It’s unoriginal to say that, isn’t it? After all, aren’t we all? It’s been around for over a year and a half, and it doesn’t seem to be going away. If anything, it feels like it’s getting worse! That doesn’t sound promising!
Normally, pieces like this are written to downplay the pandemic so that “life can go back to normal”. I don’t want that. Not only is the world changed because of COVID, but even if it ended…well, I’m not sure the obsessive, hustle-and-bustle culture before was healthy. Instead, I’d like to discuss something else. I’d like to talk about the anti-vaxer mentality, and how that’s not helping.
Anti-vax sentiment isn’t new. The current version started with Andrew Wakefield’s now-retracted paper on MMR vaccines and Autism. I’m not a doctor, but as someone with Autism this bugs me. It bugs me because vaccines, by and large, are pretty harmless, and because it assumes you can’t live with Autism. That I recently celebrated my 31st birthday should be proof enough.
I’d further lambast Wakefield’s paper, but it’s not relevant. What’s relevant is how anti-vaxer sentiment has reached a fever-pitch and mixed with anti-masker sentiment. The notions that masks “are dangerous” and that vaccines, particularly COVID vaccines, “are dangerous” have overlapped. People who are one tend to be the other, and they’re loud and angry. So much so that they’re making life a nightmare for everyone else.
There are several issues at play here, so I’ll try to break them down:
The first is that masks are “dangerous”. This, ignoring special cases, isn’t true. I’ve been wearing masks for work since December, and I have sensory issues. Are they tight? Yes. Are they uncomfortable? Yes, hence why I routinely change them during breaks. But they’re not dangerous, or they’d be outlawed.
Besides, masks aren’t a new phenomenon. Doctors and nurses wear them all the time, often for many hours on end. And hospitals distribute them when people are visiting immunocompromised patients, lest there be lawsuits. I remember wearing a mask when I was getting over a cold during an ENT appointment once, as I had a residual cough. I hated every second of it, but I survived.
So many people act like masks are a detriment to their health and freedoms. Countless videos and articles discuss people throwing fits over masks in the last year and a half. Why does it bother them? Don’t they realize that wearing masks means being able to hide your face in public? Don’t people like that freedom?
Second, there’s the claim that COVID vaccines are “dangerous”. The arguments range from containing tracking devices inside them, to being overly-experimental, to having side-effects that won’t know about until years from now. Ignoring, again, medical exemptions, I have to call this out too: firstly, mRNA vaccines have been in development for years. They were in development before SARS in 2003, as COVID’s similar to it. They’ve gone through intense testing and tinkering since, and they were proven to work. They’re not quite 100% foolproof, but the companies that made them are aware of that.
The first is that masks are “dangerous”. This, ignoring special cases, isn’t true. I’ve been wearing masks for work since December, and I have sensory issues. Are they tight? Yes. Are they uncomfortable? Yes, hence why I routinely change them during breaks. But they’re not dangerous, or they’d be outlawed.
Besides, masks aren’t a new phenomenon. Doctors and nurses wear them all the time, often for many hours on end. And hospitals distribute them when people are visiting immunocompromised patients, lest there be lawsuits. I remember wearing a mask when I was getting over a cold during an ENT appointment once, as I had a residual cough. I hated every second of it, but I survived.
So many people act like masks are a detriment to their health and freedoms. Countless videos and articles discuss people throwing fits over masks in the last year and a half. Why does it bother them? Don’t they realize that wearing masks means being able to hide your face in public? Don’t people like that freedom?
Second, there’s the claim that COVID vaccines are “dangerous”. The arguments range from containing tracking devices inside them, to being overly-experimental, to having side-effects that won’t know about until years from now. Ignoring, again, medical exemptions, I have to call this out too: firstly, mRNA vaccines have been in development for years. They were in development before SARS in 2003, as COVID’s similar to it. They’ve gone through intense testing and tinkering since, and they were proven to work. They’re not quite 100% foolproof, but the companies that made them are aware of that.
Secondly, they work! Even when vaccinated people have contracted COVID, which was always a possibility, the symptoms have been far less severe. Long COVID symptoms range from flesh-eating disease, or “black fungus”, to increased onset of dementia, to even libido issues. And that’s only scratching the surface! There’s so much we don’t know about the long-term impacts of COVID, as it’s a relatively new virus. Wouldn’t it make sense to avoid contracting it by being vaccinated?
