34.4 Million confirmed cases, 610,049+ deaths, and seventeen months since the first lockdowns began, we (the United States) are still getting our asses kicked by a vicious little virus called covid-19.
Unlike last year, we aren’t clueless as to what covid is, how it infects people, and how it is dealt with and treated. Six months ago, the covid vaccines became widely available for the general public in the United States, and are still available at most local pharmacies, hospitals, and drive-thru vaccination sites. Unless you have a valid medical reason to not get the covid vaccine (such as, if you are a recent organ transplant recipient or are undergoing chemo-therapy), it is your duty to get vaccinated against covid-19.
Yet, as of now, roughly 100 million Americans have refused to get vaccinated at all, and the number of daily vaccination doses given continues to decline. Also, covid cases are starting to rise again in every single state, and is wreaking absolute havoc in places where the vaccination rate remains very low.
The covid virus is much smarter and much more dangerous than many people think it is. Now that most old and at-risk people have gotten vaccinated, the virus targeting young people and making them much sicker than before. The virus is also much more transmissible, and some variants are even starting to show some resistance to the existing covid vaccines. The current covid shots are still extremely effective at preventing covid infections, and are especially good at keeping people out of the hospital and above ground. But, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous and getting ready for a potential covid variant than can skirt the current vaccines. I’m sure I’m not alone.
To be honest, I saw this shit coming from miles away. I knew that certain people and politicians would make covid a selfish, stupid, “us vs them” issue, rather than something that everyone regardless of religious/political/cultural beliefs, needed to fight against as one united people. But, I also knew I had zero power to prevent it. My pleas to mask up and physically distance from others fell upon deaf ears, at best. At worst, I was made fun of and called a fear-monger and a libtard.
Eventually, I decided that I needed to just handle the covid pandemic the best way I knew how. Essentially, I jumped ship. I told some of my loved ones, as painful as it was, that they were free to pretend covid wasn’t real, but I was going to do what I needed to do to stay healthy and alive. And, seventeen months after the first lockdowns began, I have remained virus-free this entire time, while my unvaccinated, “covid-is-a-hoax” loved ones have all gotten sick with covid more than once, and are still suffering covid-like symptoms months later.
Some of those loved ones have since wisened up, made amends, and have gotten vaccinated. But, the lucky few who managed to fully recover on their own are still stubbornly refusing to get vaccinated. I can only pray that they will be okay, and they won’t fall ill and die begging for a vaccine, like so many others have. Especially as new and more dangerous variants have reared their ugly heads.
Like most other people, I have no idea how we can dispel the rampant misinformation and fear-mongering conspiracy theories, once and for all. Right-wing news outlets continue to hawk lies and false information about covid and the vaccines, even as their voters continue to drop like flies in many places across the USA. But, it’s not just them. A lot of naturopaths, churches, chiropractors, and disgraced medical “doctors” are using the internet to promote their bullshit and spread lies and fear about the pandemic-ending vaccines. It’s all over Youtube and Google. And, I’d imagine it’s all over Facebook and Instagram as well (which is another reason out of many why I vow to never return to those cesspools).
I think the only feasible way we can bring covid to its knees, is to mandate vaccines. As much as I respect Biden and his commitment to diplomacy with his political opponents, I think he’s rather spineless. And, the only way we’re gonna dig out of this shit is if the people in power stop trying to have rational conversations with conspiracy theorists and pseudo-scientists, and mandate vaccines for those who can get them but refuse to. Or, at the very least, make the unvaccinated wear a mask or risk going to jail if they refuse to mask up.
But, again, I don’t see any of that happening. Instead, I predict that this fall and winter is going to be an utter shitshow. Sure, the vast majority of the vaccinated will remain untouched by the virus. If we do get sick, we won’t go to the hospital or die. We’ll just have the sniffles for a week or less. But, the unvaccinated aren’t gonna be so lucky. It breaks my heart. It really does. I’m not sure what can realistically be done. We might just have to let Darwinism do its thing, and hope and pray those who get sick will not succumb to their illness.
There’s so much more I wish to say, but I don’t wanna get so angry that I end up throwing my laptop through the window. So, instead enjoy this picture of two fawns I spotted in my neighbor’s backyard. The neighbor wanted my help to shoo them away from her tomatoes (she was too afraid of mama deer, who was watching nearby, to scare off the little trouble-makers by herself).
