On October 4, a guest editorial authored by Ohio Academy of Family Physicians President Teresa Zryd, MD, MSPH, FAAFP, titled “Vaccines are about Health, Not Politics” was published in The Columbus Dispatch. The editorial reads as follows:
Were you vaccinated to keep from getting polio or smallpox?
Have your children or grandchildren been vaccinated to prevent measles, chicken pox, mumps or meningitis?
Those vaccines didn’t just help you or those children.
They helped everyone you or they come in contact with by not spreading highly infectious, preventable diseases. These are diseases that still kill in countries where vaccines are not widely available, accepted and given.
Around the country, many people will have you believe that we can live with COVID-19 and that the vaccine is problematic.
Being vaccinated is about protecting yourself. But it’s also about protecting everyone else you come in contact with.
I have worked in public health and the medical field all of my life. I can say this without any reservations: The arsenal of vaccines researchers have developed during the past 100 years have saved countless lives.
Researchers – some of them physicians – have been applauded and honored for their work. One of them, Max Theiler, was awarded a Nobel Prize for developing a vaccine for yellow fever, a disease that caused life-threatening epidemics throughout civilization.
I am open to listening to concerns about the vaccines. I understand there have been some mixed messages from organizations that we trust.
That is the nature of science. Remember, this is a new virus. As we have learned more about the virus, our ways to protect ourselves have evolved.
I also understand that people are frightened.
I don’t know everything, but I do know this: This conversation shouldn’t be about politics. Simply put, it is about health. The vaccine is more important now than ever.
The delta variant is wreaking havoc across Ohio, especially in rural counties where vaccination rates are low.
My private patient population is small, and most have been with me since I was a resident in training. When the COVID-19 vaccine first came out, many of my elderly patients asked if they should get it. I told them absolutely – that it would protect them, their family and their friends.
I also told them I would get it as soon as it was available to me.
The bottom line is that the vaccine means you are less likely to get COVID-19 and, if you do, you most likely won’t die from it.
Also, getting COVID-19 can be much worse than almost any side effects you might experience from the vaccine.
So, even if you are not worried about yourself, please consider those around you, your family, your friends. Protect them by getting vaccinated.