Don't Be Willfully Ignorant

One in 500 Americans has died of Covid-19. 

Let that sink in for a minute. One in 500 Americans has died of Covid-19.

It’s one thing to read the total number of people infected by this virus, or the number of deaths in broad terms, or the number of new cases, or the number of hospitalizations. But for me, seeing this number – – one in every 500 American adults – – really brings home the magnitude of this pandemic.

And yet only 55 percent of American adults has received full vaccination status. That’s just more than half. The numbers for children between ages 12 and 17 are even lower.

Each and every one of the people who have died of COVID-19 has a name. Each one was a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a grandparent, a friend. So far more than 700;000 Americans have died of this virus (as of Sept. 30). It’s really hard to wrap my head around a number of that size. That is more than one and a half times the number of Americans who died during World War II. That is more than the population of Albuquerque, NM, the nearest big city to where I live and the largest city in the state.

And yet, millions of Americans, including numerous health care workers, refuse to be vaccinated. Sadly, a very good friend and my daughter are among those willfully ignorant who refuse to get vaccinated. So until they are fully vaccinated, I will not visit either of them, or allow them to visit me.

I know a woman, a mother of five young children, who is unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons. She is now battling covid and covid-induced pneumonia. She really wants to be vaccinated, and she can't be. She isn't hospitalized .. yet.

Please do your part to bring this pandemic under control. Please don't be one of those willfully ignorant, selfish people who puts their loyalty to a political cult over their health and the health of those around them.