By Marc W. Polite
The coronavirus pandemic rages on, continuing to exact a heavy toll on the United States especially. At any time in the next few days, the official death toll will hit 300,000. For the past few days, 3,000+ people have lost their lives to this plague. The vaccine rollout has begun, and the first American to receive the Covid-19 vaccination is a nurse in New York City. At a moment that should be hailed as the beginning of the end of this long nightmare, we have some extremely loud voices preaching against this development. Posing no viable alternative, detractors have already begun circulating anti-vaxxer messages, memes, and questioning the awareness of anyone who says that they want to accept the shot.
At a time when there is a glimmer of hope in this dim situation, you have some who would cast aspersions, and make some suspicious of the vaccine with no basis. When pressed about it, what we are hearing is regurgitated talking points about the connection between vaccines and autism- which has already been debunked. We need to be careful about who we listen to at this point. This is not the time to get amnesia. Some of these same outlets and personalities who are vigorously opposed to the coronavirus vaccine were also really loud about an alleged connection between 5G and coronavirus back in the Spring. That was shown to be baseless. Many of these personalities also noted a supposed risk of depleted oxygen intake from people wearing face masks. That was also debunked. There is a possibility that this disinformation led to the demise of some people in the Spring and summer of this year. In a life or death situation, it is vital to remember who got this wrong and to not give future credence to what it said unless their methodology changes. This is why it is important to safeguard against the disinformation around what is the only viable solution to this pandemic. It is already bad enough that the federal government and the states aren’t taking the necessary steps to control the spread. When we hear claims about the vaccine altering human DNA, and being a way to “chip” people, there needs to be a serious inquiry on those who are making such statements. With the facts as they are in front of us, I will go so far as to say that not only is spreading these unfounded claims irresponsible, but it is also aggressively obtuse. In short, don’t let those dubious, loud voices speaking against the coronavirus vaccine get you killed.
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