Get vaccinated! COVID vaccinations are safe and effective!

"For a large proportion of those still holding out getting vaccinated, they will simply have to do so of their own volition. It is up to all of us, from officials and health experts to neighbors and community members, to communicate clearly to these folks how important getting vaccinated is."

Vaccinations are the only way out of COVID fight

Echo opinion published in The Berkshire Eagle news.

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/opinion/editorials/our-opinion-vaccinations-are-the-only-way-out-of-covid-fight/article_577355ba-f6cd-11eb-8db0-0b538d3dc05e.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI%E2%80%99m%20admitting%20young,to%20do%20so.

“Young and healthy people are admitted to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”

That harrowing account was written by Dr. Brytney Cobia, a hospitalist in Birmingham, Alabama., who, like many doctors, sees first-hand what damage the coronavirus can still do as the nation’s COVID vaccination push continues to stall. The unfortunate reality is that there is a critical mass of Americans who are dead-set on not getting the vaccine and cannot be convinced otherwise. Those still sitting on the fence, however, whichever way they might lean, should heed the testimony of medical professionals like Dr. Cobia and countless others across the county: Get vaccinated to protect you and your loved ones from preventable suffering, before it may be too late to do so.

Much as we all want it to be, this pandemic is not over. Over the past week, the U.S. saw a seven-day average of 95,000 new reported COVID-19 cases daily, including 100,000 new cases in a single day. This six-month high was the sort of grim milestone we hoped to leave behind after vaccines became the best available weapon in the protracted battle with the novel coronavirus.

Unsurprisingly, this alarming trend is driven by surges in regions with the lowest vaccination rates. As the more-transmissible delta variant of the virus runs rampant, half of the nation’s new cases and hospitalizations over the last week occurred in just seven states — Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi — that account for less than a quarter of the national population.

A point that should have gone without saying all along now bears repeating: The path to victory over this pandemic runs through vaccinations safely leading us to herd immunity. So long as vaccination numbers continue to stall, more infectious variants will continue to compound along with preventable human suffering and the sort of disruption to our lives that proved so traumatic over the last year and a half.

This deadly and highly contagious respiratory virus knows no boundaries of state or ideology. New cases are growing far faster in states with more vaccine hesitancy, but even regions like ours with comparably higher vaccination rates are not immune from this resurgence of a deadly viral enemy. Massachusetts’ vaccination rate is second in the nation behind only Vermont. Here in Berkshire County, our vaccination rate — just above 60 percent — is similar to the commonwealth’s. This might be better than Florida, but it’s also well below what public health experts predict would be necessary for herd immunity.

This has been made painfully obvious by recent Bay State outbreaks, from Provincetown to North Adams. In the latter case, a Berkshire nursing and rehabilitation facility has recently seen more than half of residents test positive for COVID-19, including six residents that required hospitalization.

With cases on the rise, authorities at the local, state and federal levels are rightly urging caution and updating recommendations on masking and distancing to reflect the heightened risk level. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week updated Berkshire County’s transmission rate to “substantial,” one level below the highest.

From tens of thousands of clinical trials to millions of real-world applications, the COVID vaccines freely available to Americans have proven remarkably safe and effective. And while the delta variant of the virus is more contagious and more likely to spur breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, the inoculated are still significantly better protected against this and other mutated versions of the virus than those who have not received their shots. No vaccine is 100 percent effective, and the available COVID vaccines are no exception, but there’s no doubt that vaccinations are the best way to lessen breakthrough cases and curb COVID. Yet there remains a worryingly high number of vaccine skeptics despite the fact that it is clearly the safest and effective way to defend oneself and one’s family against a pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions more worldwide. Some people in a lower-risk demographic for severe disease from COVID still believe that the risk to them is miniscule, and therefore they needn’t get vaccinated.

First, it’s plainly false that anyone — even healthy, young people — are immune to this virus or the serious threat it poses. If the dramatic accounts like those of the aforementioned Alabama hospitalist are not convincing enough, then perhaps note the evidence piling up about long-haul COVID symptoms among even low-risk populations.

Second, and more importantly, the simple reality is that forgoing vaccination unnecessarily invites greater potential for real suffering not just on oneself but on one’s community and loved ones. More vaccinations mean less serious disease and less spread. Stalling vaccinations means more spread, more serious disease and the emergence of more dangerous variants as long as we continue to give the coronavirus a foothold. It also slows reaching herd immunity, a goal meant to protect those who can’t get vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons (e.g., children under 12, those with relevant allergies) and those who are more vulnerable to respiratory viruses even when vaccinated (e.g., the elderly, those with compromised immune systems).


The debate over how to increase vaccination numbers has led to discussions about mandates. Vaccine mandates make sense in certain contexts. Berkshire Health Systems, for instance, announced Friday that all employees must be vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 1. That will include Berkshire Medical Center workers as well as those in facilities run by BHS, such as North Adams Commons. More widespread mandates, however, have the potential to backfire by telegraphing the wrong message to some who remain skeptical of COVID vaccines. Telling people they must get vaccinated might push some still on the fence in the wrong direction.

For a large proportion of those still holding out getting vaccinated, they will simply have to do so of their own volition. It is up to all of us, from officials and health experts to neighbors and community members, to communicate clearly to these folks how important getting vaccinated is.

To those people: The Americans seriously sickened and sometimes killed by breakthrough infections are not just numbers; they are our countrymen, our neighbors and our family members — and it could be you as well. No one is being asked to storm a beach or take a bullet to combat this virus — they’re being asked to get a free vaccine that improves their own health outcomes. To not do so is a dereliction of self-care and the most simple yet important patriotic duty imaginable.

As the rise in case counts continues, so too will talk about implementing policies we all desperately wanted to leave behind: masking, distancing, restrictions on certain businesses, gathering limits. The difference between last year and now, though, is that we have a remarkably effective COVID-fighting weapon that, if utilized collectively, would likely make all those other trying measures unnecessary.

Fortunately, it’s quite easy to wield that weapon against this malingering viral foe — if we take it up. Please, if you haven’t already done so, get vaccinated so that we might protect ourselves and one another from needless suffering.