The early weeks of summer 2021 were like a dream come true. The CDC announced that fully vaccinated people no longer had to wear masks, many COVID restrictions were lifted and daily COVID-19 cases in the United States were drastically declining, according to CNN in May. Because of all these factors, I felt comfortable enough to gather indoors with my friends again, my place of employment reopened and my younger brother was able to have a mostly normal high school graduation ceremony. By that point, I thought that the worst of this pandemic was over.
Sadly, three months later, that does not seem to be the case. In the United States, there are over 130,000 daily COVID 19 infections and vaccinated people like myself have to wear masks indoors in counties with high transmission rates, such as here on St. John’s campus. It is also worth noting that these infections are primarily spreading among the unvaccinated, and many of them don’t seem to want to get vaccinated anytime soon.
This did not have to happen! As someone who did their part and got their COVID-19 vaccine, it deeply angers me to see many Americans still refusing to get vaccinated, especially when these are many of the same people that acted as if COVID-19 was not even that big of a deal in the first place. If more people did their part and put their outrageous politics aside, we would likely not be in this mess right now!
I can assure you the vaccine is perfectly safe! I took it and besides a sore arm and a day-long headache after my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, I felt just fine. No one I have talked to has had any problems with the vaccine either. On top of that, the Pfizer Vaccine is FDA approved, even further showing the hypothetical negative consequences are completely outweighed by the positive.
I do not see why there is so much resistance to a vaccine that is not only extremely safe but also very convenient to get. The shot doesn’t even hurt most people. To those who are afraid of complications or death as a result of the vaccine, you didn’t have the same concerns with COVID-19, so why do you have those concerns now? What is the real reason behind refusing vaccination?
If you are still unvaccinated for whatever reason, I am sick and tired of hearing excuses about why you are putting off getting the vaccine. If you want COVID-19 restrictions to go away, get the vaccine. If you are being forbidden from participating in activities due to your unvaccinated status, get the vaccine. If you are tired of this whole pandemic in general and want it to be over, the solution is simple – just get the vaccine.
