Resistance to information,
vaccines harming everyone
Are we, as a society, trying to kill ourselves off?
Approximately 60% of the populace is vaccine defiant and will not get a shot despite the fact that all the vaccines have proven to be remarkably safe and effective. The Pfizer vaccine now has full FDA authorization. It is only a matter of time until the others are fully approved as well. Over 95% of new covid cases are among the unvaccinated.
These same folks will, ironically, rail against mask requirements and refuse to wear them, despite masks being one of the best ways to prevent the spread of covid, even among the vaccinated. The Delta variant seems to be able to infect the vaccinated, although the breakthrough cases are less severe.
"The government isn't going to take away my freedom. I can make my own choices," say the resistant. Yes, you can, but wearing a mask does not infringe on your freedoms. All the liberties you have with a mask off, you have with a mask on. The one thing that is curtailed is your choice. Your freedom to not wear a mask ends where it impacts the health and safety of others. Dan Douglas, in his Aug. 27 piece, states, "Loving your neighbor as yourself acknowledges the balance of personal freedom with individual responsibility and is only done willingly, not by mandates." When over half the eligible population is not acting responsibly, a mandate becomes necessary to protect everyone else.
I find it especially discouraging that the leaders -- who are supposedly well informed, who should know better and who are in a position to set and implement policy -- are making decisions counterproductive and dangerous, and they do it deliberately. Legislatures and governors in a number of states, including ours, have enacted measures that tie the hands of local governments and schools with regard to implementing mandates that would slow the spread of this deadly virus, in addition to protecting those who cannot be vaccinated. They are assisted in this effort by the likes of Fox and OAN, whose people know that their anti-vax screeds are lies, but broadcast them anyway. Such behavior only encourages vaccine defiance, to the detriment of everyone.
Doctors are part of the problem. Dr. Rob Karas was reported to have been prescribing Ivermectin for inmates at the Washington County jail. Ivermectin is primarily a veterinary drug, but does come in tablet form for limited use in humans. It has not been shown to be effective against covid-19. Yet Karas is allowed to keep treating inmates, even as the Arkansas State Medical Board investigates. Astonishingly, not only does Sheriff Tim Helder waffle on the matter, but Rep. Robin Lundstrum and Sen. Bob Ballinger defend him. This only fuels the dangerous misinformation and ignorance.
Every transmission is an opportunity for a new variant. Eventually one will be resistant to vaccines. It's time to require vaccines, and stop letting the vaccine-defiant hold the rest of us hostage from returning to a normal life, before their defiance kills us all.
Tom Beckett
Siloam Springs