KERRY NATION: Vaccines will bring about the pandemic’s end

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2021 (1508 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The summer is halfway over and, may I say, it feels like the COVID-19 pandemic is more than halfway over, too. At least that’s true for the majority of Manitobans who have been able to get vaccinated. We are living in a great time, and I think it’s perfectly appropriate to find the positive in such a negative period.

(To those readers who are unable to get vaccinated because of existing health issues, please understand that my heart is with you. You are not the people I think of when I write about the unvaccinated – I view your decision not to get vaccinated as determined by your own doctor’s medical advice, not your personal philosophy.)

Did you know that, according to Thursday’s U.S. economic data release, economic growth has finally surpassed the 2019 pre-COVID rate? This is undoubtedly a result of vaccinations allowing people to get back to normal living, plus the unprecedented amount of government spending, but the point remains the same – we are coming back. This is a good thing.

While the Delta variant is infecting people more quickly and more seriously than COVID 1.0, it also appears to burn through its “human fuel” more quickly. In addition, thanks to the widespread vaccinations, unlike a year ago when no one was vaccinated, we are now at a point in which less than half of the population is at risk. This is also a good thing.

We can all get COVID, of course, but a primary benefit of the vaccines is that we won’t, by-and-large, get sick. If we get sick, symptoms should be milder and we won’t be hospitalized. If we get hospitalized, we are unlikely to die.

As a result, vaccinations are helping us to flatten the curve tremendously. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful, but it does mean that we can get back to normal, or at least something closely resembling it.

It is wonderful to see family and friends again, even if we don’t enjoy all the freedoms we had a couple of years ago. Again, the conflict here is with a lockdown, not with the complete openness of pre-COVID summer 2019.

It will be nice to watch the Blue Jays play at home once again, as it was to watch the NHL playoffs with fans in the stands. We are coming back.

I know that there are those of you who take exception with my confidence in the vaccines. I’m confident in my position thanks to the unusually high, near-record level of hate mail I have received, or the comments referring to it as “poison.”

It seems to me that we are so polarized in our views of the vaccine that there is little middle ground. I respect your opinion, and hope that you respect mine.

I recently heard a podcast in which an author who has researched this issue thoroughly was able to brush off several concerns I have encountered when talking about the entire vaccine issue. Many people have expressed worries about Big Pharma, or politics, or something they read on Facebook or other social media. The author essentially dismissed these issues by simply accepting them and then replying, to paraphrase, “I believe in results.”

In other words, remove ideology, Fox News, Facebook or Twitter feeds, and instead look at how the vaccines have changed the numbers. On Wednesday, Israel, which has led the way in inoculations, had 2,300 new cases and 1 death. On the same day, the United States had 483 deaths and 84,500 new cases.

Obviously, there are population differences, and many other extenuating circumstances, but the reality is that the vaccines ultimately do what we need them to do – flatten the curve and save lives.

I hope each of you enjoys a wonderful, safe August long weekend.