Coronavirus: By avoiding vaccination, you’re a risk to yourself and a “friend” of the virus

Oct 31, 2021 Dr Zulfikar Bux, Features / Columnists

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By Dr. Zulfikar Bux
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt Medical Center

Kaieteur News – There has been uproar worldwide as governments implement measures to protect the wider population against this evolving virus. Most of the uproar comes from persons who choose not to be vaccinated and feel disadvantaged by the measures being implemented. I have been fighting the fight and risking my life and that of my family from day one of this pandemic. Like so many health workers who are in similar situations, I longed for the day when vaccines will be available so that we can overcome this virus and get back to some semblance of normalcy. I never thought that the biggest challenge would have been to convince persons to take their vaccines so that we can win this war against COVID-19. There is enough data now that COVID-19 vaccines work and is our best weapon against this deadly virus. I am not sure why so many persons are choosing to put their lives at risk by avoiding vaccination against COVID-19. Today I wish to focus on the unvaccinated and help them to understand the risks they are taking when they choose to not be vaccinated.
You’re a risk to yourself
Data released from numerous studies have been showing that those who are dying from COVID-19 are predominantly the unvaccinated. Before the vaccines, one’s risk of dying had more to do with their age and if they had medical conditions that weakened their immune system. The virus has evolved since then and the healthy and younger unvaccinated populations are dying more every day. Even if you do not believe in the data being released, make your decision based on facts and not assumptions. There are enough deaths from COVID-19 recently that you can go around and speak to relatives of the deceased to ascertain their vaccination status. I am at the frontlines and I will guarantee you that you will not be able to find many people dying from COVID-19 who were properly and fully vaccinated. By avoiding vaccination against COVID-19, you are priming yourself to be a “hot” target for the virus and suffer from its devastating effects.
You’re a risk to others
While we worry for those that are unvaccinated, we worry even more of the risks they pose to the wider society. The virus feeds on the unprepared and uses them to multiply and mutate into stronger forms. The virus will not go away once there are persons that are unvaccinated and have an unprepared immune system. It will “feed” on them and use them to spread to others and evolve into forms that will at some point, become resistant to vaccines. When one chooses to be unvaccinated, they are destroying the progress being made by those in society that chose to be vaccinated. We are now in a time where an unvaccinated person becomes a moving target for the virus and a public health threat to society.
You’re adding unnecessary tension to the health system
It is not easy as a health worker to be fighting this war for so long and put up with all the challenges associated with being in a pandemic. We are tired and overworked and are looking forward to the end of this pandemic more than most, since we are the ones that have faced the brunt of the effects of the pandemic more than any other. It is not easy to remain normal when we have to see our patients suffer daily and suffocate to death from this dreaded virus. We have so many scars and are pleading to you to get vaccinated so that you do not have to be in our memory like the many others that suffered from this virus. If you get vaccinated, chances are extremely favourable that you will not be hospitalised or die from this virus. You are therefore helping us by allowing us to focus on others that are very sick from non-COVID-19 related conditions. We do not want to see you beg like many others to be vaccinated when they are hospitalised from COVID-19 and cannot tolerate the suffering that comes with this disease. We prefer you to be vaccinated beforehand and never see you as a patient. We don’t want to see you suffer when you have a choice. We prefer to use our time to help those who didn’t have a choice and are suffering from other non-COVID-19 conditions.
You’re now a “friend” of the virus
This virus has taken millions of lives and we all should want to eradicate it. Mass vaccination will achieve this goal and the faster we get vaccinated, the likelier we are preventing lives from being lost to this virus. Every day we avoid vaccination, is a day we have enabled this virus to continue along its deadly path. It is sad, but we are at a stage in this pandemic where our choice determines which side of war against COVID-19 we are on. We are either on the side of defeating the virus by being vaccinated or on the side of enabling the virus by being unvaccinated.
The war against COVID-19 can come to an end soon or it can continue for the foreseeable future. We have the winning formula; it is in the form of vaccines. Get vaccinated and let’s defeat this virus and exit this pandemic before it’s too late. (First published Aug. 8, 2021)

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