Over 100 residents of Carteret County have died from COVID-19. Additionally, 34 new cases of COVID-19 reported Wednesday. Get vaccinated urges Carteret Health Care. All ages 5+ are now eligible to receive safe and effective COVID-19 vaccinations. There’s finally hope that all of this will end. But this hope depends almost entirely on how many people will be willing to get the vaccine. I know. It's complicated. I made the choice to get vaccinated on the first day of my eligibility and I understand that the end of the pandemic may well depend on many more Americans like me choosing to get vaccinated. And, therein lies the rub. Many Americans not like me are not getting vaccinated for six main reasons: 1. they are concerned about possible side effects; 2. they don’t believe they need it; 3. they’re waiting to see if it’s safe; 4. they don’t trust the vaccine; 5. they don’t trust the government, and 6. they don’t think COVID is a big deal. Now, I’m not smart enough to have rejoinders for these reasons, but I am smart enough to look back in history for some answers.
For starters, Can the government even legally mandate a vaccine? Yes, it can and history gives us numerous examples. The number of citizens dying from the smallpox epidemic at the beginning of the 20th century forced public officials to issue compulsory vaccination orders in efforts to reach the 90 percent vaccination rate required for herd immunity. Most citizens complied. But not all. In 1902, Henning Jacobson refused to get the smallpox vaccine. This launched a chain of events that landed the Massachusetts pastor in a landmark 1905 Supreme Court case in which the Court made clear that the government could mandate vaccination, arguing that collective good sometimes outweighs individual rights. And, that is a good thing. Because of mandated vaccination campaigns like this one in Massachusetts, smallpox, a disease that killed 300 million people in the 20th century, was the first human disease eradicated from the planet because of vaccines.
Is the government allowed to issue fines for not getting vaccinated? Yes and this isn’t the first time. We can return to that same smallpox epidemic and look to Cambridge, Massachusetts public health officials who issued compulsory vaccination orders. Though it wasn’t a forced vaccination, those who refused to get vaccinated paid a $5 fine, which is the equivalent of $150 today.
Are vaccination mandates allowed in schools? Public schools have required vaccinations for children for years. All 50 states have legislation requiring specific vaccines for students to enroll into public schools. Indeed, The U.S. federal government set up the Childhood Immunization Initiative to increase vaccination rates amongst children against seven diseases: Diptheria, measles, mumps, pertussis, polio, rubella, and tetanus. The CDC currently recommends that children from 0 to 6 to get 29 doses of 9 vaccines, including a yearly flu shot after 6 months old.
How have responses looked throughout the years? Right now we’re in a historical and cultural moment where a lot of people are taking stances on COVID vaccines and being quite intransigent about their stances. It’s very popular right now to die on the hill, so to speak, as they say, and to be gung ho about it. History, again, teaches us that contagion and epidemics have brought out the best in humanity and the worst in humanity. Contagions have been the excuse for so many atrocities in the world and so much discrimination. In the Middle Ages the plague arrived and Jews were killed, and witches were burned. And we see this throughout history. Today, some people allege that vaccines are unnatural. Others believe vaccines cause autism. Some claim the virus isn’t real. Try telling that to the loved ones of the over 800,000 Americans who have died from COVID 19 the past two years.
I want to make a case for actually less gung-ho intransigence, less dying on a hill, less stubbornness in defending causes, and more listening. Like listening to Justice John Marshall Harlan, who wrote the majority opinion for that Jacobson v. Massachusetts case. For him, it was clear that this case was a legitimate exercise of the police power of the state. Smallpox was extremely dangerous, and he insisted that if the government can compel individual citizens to take up arms and risk being shot down in defense of their country, the country can fight off a deadly disease by demanding individuals to be vaccinated even if it violated their sense of personal liberty or conscience or whatever.
So, get vaccinated against COVID 19 and get the flu vaccine, too. After all, some 12-50,000 Americans die of the flu each year. To learn more about enjoying the holidays, go to my website, www.EmeraldIsleHomesforSaleNC.com and sign up for my blog. Ready to buy or sell? Call me at 919-308-2292. Explore the video tab for my weekly uploads to my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and receive free donuts at my Flip Flops Donut shop. Text your email address to 919-308-2292 and subscribe to my newsletter. My book, "Live Where You Vacation" is available on Amazon.com.
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