Vaccination Wars

 I'm in an upside-down bizarro place. My unvaccinated niece just died of covid and I'm arguing with anti-vaxxer friends about the efficacy of science. My vaccinated old college roommate just got a breakthrough case of covid. He revealed this to me after we had dinner together indoors and he slept in the same bed as an out-of-town buddy who stayed in his Miami apartment overnight. Me and his bunkmate both tested negative and my old college friend had a 'covid cold' for a week and was back to playing volleyball. Meanwhile my niece is still dead and I'm arguing with anti-vaxxers. 

The news is filled with daily stories of anti-vaxx nurses, politicians, conservative commentators who get infected and die painful deaths. And they all regret not getting vaccinated and urge people to 'not make the same mistake' while anti-vaxxers continue to make the same mistake...despite deathbed pleas from their own kind, fact, statistical proof of declining rates in vaccinated areas, and anecdotal stories. 

I'm arguing with anti-vaxxers. I should stop. Arguing never changes people's mind, especially online. And then I remember that my unvaccinated niece is dead. I wish someone would have argued with her. A futile mission? Possibly but one worth undertaking? Absolutely. I wish someone would have fought her decision, because maybe she would be like my college roommate and resuming her life after an annoying cold. Maybe she would have been like me and not even felt the effects of covid because of effective inoculation. 

My anti-vaxx argue legitimate points about history, racism, and big pharmaceutical companies. I agree with the points but that doesn't invalidate all truths. There can be intersecting and complex truths within a system. It feels like I'm fighting against an all-or-nothing mentality. If I used Eastern philosophy, the point of this exchange is to locate the 'all of nothing' irrationality within my own thoughts and behaviors, that are now sprouting out into the world around me. 

Multiple overlapping things can be true. Yes, cops are apart of a systemic consistently problematic and abusive system of control...AND you still dial 911 when someone is breaking into your house b/c the burglar is a bigger threat in that moment than the history of systemic abuse. You want the police dept systemic approach to solving and preventing crime rather than everyone's individual approach which would be chaos. Drug companies can be corrupt but when the world is aflame in a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic they are probably a safer bet than us 'doing it on our own as 6 billion individuals.' My dad was a drug salesmen in the 1960s. Back then, pharma would pretty much just bribe doctors with free trips to get them to push new pills on patients. And this was the policy up until 10 yrs ago, b/c my sister is a doctor and noticed the shift from 'free dinners and trips' to nothing...b/c gov put a cap on pharma manipulating doctors. Pharma still has a tight grip on our gov and it's a BIG problem. Kids are overdiagnosed and pill'ed up as a adolescents to make them lifelong customers...AND they are still apart of ending this pandemic. In states with the highest vaccination rates -like Vermont- ppl have gone back to 100% normal life. The hospitals are empty, citizens are dancing in clubs. In states with low vax rates like Louisiana and Florida, the hospitals are overflowing with young ppl near death. There is a statistical difference you can track in hospitalizations and deaths which is aligned with vaccination rates. The shots are not perfect, but nothing is...they have, however, helped make life sort of back to normal in high vax areas. Just like a well-regulated police force over time tends to neighborhoods safer (while still be problematic).

In Texas they released shocking statistics of covid deaths over the last month and vaccinated people have perished. The vaccinated deaths are in the dozens out of the thousands. A statistician broke that down: 99.5% of people who died due to COVID-19 in Texas from Feb. 8 to July 14 were unvaccinated, while 0.5% were the result of "breakthrough infections," which DSHS defines as people who contracted the virus two weeks after being fully vaccinated.

The agency said nearly 75% of the 43 vaccinated people who died were fighting a serious underlying condition, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer or chronic lung disease.

Additionally, it said 95% of the 43 vaccinated people who died were 60 or older, and that a majority of them were white and a majority were men.

COVID-19 cases have been surging in Texas and nationally — mostly among unvaccinated people — as the highly contagious delta variant has become dominant. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 88% effective against symptomatic cases of the delta variant and 96% effective against hospitalizations, according to Yale Medicine. Researchers are still studying the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine against the delta variant but believe it may work similarly to Pfizer.