COVID-19 Vaccine

[InbetweenDreams]

The problem in my opinion is millions of Americans are suffering from a severe case of cognitive dissonance. 

This is not a new phenomenon but it is now a critical condition. 

In other words - too often the same people who complain the most about something are EXACTLY the cause of the conditions they complain about.

Education (and a conscience) are the cure - time will tell.

I think you're correct with a few exceptions.

The county I live in has a ~39% vaccination rate for the first and second dose, meaning the people who wanted the vaccine have pretty much got it, that is considerably lower than the ~70% national vaccination rate. Oddly enough the percentage that is vaccinated is also about the same along party lines, I'll let you guess how the county votes. So why does it appear that the choice to get vaccinated falls along party lines concerning an issue that isn't (or shouldn't be) political?

While it might not be correct to generalize things but it seems that the right-wing media is partially to blame. But probably not the biggest problem.

I think those who have got the vaccine are putting it off for no reason other than they just won't go get it, maybe it's procrastination, maybe they're lazy, maybe they're working on the time or for whatever reason think they don't need it. Whatever the case is, you got those folks.

Then you got your classic anti-vaxxers...

Then you have your variety of people who believe in conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine like it's full of microchips or that they want to come door to door to take your guns.

I have heard a several arguments about why people won't take the vaccine. Claims that it's their body, their choice and sure, it is --but I have also heard that saying somewhere else, I wonder where that could be? I have also heard that they won't take an experimental vaccine, that it hasn't been researched and the long-term effects of such a vaccine are unknown. The other thing that people don't take into account is that, it's not just about you.

This is where I call into question about whether people going by their lizard brain or not. First, the development of mRNA vaccines is nothing new and have been in use for decades. The idea that the effects of taking the vaccine would be of more risk than contracting COVID is unfounded and misguided (I'm trying to be polite here).

I also heard the argument that you can still get COVID even if you did get the vaccine. That is true, you can and it is much more likely that you'll have a mild case. In North Carolina, the NCDHHS press release presented data that shows the unvaccinated are 15 times more likely to die from COVID.

Recently, in one of the neighboring counties I live nearby posted about the surge of COVID-19 patients. This county has about 23k residents and the hospital also serves neighboring counties. They have 5 ICU beds, 45 inpatient beds. They currently have 8 people in ICU, so they're short there. Of the 64 inpatients, 46 are COVID cases. Of the 46 COVID patients, 3 were vaccinated, the rest aren't. So what can we say here? Well, I hope no one needs to go to the hospital anytime soon. Ambulances are already waiting outside ER's for hours because the hospitals have nowhere to put people. So again, it's not all about you and it isn't just about COVID anymore.

That being said, vaccine hesitancy isn't new. Hell, a screw up in the polio vaccine resulted in 200,00 children receiving a vaccine that had *live* polio viruses which resulted in some 200 children paralyzed and killing 10. There's of course the issue with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine where blood clotting in 6 people and 1 death occurred. So yes, there are risks involved, but they pale in comparison to the risk imposed of not being vaccinated.

To put it all in perspective, COVID isn;t polio, it isn't targeting children, it is targeting the elderly and those with medical conditions.

The 1952 Polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in
the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died
and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of the victims being
children.

Since COVID started last year over 642,000 people in the US have died, many people who recover from COVID face damage to organs such as the heart, lungs and even the brain. This is not the flu.

Finally, if you're still in doubt, go visit your local hospital and see it for yourself. You can ignore all the information, science, data and so on. You can bury your head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening. However, I think someone has to be pretty sick at this point to allow more people to needlessly die when they can do something about it.