I’m going to climb on my soap box to thank those of you who are either fully vaccinated against COVID or who are in the process of becoming so.  The only chance we have of putting this virus behind us is to reduce the population of non-immune, so that the possibility of new variants is limited.  Hopefully, we can accomplish this by increasing the immune population through vaccination rather than decreasing the non-immune population through COVID related deaths. 

The vaccine is safe. Yes, there have been reports of serious events and even death among people who were vaccinated.  However, these events are approximately equal to their occurrence in the general population and with very few exceptions the vaccination could not be attributed to their death.  Additionally, risk factors for adverse reactions, which can happen with any medication, have been identified and those people likely to have a reaction are not being vaccinated until further studies can be done. 

  The number going around on the internet is that 14,000 people died from the COVID vaccination.  This is a blatant misstatement of the facts.  Fourteen thousand people who had been vaccinated died during the study period.  After careful review of each case, it was determined that the vast majority of deaths were attributed to other causes and for many of the others a proximal cause of death could not be identified.  This is out of the more than six million who had been vaccinated at the time the number was first reported.   

The bottom line is this:  there have been over 800,000 COVID deaths in the US and over 5,000,000 deaths worldwide.  This disease will continue its rampage until everyone does their part to stop the spread. 

I find the argument about personal freedom to be disingenuous.  We all give up some degree of personal freedom to live in a civil society.  We get a drivers license. We stop at red lights.  We don’t steal.  We don’t go shopping in our underwear (except possibly at Walmart, but that’s a topic for another day).  

I have to ask, “Do you consider your concept of personal freedom so important that you are willing to put the lives of others at risk?”  If you do, then this is not about freedom, it’s about selfishness.   

This is more important than politics.  This is life and death.  Please, get vaccinated.