SADLY, COVID-19 and its variants, now predominantly the Delta strain, will kill more people in the United States and other countries around the world as a result of people’s refusal to get vaccinated, then getting infected, and exponentially spreading the deadly virus to others – unfortunately, even to the vaccinated ones. While the breakthrough COVID-19 infections, mostly transmitted by unvaccinated individuals to vaccinated ones, usually lead to milder infections, a significant number of people has died from it. A greater tragedy!
Pandemic of the unvaccinated
More than 90 percent of the new COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are individuals who refused to get the vaccines. Their deliberate decision not to be vaccinated has led to daily massive increase in cases and deaths of thousands more lately. The new waves of surging COVID-19 infections in all the 50 states are more than 90 percent due to the Delta variant and so with the hospitalization and deaths. Cities and states are now considering legal mandate for vaccination, as was done during the deadly Smallpox Pandemic of 1870-74.
Vaccine hesitancy to this massive degree will make herd immunity unattainable and recklessly prolong this pandemic. We may even have COVID-22, 23, etc., as I have stated before. God forbid.
As long as human hosts are available (as in the 60 million who refuse to get vaccinated), the virus in them would rapidly mutate (evolve) into more deadly strains, like the Delta variant, and worse, until a new strain where NO vaccines or cures would be available. That is the nature of viruses, since they want to survive and replicate.
The following are the mutated strains of the SARS-CoV2 virus (COVID-19): Alpha (B.1.1.7, from the UK), Beta (B.1.351, from South Africa), Gamma (P.1, from Brazil), and Delta (B.1.617.2, from India).
Common sense, arithmetic
When bullets are flying all around, those with bullet-proof vests, like SWAT response teams, are obviously greatly protected, albeit less than 100 percent, compared to those unprotected people in the same “war zone.” Everybody, including contrarians, would agree with this. And yet, in our war against COVID-19 killer viruses, about 20 percent of the U.S. population (around 60 million), as educated as Americans are in general, refuse to get the vaccines. Almost 4 billion vaccine shots have been administered around the world, proving how safe and effective they are in preventing COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death. Deaths attributed to the vaccines, in comparison to the almost 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths, are only a tiny fraction of one percent! Common sense and simple arithmetic make the choice obvious and clear.
Freedom and rights
In a democracy, freedom and individual rights are vital and guaranteed by the Constitution. These liberties and civil rights, however, must not infringe on other people’s rights to health, comfort, happiness, and maximal longevity. People have the right to jump off tall buildings and kill themselves, but they do not have to right (and it is wrong) to take unwilling people with them, even unintentionally. Those 20 percent who do not want to be vaccinated (and who at the greatest risk of getting infected and dying) may have the personal right to refuse the vaccines, but when they travel abroad, they are exposing the entire nation, perhaps the world, to the COVID-19 viruses (especially the predominant Delta variant) and causing surges of the deadly infections, prolonging this pandemic and killing more people.
If the unvaccinated have the right to refuse the vaccines, don’t those who opted to get vaccinated have the right to refuse to get sick and die from the virus the anti-vaxxers spread around? Do we even need the Supreme Court to decide on this controversy (to come up with a national vaccine mandate), which even a well-informed 5th grader could wisely and justly render a quick Solomonic verdict based on plain common sense and innate wisdom of a child? Why not listen to medical science and take advantage of the great advances in medicine? The world is blessed to have all these vaccines and drugs that save billions of lives around the world. The developing third world countries would love to have what we have in the United States. And here we are – wasting resources and wasting lives.
Bribery and manslaughter?
What surprises me is why people have to be bribed with a million-dollar lottery or other monetary incentives in order for them to get vaccinated for their own good, to protect them from being infected and killed by this deadly virus. Isn’t it a natural human instinct to stay away from danger, pain, and most of all, from dying prematurely, when it could be prevented?
All those who refused the vaccines, then got infected and died were preventable and unnecessary deaths, and technically self-induced. And as we have stated in this column before, when these anti-vaccine individuals acquire the virus and transmit it to vulnerable people, including those vaccinated (breakthrough infections), and unknowingly kill them, it could, technically and arguably, be involuntary manslaughter, at least in the mind of the grieving family members and friends of the vaccinated victims who died.
National mandate
Since the re-opening of businesses and cessation of the masking-social distancing mandates around the country were negated by the new massive surges of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and thousands more deaths all over the U.S., as well as the angry anti-vaccine protests in the U.S. and in Europe, there is now a move to establish a national mandate for vaccination to protect the entire nation and, literally, the world, since Americans travel a lot. Indeed, instead of wrongly and unjustly invoking civil rights and irresponsibly promoting political correctness to the detriment of the majority (at least 274 million) of the U.S. population, it is time (albeit more than a year and more than 600,000 deaths late) to legalize a national mandate for vaccination.
Since it is unconstitutional to establish an internment zone (like the leper colony in Molokai, Hawaii about 155 years ago) for unvaccinated people to prevent them from spreading the COVID-19 viruses to the rest of the country and abroad, the only just solution is to mandate vaccination for those who do not have any medical contraindication. This is where individual personal rights must yield to the rights of society as a whole.
The violation and denial of the rights of countless people of the almost 4.2 million people who died should inspire the world to protect the remaining 7.8 billion people globally (332+ million in the U.S.) on Planet Earth today. One more death is one too many.
Let’s get vaccinated voluntarily, without waiting for a national mandate. It is for our own good, anyway. Life is precious.
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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The main objective of this column is to educate and inspire people live a healthier lifestyle to prevent illnesses and disabilities and achieve a happier and more productive life. Any diagnosis, recommendation or treatment in our article are general medical information and not intended to be applicable or appropriate for anyone. This column is not a substitute for your physician, who knows your condition well and who is your best ally when it comes to your health.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, a Health Public Advocate, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian and anti-graft foundation in the United States. Visit our websites: philipSchua.com and FUN8888.com Email: [email protected]
