Red State Anti-Vaccine Mantra: Just Say No

 

Thousands of people are reporting very serious life changing vaccine side effects from taking covid vaccines.

5,946 deaths are reported on the CDC website.

Social media is censoring their stories & the media is silent.

Biden is going to homes to push shots.

Just say NO!

— Tweet from GOP Congress Person Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) July 11, 2021

What remains stunning, particularly as the COVID-19 Delta variant is taking down more victims, is the continued politization of what should be purely a medical issue. To many, notwithstanding the former President’s near-fatal bout with the disease, standing firm against vaccination is a test of loyalty to Trump and the Trump-infused GOP. “A CBS News-YouGov poll found that 52 percent of Republicans are either fully or partially vaccinated, while 6 percent plan to be vaccinated and 6 percent are undecided. Twenty-nine percent do not plan to be vaccinated, the poll found.

“Meanwhile, 77 percent of Democrats said they were either fully or partially vaccinated, while 12 percent plan to be vaccinated and 6 percent are undecided. About 5 percent of Democrats say they don't plan to be vaccinated.” TheHill.com, June 13th.

“Three in 10 adults in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they have not gotten a coronavirus vaccine and definitely or probably will not get one. In this group, a broad 73% say U.S. officials are exaggerating the risk of the delta variant -- and 79% think they have little or no risk of getting sick from the coronavirus.” ABCNews.com, July 3rd.

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zientz is telling us that there is severe resistance, particularly among the remaining unvaccinated segment of the population with surprising resistance from younger “we’re strong enough” people: "Younger people, particularly those in their 20s, have felt less vulnerable to the disease and, therefore, less eager to get shots. They were made eligible later so they have not been eligible as long and we continue to see hundreds of thousands of young people vaccinated each week,” he said on a segment of ABC’s “This Week” in early July. Many believe, as Trump and other elected Republicans have told them, that COVID is just another kind of flu.

What we are seeing is rapid rise in new COVID infection rates, almost all from the more virulent Delta variant, pushing many state and municipal governments to reinstate mask mandates indoors. But the pressure on GOP-run states to resist “backsliding” to past preventative measures is fierce. For example, Tennessee school children will return to their public classrooms in the fall without any mask requirements, even as Delta cases are soaring.

If too many unvaccinated people continue to refuse to deal with this accelerating variant, they represent a demographic segment where even more infectious and dangerous mutations can form and multiply. The COVID virus has now mutated thousands of times since the pandemic began, although most such changes are without measurable consequences. And so far, those variants with genuine dangerous new abilities are still well or adequately contained by most of the existing vaccines. Nevertheless, Pfizer has announced that it is developing more advanced booster shots that may soon be available to those who have undergone the two-shot protocol (Pfizer and Moderna), one that they believe may have to be administered to older or medically vulnerable vaccinated individuals. It is clear that getting a third shot currently increases immunity many times over, even using the older vaccine.

What we are seeing is a particularly high rate of serious infection among younger individuals, many requiring hospitalization. They are clearly vulnerable to the Delta variant. The high rate of vaccination among older Americans is showing excellent result in that demographic. Not so much among eligible younger people. Even for those unvaccinated younger people who are strong enough to survive a COVID infection, even where there are minimal current effects, there are severe long-term health risks that simply cannot be worth avoiding vaccination. A recent UK study examines the pervasiveness of after-infection issues, some of which is referred to as “long-COVID”:

“Younger adults admitted to hospital with Covid are almost as likely to suffer from complications as those over 50 years old, a study has found… Four in 10 of those between 19 and 49 developed problems with their kidneys, lungs or other organs while treated… The research looked at 73,197 adults of all ages across 302 UK hospitals in the first wave of Covid in 2020.

“‘The message is that this is not just a disease of the elderly and frail,’ said Prof Calum Semple, who led the work… ‘The data reinforces the fact that Covid is not flu and we are seeing even young adults coming into hospital suffering significant complications, some of which will require furthering monitoring and potentially further treatment in the future.’

“The study, conducted by researchers at seven UK universities, the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, looked at the number of ‘complications’ in those needing hospital treatment for Covid-19, defined as an organ-specific medical diagnosis.

“Overall, around half of all adult patients suffered a least one complication during their hospital stay. The most common was a kidney injury, followed by lung and heart damage… The highest rates were in those over 50 years old, with 51% reporting at least one problem. But they were also "very common" in younger age groups. Some 37% of 30 to 39 year olds and 44% of 40 to 49 year olds had at least one complication recorded by nurses and medical students involved in the study.

“Doctors are not yet certain how a severe Covid illness can cause organ damage, but it is thought in some cases the body's own immune system can spark an inflammatory response and injure healthy tissue.” BBC.com, July 15th. For those Americans claiming that the US Constitution gives individuals a right not to socially distance, wear a mask and makes is unlawful to condition returning to work on vaccination, let me perfectly clear: WRONG. There is no such “right,” direct or indirect in the Constitution. Instead, these recalcitrant individuals should instead focus on government’s right to protect “everybody else” from those scofflaws most likely to infect others.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is time to let experienced scientists and doctors set serious medical priorities and pull politicians completely out of the mix.