My family started the New Year by all getting covid-19. The Omicron variant is so contagious that even wearing masks at home, we still all got it from each other. I was fully vaccinated and boosted as was my wife. My daughter, who tests people for Covid-19 as part of her medical position, got if first. Being vaccinated, she had just a mild case. All my grandsons, my other daughter and her husband, all got it too. Symptoms ranged from mild cold symptoms to fever, night sweats and very, very sore throats. But none of us had serious illness or had to be hospitalized. We are just glad that we were all vaccinated except for our two grandchildren 2 1⁄2 and 6 months old.
I know some people will read this and say, “see they were vaccinated and still got it, so why get vaccinated at all?” These people are missing the big point. None of us were hospitalized or died because we did get our vaccinations and boosters. We were able to fight it off at home like a bad cold or mild flu. My biggest gripe with the anti-vaxers is what do you believe? I understand the feeling of mistrusting the government because at times it seems they don’t do such a great job for us. But like any giant company or organization, the US government has so many moving parts that often the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. But to think for some reason our government is conspiring to control us with vaccines is simply ridiculous.
Public health and safety should be the concern of all fair-minded citizens and not a political football. And there is a large group of citizens who won’t listen or do what the health officials tell us because they are convinced there is a conspiracy brewing. The only conspiracy I can see is the one that has been dreamed up in the heads of the anti-vaxers, politically motivated and the anti-science folk. I also find many of these people just to be simply anti-authority, who just don’t like being told what to do, period, by anyone. I am sure these were the same people who didn’t want to wear seat belts or stop smoking in public places. But those public health issues were heavily debated, and laws passed to protect the public at large.
I believe in medicine and science. Heck, I am still alive because medicine and science has come so far in the past 50 years. I am also a spiritual person who believes faith plays an important role in our lives. Faith is after all, the belief in something that is felt rather than proved. Religion is based on faith, but so is the trust of those who study medicine and science. Theories are the building blocks of science. Then comes research, tests and trials that lead to facts, findings, recommendations and procedures. It is important for us to understand that science and medicine evolve as new information becomes available and more studies are done. That doesn’t mean that the facts that came first were totally wrong, it simply means that the new facts are better and updated. Life is not stagnant. Our lives are fluid, moving and changing. Nothing proves that to us more than this confrontation with covid-19. Masks, no masks, one shot, two shots, three shots, shut down, open up, shut down, open up. It has been disheartening and we all suffer from Covid fatigue. But our resolve must be stronger than our retreat. Viruses have been with us for a long time, and they will be with us for a long time to come. Without science and medicine, we are left naked in a blizzard of illness and disease. I believe that science, medicine and faith are all needed to weather the storm.
I won’t turn my back on what can help me, my family and my community. I want to do whatever I can for the common good, because we ARE the community. We ARE the people who form the government. We ARE our own protectors, and it is time to take our responsibilities seriously. “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Then and only then, can we get this pandemic under control. It takes faith, science and medicine working together to create a safer world for all of us. When a neighbor’s barn burns down, everyone in the community joins together in a barn raising. This virus is burning us down and it will take everyone to help raise up our communities and our lives. The path to freedom is unity. “Divided we fall.”
JB Lester; Publisher