As Americans we have a unique set of freedoms— in speech, worshipping where we please, traveling unrestricted, and the right to assemble. Well, at least we did before a little tiny virus called Covid became both a health and political nightmare.
At the risk of having a riot outside the office, we dare to add our personal perspective on the Covid Pandemic.
I Got Vaccinated… Here’s Why
My wife and got vaccinated the first week we could in an Austin drive-through at a high school football stadium. I got vaccinated for one very good reason— I didn’t want to die of Covid-19. I also did it to protect my wife, my kids, and so my grandchildren could come see us every week.
It would be selfish of me not to protect them.
The other day, I came to the realization that Covid and its variants are a lot like U.S. hurricanes— if you live near a Texas beach, sooner or later your beach house will be torn up by a hurricane. Every 20-30 years, even the most expensive beach-front homes simply disappear in a hurricane. Gone. Nature reclaims it’s territory.
Wave 3 Covid has Arrived
Right now, Austin is in the middle of the third wave of Covid. They even gave it an initial after it’s name. Covid-19 D is the latest incarnation of the deadly virus.
School started here 10 days ago and 411 students and teachers were sent home testing positive for Covid. The private school my granddaughters attended last year shut down the Junior and Senior High Schools completely yesterday. My granddaughter in second grade is home today because a classmate was identified with Covid yesterday.
What the unvaccinated among us don’t seem to realize is how deadly a pandemic can become. The Bubonic Plaque spread across Europe in the 1300s and killed half the population. Great cities, even back then, we’re decimated— London, Paris, Venice, and finally the out of the way villages.
The mortality rate for untreated pneumonic plague is 100 percent; death occurs within 24 hours. The historic death tolls of the bubonic were estimated at 25 million Europeans dead.
Covid Ain’t the Bubonic Plague
Thankfully, Covid is a quite different pandemic. Within a year, science produced a highly effective vaccine. It was quickly distributed and could have controlled the pandemic for Americans.
Here’s where I’ll make 30% of my readers mad— those who refuse to be vaccinated.
Either you will get vaccinated or you will get Covid, eventually
Think about it for a moment. This Covid virus is adapting every week, new strains will form, and sadly they’re likely to be even more deadly. Lost will be the freedom for children to attend school, we’ll fear for our lives going to church, we won’t be able to eat in restaurants, go to football games, or live normal lives.
You can and should expect wave after wave of Covid at least through 2022 the experts said this week. I’ll go on record today predicting our lives will be impacted by Covid for years to come. Half of the U.S. population is not vaccinated, including none of the under 12 kids. The nicest of people who wouldn’t dream of hurting anyone will remain unvaccinated, continue to work, shop, congregate and spread each incarnation of Covid.
If we continue to move about freely unvaccinated, the new version of Covid E, F, and G will eventually create new waves of the pandemic at your local hospital, in your schools, in your neighborhood. Eventually, the unvaccinated will come up against a new form of Covid possibly stronger, faster spreading, and potentially more deadly.
If you are absolutely sure I’m wrong, that you are not at risk, then consider going down to your local hospital emergency room. There you can expose yourself to any of the dozens of Covid patients lining the halls of the Austin emergency rooms. In some areas locally, they’re putting up tents to triage the sick and unvaccinated. It didn’t have to happen this way. Those folks could have been vaccinated and out of harm’s way.
We Will Take Covid Vaccines Years from Now
Every year, we are offered flu shots which vaccinate us from pandemics of decades ago like the the “Pig Flu” or the “Bird Flu” and even the common, but still deadly, influenza. These viruses are long lived.
Eventually, you will get a Covid vaccination or get Covid. It’s that simple. To us, that seems to be the stark reality we face today.
In a land plush with freedoms and choices we seem rife with political craziness on all sides. Yet, we are blessed to have an option to avoid this awful sickness, stay out of the hospital, and to live out our everyday lives in peace and prosperity.
Please get vaccinated.
