For the last couple of years almost, I've spent a lot of my travel time and leisure time outside and away from crowds. Not that I mind, I've always spent a lot of my travel time in the wilderness. Haven't we all been spending time in the wild these days? We call it Covid-19. I haven't said much about said pandemic, because I hate to be volatile in my blogs, but there's been a couple of developments that I've been reading about in the news that really set me off. Let me begin by saying that I do not watch news reels or news on television. There is no real news there, only sensationalism, drama, and opinion. Print is much less skewed.
I work with otherwise abled people, and my company has been extremely careful during the pandemic. Did it help? Some. The biggest problem that they had was that people didn't follow the mandates, rules and guidelines. There were outbreaks within my company because selfish people didn't follow the safety rules regarding the pandemic, went out and participated in crowds and other such things and brought it into where we work and where our people live.
I've watched for over a year, nearly two, as people didn't believe it was real, didn't believe it was a pandemic, didn't believe that people would really die, and didn't believe it would happen to them. I've seen a lot of those people die. Food for thought.
I've heard all the arguments for and against getting a vaccine. I heard about the supposed benefits of a regimen of hydroxychloroquine. But now, I now hear that people are taking Ivermectin instead of a fully approved vaccine. Really? I read that one patient drank fluid that was made as an injection for an animal. I hear that hospitalizations are through the roof in some areas because people are taking doses meant for a horse. Do you not realize, people, that a dose of anything designed for a horse is designed for an animal that weighs upwards of a ton? 2,000 pounds. Think about this. There is a reason that baby aspirin is far less potent than regular. Babies are smaller than adults. Size is relevant. Species is relevant. What are you thinking?
If your doctor is prescribing this med and advocating it instead of a fully approved vaccine, maybe you should get a second opinion.
Will the recommended course of vaccine make you sterile in the distant future? Will your muscles disintegrate in the next 5 years? Will your periods become so awful that you can't stand it? I've heard all of these questions and concerns. You know what? We don't know. The vaccine hasn't been around for 5 years yet. There is some risk, but will it keep you from dying? Statistics say yes.
I hear that pregnant women don't want to get the vaccine, so get it after you have the baby. Adjust. The vaccine has been around a while now. Just get it post baby. Stop making excuses! If you've already had your child, your exposure could be endangering your child. This is serious business, and it will never stop if we don't take action.
Here's the thing. I used to boss around a bunch of college kids that worked for my swimming pool as lifeguards. During their January terms, they liked to go on trips with the school. A lot of them went to central and South American countries to clean teeth or whatever. These students had to get Cholera shots. This was a vaccine regimen. This was a 3 shot series. Sound familiar? This was a vaccine series that you only had to get if the country you were visiting required it because of the sanitary conditions there. You do not ever have to have this vaccine series in this country. These kids got the shot voluntarily to go on a trip. The shots made them sick. I mean puking, fever, aches, pains, nausea, and other bad things. The side effects lasted almost until the next shot. The shots came two weeks apart. The kids were basically sick for six weeks in order to go on vacation.
It was voluntary. They didn't worry about being infertile, having bad periods, muscle degeneration. They never even asked.
When did it all get so crazy? Everyone is fighting over the greater good. Do you have kids, grandkids? Are they too young for a vaccine? Do you go out to work every day and come home with the potential of giving those kids this virus? Everything we do effects others. That used to mean something. I've done more things that I will ever be able to count for others. I have no regrets.
As a traveler, I've been close to home for way too long, but the world is crazy right now. I still travel, but differently. Why is it a war? My kid had every vaccine available to him in his lifetime, and he's a very healthy man now. Why did I have my kid shot up with all those vaccines? Because I had all those diseases as a child. I wish I'd had vaccines. I didn't want him to have a childhood filled with mumps, measles, chicken pox, and whatever. I had something called The 5th Disease when I was six. Covid-19 is frankly no different. The process used to make a vaccine was no different, albeit they were in a bit of a hurry. All shots have side effects. This vaccine had mild ones for most of us. I slept for a day after my second shot. But, the process is the same. Take a shot with some mild side effects rather than potentially die of the disease.
Vaccines have been around for over 100 years. Millions of people get flu shots every year, and they are only marginally effective, because they are a prediction. Aren't you all saying that Covid-19 is just a flu? Then, get a flu shot. It's called a Covid-19 Vaccine.
Watch the United States as it becomes a poster child for what not to do during a pandemic. Vermont is the only sufficiently vaccinated state in the country. Guess what? They have the lowest positivity rate. Almost half the states are at less that 50% vaccinated. Several of those states are in the news as hot spots. It's logic. It's math.
I now make my travel plans based on the Covid-19 statistics. That's right. If you're a hot spot, I'm going elsewhere. No tourism money for you. I still haven't flown, taken a train, been out in a crowd. Not because I'm unvaccinated. I was one of the first in line and will be getting my booster soon. I don't go to crowded places because of unvaccinated people.
It seems to me that being frightened because of what you've heard online is a poor excuse for not protecting yourself against a plague. I've heard lots of people who don't want to believe what the CDC is saying. Wise up people. The CDC is run by doctors. Social media is not. Choose wisely where you get your information. If the Mayo Clinic and John's Hopkins aren't saying it, it probably isn't real.
Like many travelers, I want things to get better so I can comfortably go out into the world again, go to events, fly on a crowded plane. There are several countries that are at a higher vaccination level than we are. That's embarrassing. We like to be cutting edge, but we are too scared to buck up and get a fully approved vaccine. We will never get on with it, if we don't do what is right for us, our families, our children, our elderly, and our society as a whole.
I've heard a lot about rights too. Just one thing to say about that. My dad used to say that you do have the right to make your own decisions and do what you want...until it effects someone else. I'm someone else, so think about that. Your kids are someone else, so think about that. How selfish are you, and are you willing to die or kill someone you love for your selfishness?
Every week it seems that there is a new variant. These variants will never stop if we don't fight back with vaccinations. The only other way is to let it run its course and kill a lot of people. Do you want to end up on that list? Do you want to be one of these people that thought it was a hoax and died? Do you want to be killed by something called Mu? Do you want to be one of these people that end up in ICU and then ask for the vaccine?
The rate of people who for medical reasons cannot take the vaccine is small, and in no way will hurt the idea of herd immunity if all the rest of us take part. It will protect the few who cannot have the vaccine, the kids who are too young, and all of us.
What can I say? When we go to war, we're in it together. When we need to take action as a nation, we work together. When we are attack by a foreign entity, we work together. This is a foreign entity, this is a war, this is something that we need to take action about. It's time we quit fighting and work together. This is how Small Pox, Polio, and Tuberculosis were all but eradicated. Think about the future. Think about the world in a few years. Think about all the reasons that you don't want to get a shot, and then think about all the reasons why you should. Think about the kids and the world that they're going to have to live in if this doesn't end. The only way to end it is to work together. The future is ours and our children's. Make it a safer place for them.
Please be aware that my opinions are based in fact, but nonetheless are my opinions.
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