COVID-19, VACCINATIONS PUBLICITY CONFUSION & WEARING MASKS

Each and every day we wake up to contradictory news about how we should react or not react to COVID-19.

According to Michael Rainey, staff writer for the Fiscal Times, we are facing a “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.”

With the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus driving an uptick in new cases in some parts of the United States, health officials warn about the outbreaks of cases in the locations where there is a lower percentage of vaccinated people and unvaccinated people at risk.

Reportedly, hospitalizations and deaths are occurring almost entirely among unvaccinated people. If you are fully vaccinated, you are more protected against severe COVID, hospitalization, and death. You are even protected against the known variants, including the delta variant, circulating in this country.

Rainey’s article further states where vaccination rates are low and where cases tend to increase significantly.

According to World Health Organization (WHO)’s Director - General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the pandemic is still global. The delta variant is ripping around the world at a scorching pace, driving a spike in cases and deaths. The pandemic is not over anywhere.

Depending on who is talking, there are strong beliefs that the vaccinations are not helpful, dangerous for Black people, and were created much too fast, among so many other reasons. As far as schools are concerned, it is almost impossible for school districts to make mask guidelines because parents differ widely over whether they will allow their children to wear masks or take vaccinations. It appears that many stores and vendors are lax about masks, including for their employees.

Some health clinics or sites are giving masks to patients in an effort to encourage them to wear them. In essence, the final decision is ours as to whether we take vaccinations to protect ourselves against COVID-19.

It is also our personal decision as to whether we wear a mask to protect others and ourselves.

Most importantly, we should all educate ourselves as we make such important decisions. Researchers and medical professionals are giving away advice, vaccinations, and masks. The state of Louisiana is offering chances to win money as the eighty-year-old woman and the student both won $100,000 each in the first drawing.

No matter how much public confusion is out there and how many gifts are offered, the decision is yours to make.