Praise God for doctors and scientists, and praise God for some good news at the end of a mostly wretched year.
The first COVID-19 vaccine – which is manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech – is now available, and the initial shots were administered across the country on Monday. In Mississippi, State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs – who has been a saint throughout this health crisis – received the shot and proudly showed off, via social media, the injection site covered with a Band-Aid. I can’t imagine the relief he must be feeling as a light at the end of a very dark and desolate tunnel emerges.
We’ve been battling the novel coronavirus for nearly a year, and, prior to Monday, we’ve had very few victories to post in our column. However, seeing those injections occur fills me with relief and with hope, which is something I haven’t felt in a long time. Soon, I’ll no longer anxiously await the daily casualty counts from the Mississippi State Department of Health. Soon, we’ll be free from masks and social distancing. We’ll be able to see our families and friends again, and COVID-19 will fade into the rearview mirror.
Of course, it’ll take some time for us to be free of the virus. Health care workers and at-risk populations will receive the first shots, and they will be followed by various frontline workers. The initial vaccine requires two shots – which are spaced over three or four weeks – to be effective, and it’s a massive undertaking to vaccinate our entire population. The logistics alone are stunning to imagine. Still, the hope for a better tomorrow is bright.
Even as hope emerges on the horizon, I’m saddened by the state of our country, and our tendency to politicize everything will certainly affect the vaccination process. It doesn’t take long to find the vaccine conspiracy theorists on social media platforms, and disinformation about the shots started months ago. I ask people to carefully vet their information and stop sharing things that aren’t reputable. The bottom line is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – which gave the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine emergency authorization – found no “specific safety concerns” and identified only mild to moderate side effects, such as minor symptoms that resolve within 24 hours, in isolated cases.
As this vaccine is distributed and administered, we’ll see more safety data, and I hope that’ll soothe the concerns of nervous Americans. However, I agree with Joel Ernst, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, who said “…it’s a social imperative if we are to overcome this pandemic that all of us who can get vaccinated must get vaccinated.” Ernst continues by saying “…I would say it’s a personal decision on when to be vaccinated, not whether to be vaccinated.”
Nervous Americans, I can understand, but I fail to understand my fellow citizens who are just stubborn or indoctrinated with false information. We can defeat this plague, but it takes everyone putting aside the foolishness and working together to do so. That starts with two shots in the arm and leads to a lot of lives saved and much suffering averted.
Joshua Wilson is the editor of The Pine Belt News and Signature Magazine.
