Please Say Yes To the Rest Of Us
Living in the Midwest, my cousin’s 40-year-old son wasn’t particularly worried about catching the Covid-19 virus. He’d recently become eligible for the vaccine but people around him downplayed its effectiveness or the need for the shots in general. He heard there were real dangers in getting vaccinated, such as enlarged hearts or other bad side effects, all for something no worse than a bad case of the flu, which he had on several occasions and survived. But ultimately, he just didn’t like being told what to do or being forced to wear a mask. To his mind, the whole thing was overblown by Washington and the media.
Well, as fate would have it, in the face of all this he contracted the virus. He stayed at home just long enough to transmit the infection to both his wife and all four of his minor age children before being hospitalized.
Once admitted into the hospital he ended up in quarantine, then on oxygen to help him breath and finally a ventilator. All through this excruciating ordeal harried teams of semi-exhausted healthcare professionals were valiantly moving heaven and earth to care for him and a ward full of other Covid-19 sufferers around the clock, twenty-four seven, for two weeks.
For two weeks his wife and children didn’t see him because their symptoms worsened, and they continued to be very sick. Likewise, his mother, who is my cousin, and the rest of his family were barred from the ward because of the risk of further spreading the infection.
Then he was gone – dead – killed by an invisible virus he’d chosen to ignore because he and others he listened to didn’t want to take it seriously. The results were devastating for his family and friends. Suddenly, his wife and children were left without their most cherished family member; A beloved husband, father and principal breadwinner.
Unfortunately, the insurance they’d bought in his younger years wasn’t nearly enough to cover all his huge medical expenses, let alone care for his family after his death. So, the family was going to also be in a real financial bind while dealing with their own emotional grief.
His poor mother was devastated. In her seventies, she couldn’t believe her son was dead. She’d always thought children were supposed to outlive their parents, not the other way around. Many of his friends were equally traumatized, especially among those who’d been the lead naysayers as to the virus’ severity.
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There are those who say they are willing to let God protect them in the face of such threats. But as one of the heads of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said, these successful vaccines produced in less than two years, when the timeframe for vaccine development, production and testing is typically five to ten years, should be viewed as gifts from God and his way of taking care of us.
It is now up to the unvaccinated to open these gifts and utilize them for the purpose God intended, which can only be for our protection and the protection of those around us. My cousin’s son is now a statistic, part of that long line of over six hundred thousand Americans to fall victims to this gruesome killer, not to mention the millions of others who have died from it around the world.
We can’t let fear control our responses to the risks of the vaccines’ side effects, which have only stricken users in the hundreds when compared with the nearly two hundred million Americans who have successfully been vaccinated without serious or any negative reactions. The majority of side effects have produced practically no fatalities and the odds demonstrated by such numbers put most Lotto chances to shame.
Instead, we need to focus on the terrible harm that will be visited upon our loved ones if we continue to go unvaccinated and contract this undiscriminating virus. Joining this long line of Covid-19 related deaths will be just as devastating to your family and friends as it has been to mine.
So please help by saying yes to getting the shot now!
The ones you love, and the health care community, will thank you for it.