I’ve had enough. I’m over it. We did what we could. Never before has a pandemic pathogen met its match so quickly. In America, the first shelter in place was in San Francisco on March 16th, 2020 and the first vaccination shot occurred on December 14th, 2020. Within the same year, actually within 9 months. Unprecedented.
The speed of vaccination development and rollout is also its greatest drawback. Distrust in the “newness” of the vaccine. But it wasn’t new. Research and development of mRNA vaccines have been in the works for the last 30 years.
Now a year and half into the pandemic, I’m done with the fear. We’ve incorporated social distancing, hand washing, testing, mask wearing and vaccination into our daily lives. Some of us have natural immunity through previous infection. Overall, we’ve been as responsible or irresponsible as we could be. Sure we could benefit from more Americans with immunity through either infection or vaccination. But with vaccine hesitancy – stupidity masked as self-determination and self-righteousness – apparently this is as good as it gets. Time to move on and live with it.
How pandemics end
There are two ways pandemics end: 1) Immunity through vaccination or infection and 2) apathy. I got vaccinated. Now I’ve reached the point of apathy. What else can we do? If there’s another surge, are our health departments going to shut down businesses again? Will the public really tolerate that? In my opinion, they won’t.
I don’t believe I’m the only one that feels this way. We’ve restricted our movements, our children’s education, our commerce and our relationships. At some point we have to collectively realize that we’ve done what we can to mitigate the risks of the pandemic and move on with our lives.
Just get the vaccine
If you’re not vaccinated, just do it. There’s enough data to prove the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines. In fact, the vaccines that you and your children willingly accept, like polio and the flu vaccine, weren’t tested on nearly as many people as have undergone testing with the COVID vaccine prior to FDA approval.
Feel like it hasn’t been around long enough or worried about the new technology associated with an mRNA vaccine? Until you know what m-R-N-A stands for, your opinion regarding virology, vaccinology and epidemiology may not be relevant. Don’t trust researchers and doctors who developed the vaccine but trust them enough when you’re sick as hell and seeking treatment at the hospital? Why the trust after sickness but not before?
The pandemic is over
From an epidemiological perspective, the pandemic may not be over. There will be more surges, more infections, more death. I hope I’m not one of those. I hope you and your family members are not in that number. Avoid high risk situations and get the vaccine. Other than that, apathy is what will ultimately end this pandemic.
