This commentary is by Tom McKone of Montpelier, who is a former English teacher, principal and library administrator.
One day earlier this summer, my 2-year-old grandson and I were in his backyard, playing with a punching bag on a stand. He would either hit it or do a push-and-release, getting a kick out of watching it swing back. Once he misjudged the power and speed of the returning bag, and it struck him on the side of the face, surprising him and knocking him off balance.
Although he wasn’t hurt and didn’t fall down, he was visibly stunned. But he pushed the punching bag forward again, this time moving to the side so he didn’t get hit when he let it go. He looked at me and beamed. He had learned some physics and an important lesson: When life smacks you on the side of the face, next time, get out of the way.
On a grander scale, our 245-year-old country has been playing with a more serious punching bag, and as a nation, we aren’t quick learners. In our fight with Covid-19, we still have 90 million eligible people who are unwilling to get out of its way.
Now sometimes called the “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” it has come back with a vengeance and is again infecting over 110,000 Americans a day. As I write this, almost 62,000 Americans are hospitalized and over 617,000 have died. Worldwide, deaths total at least 4.3 million.
As long as Covid-19 has plenty of unvaccinated hosts keeping it alive and allowing it to spread, it will keep mutating, and some of those mutations may cause problems, as the current Delta variant has. Delta is more infectious than the original was, and there are indications it is more harmful, especially for younger people.
In the United States, we have 48 million children under the age of 12 for whom vaccinations are not yet available; we have thousands of people who can’t be vaccinated and protected by vaccines because of medical conditions they have; and a small percentage of those of us who are vaccinated, without knowing it, are not actually protected from the virus or its variations.
Without widespread cooperation, we can’t control the virus and we increase the small but real risk that there will be a new variant that our current vaccinations can’t stop — and that would send us back to square one. The unvaccinated remain at highest risk, but this isn’t just a pandemic of only those who refuse to be vaccinated: it is also a threat to all those who can’t be vaccinated and to our society as a whole — our economy, schools, businesses, social activities…
While I empathize with the poor countries that have little or no access to vaccinations, I have little patience for those in our wealthy, privileged nation who have flouted the virus and belittled concerns for the health of others. Some don’t even argue about medical or economic issues, which are fair game for objective dialog: They argue that the Constitution guarantees them the freedom to not wear a mask. What a perversion of liberty, to refuse to accept a minor personal inconvenience because your “freedom” is more important to you than someone else’s life is.
As a nation, we are so deeply divided that even this crisis and the mounting deaths haven’t brought us together. Everything, even a virulent, totally apolitical coronavirus, is politicized. A cadre of amoral politicians have mocked Covid-19 and fought practical steps to control it. Some so-called news outlets have deliberately misled their viewers, listeners and readers. Some online social networks — the wild West of false information — have done the same.
State lines can’t stop viruses, so here in Vermont, where we have worked hard, followed medical guidance and put our personal convenience after public health and the well-being of all, Covid-19 is on the rise again, too. Yesterday I wore a mask while grocery shopping, and every day there are announcements about additional places that are returning to indoor mask mandates.
Just as we were starting to feel life was heading back to normal, Covid-19 shows that it isn’t done with us yet. I’m confident Vermonters are going to stick together and continue to fight back.
There is no vaccine yet available for my 2-year-old grandson and his two brothers, but they’re cooperative about wearing masks when they need to. What more can kids do?
While there are signs that more Americans are recognizing the need for vaccinations, we need to make a significant dent in the recalcitrant 90 million to be successful. How many times does Covid-19 need to smack us in the face before we learn? One would think that if a smart 2-year-old can in one try learn to get out of the way of a returning punching bag, adults could do the same.
