This commentary is by Peter Duval, a resident of Underhill.
It’s Monday. I can schedule an appointment for coronavirus vaccination, and for the first time in my life I am feeling vaccine-reluctant. I am not hesitant from fear but reluctant from unfairness.
Like most Vermonters and their pets, I have always gotten all of my shots and more. How fortunate I was to — vaccinated — circle the globe with my young daughter. We visited places where polio is a recent memory. Vaccines are awesome.
It’s Tuesday. At the press conference, they seem to be holding their breath as they watch the case counts rise. It’s time to write a commentary. Sosin, Roth and Winterbauer have written good commentaries.
International:
Fair warning: Vermonters may feel remorse about Vermont’s embrace of the America-first vaccine strategy. It’s less effective than global cooperation, something that will be needed for future pandemics and other global crises.
In 1777, a decade before the U.S. Constitution was written, Vermont’s Constitution prohibited (adult) slavery — the first country in the Western Hemisphere to do so. The direct effect was limited. Still, it was a bold political move forward, and Vermont has since led other moral advances.
There is now an opportunity to mitigate the risk of remorse about vaccine nationalism by sending vaccine to someplace where there is none. Where and how? I am confident that the governor can figure that out. The effort, if unsuccessful, would be worthwhile even if only for the exercise and our self-image.
Intergenerational:
Fair warning: Vermonters may feel remorse about Vermont’s oldest-first vaccine strategy. Is it really guided by science?
During the pandemic, my daughter and I have been able to head into the woods, up on the mountain, and onto the lake without any possibility that the trees, rocks, snow or water would give us coronavirus. We have hiked and skied past the original site of the March of Dimes polio monument, which memorializes the 1894 Vermont outbreak, beginning a 60-year epidemic.
Now, after all of the travel and time outdoors, my daughter is in quarantine, a close contact of a UVM schoolmate who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. With 80 students testing positive for the week ending March 28, 2021, the case rate for students at UVM is easily three times higher than the state as a whole (80/12,741 vs 1,080/623,989 — don’t quibble). Some fraction will go on to develop post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) — long COVID. The list of possible sequelae is long and the cost of COVID for even asymptomatic young Vermonters will be real.
While my daughter’s mother dutifully got her first shot in December, and her grandmother was delighted to get hers in February, I have a dilemma. They had compelling reasons to be vaccinated. The only excuse that I have for an appointment is Vermont’s simple age-band schedule.
As three parents, we have experienced many moments of pain and pleasure and most stages of life. We’ve known some who were not so lucky. Having lived full lives and accumulated some resources, we can continue to observe the precautions necessary to avoid exposure for as long as it takes.
Any one of us would give our doses to ensure that the youngest in our family could go forward in life and confidently travel, hike, run and swim. I could wait even longer to support sending vaccine to faraway places and people who need it. But if I just defer vaccination, it wouldn’t accomplish much.
More than a third of Vermonters — even now, a year into the pandemic — have never been tested for coronavirus. College students have been tested dozens of times since August, reflecting the larger risk of exposure in the close quarters of student housing. There are others, such as prisoners, who have even less say in how much contact they have with others. And again, there are people whose only access to vaccine is through COVAX.
Even if international vaccine sharing is pooh-poohed in Montpelier, prompt vaccination of my daughter and others in congregate settings is absolutely feasible. It wouldn’t just reflect positive ethics; it would stabilize college operations and reinforce the notion that Vermont is a good place to go to school.
It’s Wednesday. I know what I want to do: designate an alternate.
Vermont should adopt Winterbauer’s recommendation. If not, at least allow parents and other age-band eligible adults to exercise their own judgment to defer vaccination and designate a student or prisoner or essential worker to take their place in the queue. The rest of us can stay home, stay safe and get outside.
It’s Friday: Case rate up. It’s time to send in the commentary.
