Ignorance is bliss. Well, ignorance is bliss for an individual. However, an entire community remaining ignorant to “keep the peace” becomes problematic. Truthfully, it does not actually “keep the peace.” Instead, it can have hazardous effects, as severe as death. This is what we are seeing in the United States today, as roughly 31% of adults remain unvaccinated. COVID-19 is not going anywhere anytime soon, and as a community, we have an obligation not only to keep ourselves safe but keep others around us safe as well.

There has been an incredibly prevalent issue regarding vaccine misinformation this past year. For whatever reason, people have taken it upon themselves to identify and research the COVID-19 vaccinations and go against the word of the CDC. Allow me to remind you; the CDC stands for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. People are trusting Facebook news more than they are trusting the Center for Disease Control. This pandemic has become not only medical but mental as well. We are fighting physical sickness, as well as extreme ignorance. 

I have no qualms when it comes to researching and learning more about what you will be putting into your body. That is not the issue at hand. The problem is that people have become highly paranoid, to the point of hysteria. I fear that people do not fully comprehend what a vaccination entails, and no one cares to learn. 

A vaccination typically contains a similarly coded virus to the one that you are trying to fight. Injecting this virus helps the body build a tolerance to a particular disease or sickness to gain partial, or sometimes complete, immunity to the said virus. 

The COVID-19 vaccinations work similarly. According to data provided by the CDC, the chances of being hospitalized due to Covid after complete vaccination is only 0.00005%. The CDC states that every 1 in 5,000 people gets sick after vaccination within that same data. With that logic, if everyone in California got vaccinated, Covid cases would be virtually gone in our state, and mask mandates would likely be lifted. 

Our parents adore reciting the phrases “older and wiser” and “respect your elders” to us every chance they get. However, they are not taking their own advice! In the United States, 94% of people 65 and older have received their first vaccination dose. 83% of those people are fully vaccinated. Comparing this to people aged 12 and up, where only 65% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated. Why are we ignoring our elders? Why are we putting the people who brought us into this world at risk by remaining unvaccinated and uneducated? 

We are amidst a pandemic, yet people are now choosing to “defy the government” and “question the media.” To put it simply, you are not a doctor. You are not a scientist. You are in no position to spread misinformation claiming that the vaccine makes you infertile or disables you in other ways. Now is not the time to revolt against the government. Now is the time to look at your peers and think about how this pandemic has affected their lives. It is time to accept your responsibility as a capable and privileged citizen who can get vaccinated for free. You can save lives and help to end this pandemic with two simple shots. Do not choose ignorance.