35.6 Million confirmed cases, 616,000+ deaths, and still seventeen months from when the first lockdowns were instilled in this country. The pandemic's ramping up again, only this time, people are more fed up with it than ever before. I understand. I am one of those people.
However, I've been doing quite a lot of thinking on this topic when I first began to write this piece roughly two weeks ago. And, I have concluded that no matter how pissed off we get, we cannot forget that the vast majority of the unvaccinated are victims of misinformation being pedaled by a select few in the public eye. Everyone can (and does) fall victim to misinformation at one point or another in their lives, no matter how intelligent or well-educated they are. Benjamin Franklin was one such person. He famously lost his young son to smallpox after he refused the smallpox vaccine for himself and his family all the way back in the 1700s, which got Franklin to become a fervent advocate for medicine and vaccines.
Personally, I have been duped into believing a lot of untrue things regarding medicine throughout middle and high school, thanks to the clever misinformation campaigns of anti-conventional medicine, naturopathic quacks who preyed upon mine and my family's desperation when I was at my sickest. It is now why I am so hostile towards anything or anyone that is even remotely similar to those who tried to cure my Cystic Fibrosis by cracking my back twice a week and filling up my bedroom with the choking scents of lavender and tea tree.
I don't think people who know me or who have learned about the Founding Fathers would call us "idiots" or "enemies of science". Therefore, we shouldn't do the same towards those who are genuinely misinformed and scared of the covid vaccine.
However, much like how I have a tendency to bare my teeth at naturopaths and chiropractors, many of whom are grifters who know damn well what they're pedaling is debunked bullshit that uses the placebo effect to trick people into thinking they're doing something for them. I think it's perfectly okay and necessary to call out the figureheads of misinformation. Rip those greedy bastards a new one, not the poor old farts who don't know how to properly fact-check everything they see and hear online and on air.
But, not just love and compassion will win many people over. Of course, it really helps, but I'm not sure my rugged, rural, "gotta-own-them-communist-libtards" will listen to a progressive city-dweller who thinks guns are scary and likes eating avocado toast for breakfast. Ok, I know I'm going into stereotypical, superficial territory. But, I think most readers know what I mean.
A lot of covid vaccine haters are very entrenched in rugged, conservative individualism. In some ways, their stance is very understandable. Personally, I would love nothing more than to live alone in the wilderness with my Xterra and dogs, and go hunting every fall and spring. However, rugged individualism is far from a good answer to every issue. Including and especially highly contagious global pandemics.
What I'm trying to get at here, is that those of us who, at least on the outside, are very tough and outdoorsy, will probably have much better luck at convincing people to take the pandemic seriously and get their shots than those who resemble a stereotypical progressive, vegan hippie or an arrogant, pointy-headed professor. I'm not at all saying yoga-loving city slickers and academics should keep their mouths shut. Everyone needs to combat the rampant misinformation and coax people into taking the pandemic seriously.
But, I think when it comes to talking covid shit with the weary (especially with those who lean more to the right politically), the more we have in common, the better the chances that those mountain-man types will get their covid vaccines and start wearing masks. We don't have to politically agree (personally, I definitely lean much more left than right on most political issues). But, if you can confidently handle a firearm, cook delicious meals over a campfire in the middle of nowhere, and drive a gas-guzzling 4X4, chances are, the "covid-only-kills-the-weak" types will change their minds, at least one one or two things.
Either that, or people will start to get vaccinated when they are personally threatened by covid. While cases in the South continue to break record daily highs, and hospitals fill up with covid patients, so have the vaccination rates. Sadly, now that people are suffering from covid tragedies first-hand for the first time, only now are they getting their first doses of the covid vaccine. I wish people hadn't waited till after they personally suffered from the virus to finally get the vaccine, and the vast majority of those people would agree.
I have seen several heartbreaking videos online, where people who originally believed the misinformation have used their dying breaths to express their regrets and beg their uninfected loved ones to get the vaccine before it was too late. Those videos are what have rejuvenated my ability to empathize with the covid skeptical, and have once again gotten me willing to reach out and talk to those I know who think covid is nothing serious.
As easy as it is to look at the sick and think, "You did this to yourself, you fucking dumbasses", it's not the productive or right thing to do. Instead, we (the vaccinated) have to fight misinformation and fear with facts and compassion. This pandemic will not end for anyone until everyone gets their shit together, gets vaccinated, and stops being an asshole towards the misled and the terrified.