10/21/21 Chatterbox
by Betty Kaiser
Cottage Grove Sentinel
I hate being sick! So, I was surprised at the controversy over the prevention of this horrible Covid-19 virus by vaccination. “Just do it and get it over!” was my thinking. So, as soon as it was available, my husband and I did.
Why? Because I have had mumps, measles, chicken pox, yearly colds, chronic bronchitis and every seasonal flu that came around (until the flu shots). But not everyone feels the same way. The vaccinations were immediately controversial.
In fact, wherever I go, the vaccine is the biggest topic of conversation. Many people still don’t find it acceptable for reasons that range from “it won’t happen to me” to “I don’t believe in the science.”
I agree that science is not always perfect. Sometimes things don’t work but this is a dangerous, worldwide virus we’re dealing with— over 700,000 people have died from this virus just in the United States. And no problem can be solved if it’s ignored.
Fortunately, there’s been a lot of trial and error to get this vaccination to the public. Labs have done due diligence in their research and decided that this will save lives.
Now, we have a choice to trust them or not. I chose to believe the scientists are correct. The main reason is because over 6.6 billion shots have been given and lives saved. Amazing!
I grew up in an era when my grandparents and parents, watched loved ones die from health issues that are now treatable. They knew some illnesses were transferrable, often non-curable and the only way to protect themselves was to stay away from those who were sick. Hard to do!
My mother didn’t talk very much about her childhood illnesses. My grandmother, however, often told the story of her only child catching whooping cough in the 1920s from neighbor kids. Some died. There was no treatment and mom coughed violently for weeks. She eventually recovered and today there is a vaccine. But not everyone takes it. In 2019 there was an estimated 21 million cases and 160,000 deaths worldwide.
Another example is my dad. He was born in 1908. He was a Missouri country boy, the firstborn in a family of six that included him, mom, dad, one sister and two brothers. He was still a bachelor during the early 1930s when his mother and sister both died of tuberculosis.
Later, he met my mother when she was visiting relatives in Missouri. They fell in love, eloped and got married! They then got on a train and came to California where her parents (my grandparents) lived.
A year later, a baby boy was born to them but dad was very ill. One day at work, he was found sitting on a curb, unable to move during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Soon, he was hospitalized, diagnosed as having tuberculosis and sent to a sanitarium! The lung with tuberculosis was collapsed. He was hospitalized and isolated for 3 years.
During that time, mother and dad’s little 3-year-old boy died of tubercular meningitis. It was a heartache from which they never recovered. Today, there is a vaccine for it but in some countries, it is still a problem.
Many of you remember the dreaded Polio paralysis epidemic of the 1950s. History will tell you that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was crippled by it as well as thousands of others. Thankfully, science came to the rescue in 1955 with the polio vaccine.
However, polio still roams the world. I personally, knew a woman who was disabled by it in the late 1960s. while a missionary in Africa. The natives kept her alive in the jungle by peddling a makeshift contraption that helped her breathe. She lived but she never walked again.
So, dear readers, I hope that you make the right choice in this life-or-death situation. The decision to invest in a Covid-19 vaccination is yours.
God bless you all and stay healthy!
Contact Betty at bchatty@bettykaiser.com
