Here is the 2nd of a 3-part series on the COVID-19 follies. Last week, I opined that COVID-19 is now greeted with a collective yawn by Americans. We have moved on but the virus is still here. COVID-19 vaccine interest has also certainly waned. Another yawn.
How do I regard the vaccine? Over my long medical career, I have witnessed true miraculous
medical milestones. Operation Warp Speed
in Trump’s first administration was one of them. This program delivered highly safe and highly
effective COVID-19 vaccines into our arms in less than a year – a truly monumental
scientific achievement. Millions of lives were saved. Perhaps, you or a loved one was one of them?
Americans were scrambling to receive the initial vaccine
series. This achievement was accomplished using mRNA technology, which has been disparaged by many, as I
pointed out in last week’s post. Had our
scientists not utilized it, how many more lives would have been lost? Perhaps, you or a loved one may have been one
of them?
However, over time, the public has clearly lost interest in the
virus and the vaccines that are available to combat it.
Why has this happened?
To begin, the disease is no longer viewed as the threat that it once
was. We are not walking around in masks and maintaining a zone of separation
from others. Many believe that the efficacy of later boosters and
vaccines is less than that of the original vaccine series. There is also a reasonable belief that many
of us have acquired a good measure of immunity from prior immunizations as well
as from COVID infections.
But these are not the only reasons explaining vaccine reluctance. Politics infected our national public health
landscape. I admit that I was unprepared
for this development and was truly shocked when it occurred. I naively expected that the pandemic would be
a unifying experience since disease should be immune from politics. We were not debating
a tax or tariff issue or the administration’s immigration
policy or climate change regulations. We expect political
involvement in political issues like these. But a pandemic? A virus was ripping across the country and the
planet with no political agenda or target.
I wrongly thought that this global health catastrophe would have united us in a shared purpose to fight
back with every available weapon in a mission to save lives.
Instead, the virus further fueled division and polarization. We fought over vaccine mandates, Ivermectin, masks,
lockdowns, government overreach and the origin of the pandemic. Many even vilified Dr. Anthony Fauci who had
served the nation in public health for nearly 4 decades. I recall as a medical resident decades ago,
reading Dr. Fauci's seminal 1978 paper on vasculitis – a group of complex diseases of
the circulatory system – and keeping the article in my files to be reread over
the years. Did Dr. Fauci deserve any
criticism for his pandemic decision? Of course. But personal attacks and vilification were indecent.
Was there government overreach? Next week, I’ll address this.
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