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.