Over the weekend, my wife and I got our second COVID-19 vaccine. Ordinarily, that’s not a big deal. These days, we’re inundated with them. Flu. Shingles. Pneumonia. Every other day — it seems — I’m being called by my doctor’s office to get some kind of a shot. And generally, they come and go with little fanfare.
But nothing about COVID-19 comes and goes with little fanfare. The virus entered the world with a cannonball splash, and everything that came after it did as well, whether it was the economic collapse, the politics of it, or the rush to develop a vaccine. It was all front-page news.
Everything about this virus has been like trying to push a semi up a steep hill. Every bit of information has been met with extreme skepticism. And suddenly it occurs to you that this is the same skepticism, or worse, that scientists ran into when they discovered the Earth revolved around the sun, that gravity was a property of physics, and when anthropologists tried to tell us we descended from apes. The war between science and the skeptics goes on.
Getting the vaccine Saturday, to me, was like hearing from the warden that my death sentence had been stayed. I’d say “commuted,” except there’s that two-week period where you have to let the vaccine go through your system. Even then, we’re not home free. Scientists advise us that even though the vaccine might prevent the virus from wreaking havoc with our bodies, we don’t know yet whether we’re still unwitting carriers of it.
Myself, I prefer to believe the science because my one and only failing grade in high school came in biology, first quarter, sophomore year. I was never on speaking terms with the subject, even if I always pretty much managed to pass it.
Even with this vaccine, we’re falling victim to politics and misinformation. People don’t trust it despite assurance by reputable scientists and medical professionals everywhere who vouch for its efficacy. The former president pushed for “Operation Warp Speed” to get a vaccine ready as soon as possible. Yet now that it’s happened, people — many of whom would call themselves supporters of the former president — all scream that the vaccine was developed too fast, and therefore could not possibly be safe or effective.
Then again, obstinate people have fought us every step along the way when it came to dealing with this virus. Even here, in supposedly-enlightened Massachusetts, we have just seen Swampscott High retreat to all-remote learning because an off-campus event doubled as a super-spreader. You’ve undoubtedly seen footage of stupid spring break partiers in Florida practically being herded off the beaches and strips.
How many public service announcements/ads have I read from officials pleading with us to stay diligent, and that this thing isn’t over? Most of them have used football analogies, such as “this is not the time to spike the ball.” I’ll go a different way. In 1980, U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks kept exhorting the Americans to “play your game” after they scored a goal to go up on the Soviets. After all, their game was working. Same thing here. We still need to keep our distance, wear our masks, keep our hands clean, and do all the things that have kept us out of harm’s way.
And speaking of masks, the Becker’s Hospital Review, a leading magazine for the medical business, is out with a study, conducted by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, that ranks states by their test positivity rates. Of the five states with the lowest, only South Dakota (which is No. 50) does not have a mask mandate. Maine, California, Hawaii and Vermont do. Of course, there are other things that come into play too. All of these states, with the exception of California, are small or are spread out pretty widely (often both).
On the other end of the scale, the top five are Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee. Alabama has one, and so does Kansas (though it is reported to be widely unenforced). The other three do not.
It would seem pretty clear that, allowing for some statistical anomalies, wearing a mask does help keep the virus in check. For those who look at those anomalies as proof that the scientists are lying, all I can do is compare. There’s no guarantee that if you never pick up a cigarette you won’t get cancer. But there’s plenty of evidence that if you do, and develop a habit, your chances of developing cancer increase commensurately.
But for people like me, who have tried very hard to follow health directives, this vaccine feels like a godsend. It’s been so long since any of us have enjoyed any of life’s simplest pleasures that we forgot what it feels like. And I, for one, am willing to learn all over again.
