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I need to apologize for this post. Not because of the profanity, but for apologizing to begin with. I shouldn’t be sorry that anyone is stupid. In this day and age, people choose to be. And if you choose to not get vaccinated during a worldwide global pandemic that hundreds of thousands of people have died from and many more have long-term effects, you’re really fucking stupid.
I received a call from Bear’s school to come pick him up because someone in his class tested positive for Covid-19. Because one person tested positive, it means the whole class is under quarantine. Upon picking Bear up, I received a note about what happened and the nearest test locations.
The note didn’t specify whether it was a student or the teacher, but seeing Bear’s teacher is an elderly woman, I can safely say it probably wasn’t her (and the fact 90% of the district’s teachers are vaccinated). She also taught at the school this morning so it’s pretty safe to say she was fine.
I don’t know for sure if the parent of the student was fully vaccinated. However, upon reading the note, the student tested positive on Tuesday and still attended school the following Wednesday. The fact there was a concern for a student to get tested should’ve told the parent to pull the student out and keep them home until they had a negative result.
To say I’m livid is like saying 9/11 was just a minor event in American history. I had plans to produce more income and they were either put on hold or shuttered all together because I needed to quarantine with my son.
Now don’t get me wrong – I love my kid, he’s amazing. But I also love to make money. I also love to provide my child with a nice life as well as provide myself with one. Therefore, I’m more than a bit irritated that someone’s really careless decision has impacted an entire class.
That’s right – one family impacted an entire class full of 20+ kids.
This is where I have a problem with the anti-vaxxers and their ‘Muh body, muh rights, muh freedom’ spiel they love to do on various social media platforms. Yes, it is your body and you can do whatever you want with it. However, the moment your choice impacts several other people – especially in a global pandemic, it’s no longer about you.
In fact, let’s keep it one hundred. The reason why this pandemic hasn’t ended is because humans are incredibly selfish and self-centered. We’re always thinking about us first. Me, me, me. Team Me. The Land of Me. No one but me.
And that’s the problem. We’re not conditioned to care for others. I really wish the message Dr. Fauci presented wasn’t ‘wear a mask to protect others’ but rather, ‘wear a mask to protect yourselves from others.’
There is a lot to be concerned with Bear and his friends coming down with Covid. Not only will he miss school and our financial income will take a massive hit, Bear will have side effects that are well, pretty horrifying.
If anyone has paid attention to the news, long Covid sufferers are impacted by a multitude of symptoms all over their bodies. According to the American Medical Association, long-term covid effects range from brain (memory) fog, shortness of breath, or even newly-formed diabetes.
“Then, from a lung perspective, patients have persistence of shortness of breath, or dyspnea, and require ongoing oxygen treatment even after discharge and for weeks to months because of permanent damage to the lungs,” said Dr. Sanghavi. “As far as the cardiac system is concerned, there’s chest pain and shortness of breath.”
Additionally, patients can experience persistent kidney dysfunction as well as newly diagnosed diabetes or worsened control of diabetes.
Now, this is only long-term covid effects in adults. In children, the news is no better. While many people think because children are younger and therefore, have stronger immune systems, the opposite is actually true.
According to the Harvard Medical School:
A potentially severe and dangerous complication can occur in children. Called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), it can lead to life-threatening problems with the heart and other organs in the body. In this condition, different body parts, such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs, can become inflamed.
Symptoms of MIS-C can include
- fever lasting more than a couple of days
- rash
- “bloodshot eyes”(redness of the white part of the eye)
- stomachache
- vomiting and/or diarrhea
- a large, swollen lymph node in the neck
- neck pain
- red, cracked lips
- a tongue that is redder than usual and looks like a strawberry
- swollen hands and/or feet
- irritability and/or unusual sleepiness or weakness.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to experience that for myself yet alone for my child. And yet, anti-vaxxers are content this is not a big deal…to them.
This blog rant is not to convince anyone who is a staunch anti-vaxxer to change their views. If they don’t care about their health, why should I care about their views? The point of this post is to express my frustration.
I can understand being hesitant about the vaccine; I was hesitant myself. I can understand the side effects are too scary and people don’t want to go through that; my side effects from the J&J vaccine sucked.
I got over it. The long-term effects of Covid are nothing to sneeze at. Death is the very worst thing that can happen, but there hasn’t been enough emphasis on double-lung transplants, reproductive issues, breathing problems, loss of taste and smell that some people still haven’t come back. Just to name a few.
I’ll get over my anger about what happened with Bear and his classmates. I’ll get over the anger towards the parent who was so careless and just fucking stupid, they put the entire class at risk. But I will have a difficult time understanding the plight of the refuse-to-be vaccinated because when push comes to shove, if they get sick enough, they will take themselves to a hospital.
That’s right. A hospital. Anti-vaxxers don’t trust vaccines, but they trust doctors who will put all sorts of meds in their bodies to save their lives. They won’t have the power to determine what they can have and what they will refuse because well, they won’t be able to make that decision through a mask. Make it make sense.
I don’t hate anti-vaxxers, and I need to make that clear. I’m friends with a few and we respect our friendship enough to not bring up our beliefs. I did politely tell them, however, I’m not trying to hear their shit.
In conclusion, I didn’t write this post to convince anyone to get vaccinated. If you’re still refusing to be vaccinated after reading this, I can only pray you don’t pass your stupidity onto others. I do ask, if you refuse to be vaccinated, do everyone a favor, and not go to a hospital. Let the doctors and nurses treat those who believe in them and in science.
