For greater good, will you or won’t you?

To get or not to get, that is the question.

We’ve reached a tipping point in COVID-19 vaccinations and frankly it isn’t looking very good. Too many people are opting not to get vaccinated, which is their right. Along with that, however, comes the potential consequences. Some will argue that there are potential consequences of taking the vaccine, but that remains to be seen. Last week, three of us in the newsroom received our second dose and another recently received the first. The rest are already fully vaccinated.

Initially I was skeptical of the vaccine. I was determined I wasn’t going to take it until this summer at the earliest so I could see how others reacted to it first. Then I started to see how many of my friends on social media excitedly posted photos and information about getting their first and then second shots and with that my opinion softened. Then my parents, in-laws, and two of my children got vaccinated. At that point, I felt that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

To be sure, there has been plenty of joking around about growing a third eye, extra limbs, a tail, green skin, webbed fingers and toes, and having been microchipped with a secret government tracker. Come on, if the government wants to track me, all they need to do is tag my hairy green tail. I’m not worried, I have enough extra eyes to see them coming a mile away. And now in my defense, I can throw more punches than any two-armed secret government agent any day!

All joking aside, I’ve come to the conclusion that getting the vaccine — even if it’s experimental — is better than taking a risk getting COVD-19. Yes, I know all the anti-vax/ anti-mask rhetoric about the 98% survival rate and how most people who get it have few if any symptoms. But I also know there are 49,000 people in Texas — and 50 here in Gillespie County — who had hopes, plans, dreams and expectations that are now unfulfilled after they succumbed to COVID-19.

At this moment, I have a friend who has been hospitalized out of state and away from his family for more than a month with the virus. He has been in and out of a drug-induced coma, on and off a ventilator, and at last report had a tracheotomy for a breathing tube and had a feeding tube installed. He’s fighting for his life daily and it’s rough on him and his family.

All I have to do is think of these people to realize that getting vaccinated is a small sacrifice and smaller risk to do my part to help move us beyond this COVID mess.

Am I taking a risk by getting the vaccine? Yes, but I take bigger risks getting behind the wheel of a car each day. In my opinion, not getting the vaccine is riskier.

I know there is a lot of talk about herd immunity, but we’ll never get there as long as there are so many holdouts from the vaccines. In Gillespie County, just over a third of the population has started the vaccination process. The response has been so low lately that the vaccination site is reducing hours and is planning to stop administering the first shot on May 6 and the second on June 3.

That will leave a sizeable portion of our population unvaccinated and vulnerable. The only logical conclusion is that the number of COVID-19 cases in our area will start to rise again, especially as people ditch their masks and seek a return to normalcy by ignoring all the safety protocols that we’ve been using the last year.

We all want to return to the way things were before the pandemic. Nobody wants to wear a face covering. Most everyone wants to meet in groups, attend large events, shake hands and hug. After a year apart, we’ve been afforded the opportunity to do that, yet two-thirds of the local population is refusing to do anything about it.

I fully understand and appreciate the perspective of not trusting the vaccines because they’ve been rushed and not fully tested. I understand that by taking the vaccine that I am part of the trials. I also appreciate the perspective that the government has no business telling me as a private citizen that I have to wear a mask or what I can and cannot do. I get that.

I just prefer to be a part of the solution by following the best advice available from the most knowledgeable sources. I’d rather err on the side of trying to help others than to stubbornly be part of the problem.

The question remains, am I just another lemming heading over the vaccination cliff or am I part of the solution to this pandemic nightmare?

The bigger question is which will you choose to be? The government cannot and will not make anyone take the vaccine. That remains an individual choice, as it should be.

So we’re back to this: To get or not to get, that is the question. I made my choice. What will you do?

 

joe@fredericksburgstandard.com