We all prayed for a cure when this pandemic hit. It disrupted every aspect of our lives from work and employment to grocery shopping, public gatherings, sports, the performing arts, church, public schools and college. Even agnostics and atheists hoped for a quick cure or a medical breakthrough whereby everyone could carry on as before and never have to worry about this particular virus again. Basically, we all wanted to go maskless again, breathe in the fresh clean air like God intended. We also wanted to not think about every human interaction: Will we or the other get sick and though odds have it rare, die from this disease? Throughout the horrible year 2020, many of us lost relatives, friends, famous celebrities and acquaintances to this new virus. Deaths and hot spots across the country kept escalating with at last count 71 million Americans getting COVID-19 and more than a half a million dead from this new unasked-for disease.
Then … out of the blue, one day we hear of a vaccine. Then another. Then another. Then a one-shot vax—all proven to fight and protect us humans from contracting COVID-19. And if the vaccinated did get it, for the vast majority symptoms would be mild, we wouldn’t end up in the hospital or die from COVID-19. The coincidence is that virologists (doctors & scientists) had been studying corona viruses for a decade. They knew a vaccine was possible.
It was HALLELUJAH time! Everyone should have been down on their knees praising God for delivering us from this one deadly virus, and so quickly, too. It was a bona fide miracle.
But nooooooooooooo. Not in the year 2021. Not in the 21st century. Not in America, the anti-vaccine capital of the world.
The damage done
What we have here is a failure to communicate. No, what we have here is a failure to educate. No, what we have here is fear and loathing run amok. There is no denying a generation gap of sorts has evolved between Baby Boomers (including yours truly) and the mini Boomers, children of the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll generation. Sociologists could see this coming. Every generation has to rebel against the previous. So the ultra-liberal, ‘if it feels good, do it’ Boomers were bound to be slapped on the face by their grown children about something. Religion? Politics? No, vaccines. Well, they picked a good one. We either had to crack open the books and study this for a spell or just yell and cuss and roll our eyes like we did in adolescence. OK, like we still do about a lot of things the younger kids believe nowadays.
Because Boomers were raised pre-internet and have a distrust of government due to Vietnam and Watergate, we don’t believe everything we read especially online. We trust some news sources but not all. It’s best to maintain an open mind. We’d like to think we’ve grown wise and less naïve. We also think anyone younger than us is naïve as we once were. In this regard we try not to be harsh with the young guns. But for God’s sake, we’re talking about vaccines here.
During the 20th century, vaccines were considered the single most important development to improve the health and lives of Americans and everyone else around the world. But with every medical procedure, there is risk. Still, with vaccines the risk is extremely low and even death or sudden disease or illness have been seriously studied, not ignored. Big Pharma, with a new shot for everything these days and perhaps responsible for dozens of required childhood vaccinations, is a punching bag along with the unfixable U.S. health insurance industry (the insured in America have it directly due to a good job benefit). Then there is the anti-support of physicians and the entire medical establishment—a profession very few people honestly know anything about except those who actually studied it and passed tests to earn licenses to practice medicine and work in the health field. The medical profession is not for everyone though it is the number one field to enter this century.
So Americans young and, ahem, older have a lot of built-in cynicism. Now the cynical are becoming the majority as the Boomers die out. [But not so fast.] Boomers are naturally cynical, apparently a gene inherited in spades by the mini Boomers and their Millennial offspring.
We have a vaccine now that will prevent or weaken COVID-19. What’s the problem?
The problem is now pharmacists and medical practices with ample supply can’t give it away. All kinds of gimmicks are offered including a $1 million lottery. Vaccine centers are set up everywhere including major league sport facilities and amusement parks. Still, a quarter of all Americans swear they’ll never get the vaccine—well, this particular vaccine. A quarter of the country gets their news and views from Fox News. Coincidence?
What we’re seeing here is the culmination of an education system, both public and private, that has failed to teach young people how to research, how to trust, and how to be smart. While public schools have students focus on passing state tests, private schools, particularly religious ones, have failed to instill a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Learning by teaching ourselves is not something we close the book on when graduating high school. The ability to keep learning, to research intelligently instead of just reading and watching and listening to only what we want to believe, and the much-needed critical thinking necessary to maintain our nation’s experimental democracy as well as live healthier longer lives—that’s the wrinkle in trying to encourage most Americans to get the damn vaccine.
Boomers who grew up in chaotic violent times or like me in the mundane peaceful post-Vietnam War era know this protest slogan to be a universal truth: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Americans need to get with the program. Grow up. There’s risk in everything we do. And when it comes to only a third of Americans being vaccinated against yet another virus to pop up on the planet, fear is the driving force. There’s no fooling a Boomer. Brave is our middle name. It’s the only way to live, baby.