Vaccinating

OUR GOSPEL SINGING GROUP was somewhat depleted Monday. There were, if I remember, only four of us, instead of the usual twelve or fourteen. That made the singing harder; I could hear myself better, not necessarily a good thing. I later found out that many of them had and still have Covid. I'm grateful to the fellow gospel singer who informed me of this, and I am even more grateful that I don't have it. However, my soprano lady friend singer - and she is a great singer - and I decided that we're going to take a couple of weeks off, away from the gospel singing. The newest version of the vaccine, which is supposed to be extremely effective against the current viral variant, will be available, according to my pharmacist, around October first, or shortly thereater. After I get it I will return to the gospel siging. Since March-April 2021, I have been vaccinated against Covid 19 no fewer than six times, the most recent this past June. The lady at the pharmacy advised me to wait until the fall to get it, because that would be closer to the predicted winter Covid upsurge. But I insisted; I wanted to get it while the getting was good. It turned out to be ther right decision. The upsurge came early, in late summer, and while this current Covid upsurge gets worse and worse, I am fully vaccinated, and will still be eligible for the new vaccine in a week or two, because they are starting all over, with everyone. Meanwhile, the anti-vaccination movement sees to eihter be growing, or, if nothing else, to be as strong as ever, which means, dangerous, deadly. I get the impression that there are many anti-vaxxers at my ocal senior center, among not only the gospel singers but the staff emebers and senior members. Covid has run rampant through the place every time there is an upsurge. The anti-vaccinatio point of view is, overwhelmingly, conservative, from what I understand. I have not heard about many left wing politically progressive Democrats being anti-vaccination. Anti-vccinationism is not only harmful, it is devastating to society, to the world. In the United States alone, tens of thousands of people have almsot certainly died because, and only because of anti-vaccinationism. There are countless stories of people in ICU, gasping their last breaths, suddenly announcing that they are now ready to get vaccinated, and could you plaease vaccinate me now? By then, it is much too late, and the medical professional has the depressing responsibility of telling the termminally ill far right wing evangelical Christian Trump supporter that, regretfully, it is too late. Over and over again, irrefutably, vaccinations for all diseases, including polio, small pox, malaria, chicken pox, the flu, Covid, and on and on - have been clearly proven to be extremely effective. Vaccines work like a charm, period. Opposition to vaccines has the same right wing, populist, anti authority anti science genesis as, say, climate change denial, and refusal to accept humman evolution by natural selection. Trump's handling of theCovid pandemic in 2021, his denial of its severity, his proposing quack cures, his refusal to get the government involved, was catastrophic, the exact opposite of what needed to be done. The attitude and behavior of his followers concerning the pandamic has been and remains equally devastating for the world. Because of this, the next pandemic upsurge will, as always, be much worse than it needs to be. If I can make it about two more weeks, I can get vaccinated again, and get back to singing gospel.