Plenty of reasons to take and trust the COVID vaccination
I would like to know where all abominable reticence about getting vaccinated is coming from among you anti-vaxxers. Do you not know about the marvels of modern medicine? Do you not know that serious illnesses such as polio, smallpox and measles have all but been eradicated by vaccination? Some of these vaccinations are even mandated (as should be the COVID-19 vaccination).
How can you therefore resist or oppose the vaccination, even sometimes to the point of demonstrating against and physically disrupting it? Can you not comprehend that medical science does know what they are doing and that they have your best interests in their focus?
There are verified reports that 95% of new cases of COVID-19 occur in the unvaccinated. Do you not understand that vaccination and socially distancing, handwashing and masking are incredibly cheap insurance policies against a disease that has killed 600,000 people?
All this evidence is against the mostly unsubstantiated claims about reactions and minor complications of vaccinations.
CHARLES ANDERSON, M.D., MARIETTA
Here’s why COVID protection mandates won’t work
Regarding the letter, “Shots required for other diseases, why not COVID-19?” (Readers Write, Sep. 1), the author mixes authoritarianism and anti-Trumpism in chastising Gov. Brian Kemp for not using the government’s heavy hand to mandate COVID vaccinations and mask-wearing in Georgia. And blaming Trump for Americans thinking they should have freedom of choice is ludicrous. Sure, the COVID vaccine is helpful in fighting the disease, though many believe there are valid reasons — including having antibodies from prior COVID infection — for someone not getting the vaccine. Furthermore, current COVID vaccines don’t give the permanent protection many other vaccinations do. And the efficacy of mask-wearing, given the poor quality of most masks and their even-poorer application by many wearers, is questionable. Last, who bears the near-impossible burden of enforcing vaccination and mask mandates? Oh, I suspect the letter writer and fellow mandate-warriors would relish the task of COVID vigilante, though they may find the job daunting and exhausting.
GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA
