of disease during an epidemic. (Jacobson v. Massachusetts 7-2 majority opinion)
Plus, I don’t want you to die.
To all: We are fighting an insidious invisible enemy. We all want to be free of this, past it. Help us get there.
</soapbox>
(non-nerd translation: End Soapbox.)
-Gordon