This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated July 23, 2021
Last week in this column, I wrote about how as the pandemic situation improved and things continued to return to normal, COVID statistics were starting to go in the wrong direction. Another week on and that trend has not only continued, but it is accelerating.
The far more contagious delta variant had just surpassed the 50 percent mark of active COVID cases at the time I penned my previous column. One week later, five in six of all new COVID cases were from the delta variant.
Sadly, I am certain that by the time this is published, these figures will have moved further in the direction nobody wants them to go. We do not need to be seeing more people hospitalized and dying from the virus each successive week. We do not need to be on this path of regression, where each day we move closer toward the possibility of restrictions we had put behind us becoming necessary again.
It is quite clear why COVID infections had steadily decreased for months. As vaccinations increased, new COVID cases waned. The spread of the virus fell as the spread of shots in arms took off.
However, it appears we are hitting a wall. Our supply of vaccine is plentiful, but the demand for it is now minimal. Over 56 percent of Americans age 12 or older are vaccinated, but that is not enough to starve the virus of the paths of transmission it needs to spread. And as it spreads, it evolves, eventually spawning new variants, increasing the probability that the virus will adapt to a new form that current vaccines are not as effective against.
“It is time to put politics aside and come together to fight our common enemy and ensure we are using our best weapon – the vaccine – against it.”
We cannot shame or berate those who are hesitant or resistant to get vaccinated into going for their shot. All of us who are vaccinated need to provide reliable information to and share our own experiences with those who are holding off. Unfortunately, the spread of disinformation is making such conversations much more difficult.
A recent YouGov poll found that 1 in 5 Americans believe that the United States government is using the COVID vaccine to implant microchips in the population. Four in five think that the threat of the coronavirus has been exaggerated for political reasons.
On conservative media, like Fox News, they may not be spending much time promoting the most wild conspiracy theories on this subject, but they are sowing doubt and encouraging people to resist being forced to receive vaccinations because it is your right to do that. The fact is, that is your right. Nobody — the government in particular — is forcing vaccines on people. They are imploring people to go get their shots, but that is only the case because of how many are so resistant to doing it.
It seems that the politicization of the coronavirus is not with respect to anyone exaggerating its threat but instead from those who purposely sow doubt about the vaccine and minimize how dangerous COVID is to our society at large. A month ago, people talking about how great Biden’s vaccine rollout had been, how COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths were plummeting, and how record numbers of jobs had been added and the economy was surging. It is as if the Right decided they could not have that.
To intentionally promote unscientific suggestions that pose great risk to public health, all in the hopes it will create chaos you can attribute to a political foe, is twisted. Fox News has certainly been doing this and their organization does not believe in what they espouse on-air.
It was reported this past week that while the network has spent months railing against the concept of vaccine passports, they have implemented such a program themselves, asking employees to provide their vaccination status and then easing COVID protocols for those fully vaccinated. They have similarly been hypocritical about masks, requiring them at their locations, but encouraging viewers to ditch them. This “do as I say, not as I do” game will lead to people dying unnecessarily. It is time to put politics aside and come together to fight our common enemy and ensure we are using our best weapon – the vaccine – against it.
