[Note: This post was originally published on August 13, 2020. Unfortunately, what we feared then is today’s reality. Only 35% of eligible Arkansans are fully vaccinated. Eleven months ago when I wrote this, the delta variant wasn’t a consideration. Today, the majority of new cases are from the delta variant. There were 1476 new cases yesterday, the most in a single day since February. Just 2.4% of the state’s positive cases since January 18th have been fully vaccinated. Only 1.6% of Covid-related hospitalizations and 0.4% of Covid-related deaths since that same date have been individuals who were fully vaccinated. That means that, by far, the number of positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been people who were either not vaccinated or who have not had their second injection.]
I’ve been quite surprised—and disappointed—to read about how many people there are in the US who say they will not take the vaccine when, and if, it becomes available. I suppose they have all sorts of reasons for it, but, there would have to be a really convincing argument against getting vaccinated to sway my opinion.
If a vaccine becomes available, winning the fight against COVID-19 won’t happen if a significant number of people refuse to be vaccinated. Unfortunately, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists seem to be joining forces with anti-vaccine theorists in a misinformation war against vaccines, with as many as a quarter of the US population threatening to refuse to be vaccinated.
Six common misconceptions about immunization (World Health Organization)
- Diseases had already begun to disappear before vaccines were introduced, because of better hygiene and sanitation.
- The majority of people who get disease have been vaccinated.
- There are “hot lots” of vaccine that have been associated with more adverse events and deaths than others. Parents should find the numbers of these lots and not allow their children to receive vaccines from them.
- Vaccines cause many harmful side effects, illnesses, and even death – not to mention possible long-term effects we don’t even know about.
- Vaccine-preventable diseases have been virtually eliminated from my country, so there is no need for my child to be vaccinated.
- Giving a child multiple vaccinations for different diseases at the same time increases the risk of harmful side effects and can overload the immune system
We plan to get the vaccine as soon as it is available to us.
