Perc-Pective
By Ethan Percival
By Ethan Percival
On January 21, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first case of the coronavirus in the United States. As cases, and subsequent deaths, spiked across the country and the world, scientists were engineering a vaccine. Then on Dec. 14, 2020, the first vaccine shots outside of vaccine trials were administered. Slowly, more and more vaccines became available to the public, and the first FDA full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine came on Aug. 23 of 2021. It’s been more than two years since COVID-19 arrived in the US, and 169 days since the first vaccine was fully FDA approved. Still, according to the CDC, only 69.2% of Americans are fully vaccinated, and only 80.5% have at least one shot.
For those that argue that we don’t know about the long term side effects, the FDA waited two months after trials to emergency approve the vaccine, and according to experts, any serious side effects would’ve been apparent by then, and most certainly by now.
Some have argued that the vaccine doesn’t work because it doesn’t keep you from getting infected, which is an ignorant line of reasoning. Those who are vaccinated are much more likely to stay out of the hospital if they are infected as opposed to the unvaccinated. 120,439 people were in the hospital due to COVID-19 on Feb. 1, and it’s no wonder that the unvaccinated are 23 times more likely to be hospitalized.
There’s plenty of reasons people offer for not getting the vaccine, and while some of those are valid, most don’t stand up to reason.
When people don’t get vaccinated, the virus spreads. Your choice to not get vaccinated affects more people than just you, and as cases rise the chance of a worse variant appearing increases. Protect yourself. Protect your family.
Protect your community. Get vaccinated.
For those that argue that we don’t know about the long term side effects, the FDA waited two months after trials to emergency approve the vaccine, and according to experts, any serious side effects would’ve been apparent by then, and most certainly by now.
Some have argued that the vaccine doesn’t work because it doesn’t keep you from getting infected, which is an ignorant line of reasoning. Those who are vaccinated are much more likely to stay out of the hospital if they are infected as opposed to the unvaccinated. 120,439 people were in the hospital due to COVID-19 on Feb. 1, and it’s no wonder that the unvaccinated are 23 times more likely to be hospitalized.
There’s plenty of reasons people offer for not getting the vaccine, and while some of those are valid, most don’t stand up to reason.
When people don’t get vaccinated, the virus spreads. Your choice to not get vaccinated affects more people than just you, and as cases rise the chance of a worse variant appearing increases. Protect yourself. Protect your family.
Protect your community. Get vaccinated.