Thirdly, the research that went into mRNA vaccines, while new, has allowed for breakthroughs in other vaccines. The biggest one is a potential HIV vaccine. Wouldn’t it have been great to have it in the 80’s and 90’s, when HIV was still a real threat? How is this not a win?
And fourthly, mRNA vaccines have side-effects, true, but they’re monitored heavily. I know about the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca blood clots. I know that Pfizer can briefly derail the menstrual cycle. But guess what? These are being accounted for as potential side-effects. I’d still rather risk them than contract COVID. Especially when many of the foods we ingest are also more dangerous.
This leads to my third and final frustration: anti-vaxers/anti-maskers downplaying the severity of COVID. Not only is the virus real, but it has no plans of going away. It’s non-partisan, it doesn’t care what you think about it, and it’s dangerous. It’s also mutating, with Delta being the dominant variant now and Lambda being one of concern. These didn’t appear overnight, they were a result of transmissions through millions of people. And that they’re more aggressive than the initial virus is concerning.
Thirdly, the research that went into mRNA vaccines, while new, has allowed for breakthroughs in other vaccines. The biggest one is a potential HIV vaccine. Wouldn’t it have been great to have it in the 80’s and 90’s, when HIV was still a real threat? How is this not a win?
And fourthly, mRNA vaccines have side-effects, true, but they’re monitored heavily. I know about the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca blood clots. I know that Pfizer can briefly derail the menstrual cycle. But guess what? These are being accounted for as potential side-effects. I’d still rather risk them than contract COVID. Especially when many of the foods we ingest are also more dangerous.
This leads to my third and final frustration: anti-vaxers/anti-maskers downplaying the severity of COVID. Not only is the virus real, but it has no plans of going away. It’s non-partisan, it doesn’t care what you think about it, and it’s dangerous. It’s also mutating, with Delta being the dominant variant now and Lambda being one of concern. These didn’t appear overnight, they were a result of transmissions through millions of people. And that they’re more aggressive than the initial virus is concerning.
Why are so many people acting so selfishly? Why is being proactive so contentious? Why are vaccine passports, which aren’t even that controversial, being met with hostility and resistance? Sure, surviving the virus is a possibility, especially if you’re young and healthy, but there are over 7 billion people on the planet. Even if the chances of death are less than 10%, that’s still incredibly high. This is basic math!
I’ve heard stories from family and friends about the dangers of COVID. Some of my relatives are doctors, and they’ve done rounds in ICUs. The beds are filling up like no tomorrow, the hospital staff are overworked and stressed, and the patients are dying regularly. And even with that, people are acting like this isn’t a big deal? Does a virus only matter if it impacts you?
It’s been a tough year and a half. I miss going to the theatres and eating out with friends. Zooming all day is exhausting. And not taking public transit limits where I can travel, as I can’t drive. All of this is cumbersome. But it won’t get better unless we all play our part.
I don’t want to downplay the medical issues with masks and vaccines. Like I said before, I know there are valid exemptions to both. I know people who can’t wear masks, as well as people who are anaphylactic to vaccines. I feel for both, I really do. But that’s why I’m being extra careful. Because my due-diligence will save their lives.
I’ve heard stories from family and friends about the dangers of COVID. Some of my relatives are doctors, and they’ve done rounds in ICUs. The beds are filling up like no tomorrow, the hospital staff are overworked and stressed, and the patients are dying regularly. And even with that, people are acting like this isn’t a big deal? Does a virus only matter if it impacts you?
It’s been a tough year and a half. I miss going to the theatres and eating out with friends. Zooming all day is exhausting. And not taking public transit limits where I can travel, as I can’t drive. All of this is cumbersome. But it won’t get better unless we all play our part.
I don’t want to downplay the medical issues with masks and vaccines. Like I said before, I know there are valid exemptions to both. I know people who can’t wear masks, as well as people who are anaphylactic to vaccines. I feel for both, I really do. But that’s why I’m being extra careful. Because my due-diligence will save their lives.
Ultimately, we need to make a choice: do we want this pandemic to end, or do we want it to keep getting worse? I want the former. But that’ll only happen if we all behave. And if that means anti-vaxers/anti-maskers sucking up their pride and doing what’s right, then so be it. Because I’m tired of throwing away my life over their selfishness.
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