Tag Archives: vaccines

Vaccines aren’t evil, Ron

Ron DeSantis is showing us what kind of presidential candidate he likely will become; he will trade on voters’ unjustified fears about proven medical treatments designed to rid the nation of a killer virus.

The Florida governor, likely to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, vows to launch a probe into the evil nature of the various vaccines approved by the federal food and drug agencies to fight the COVID-19 virus.

DeSantis, certainly no medical doctor, is getting some shi**y advice from his staff on what to say about the vaccines. Every infectious disease I have heard has said they are safe, they are effective and they shouldn’t be cause for worry among those who need to take them to fight off the virus … that is still killing Americans.

What the hell is DeSantis talking about?

I believe he is blowing it out his backside. It sounds like a precursor to a GOP nominating campaign that is going to trade on more lies and deceit.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

COVID cases falling everywhere except …

U.S. health officials report good news on the fight to curb infection, hospitalization and death from the COVID-19 pandemic virus.

It is that infection rates are falling in 49 of the 50 American states. Which state is the anomaly? Alabama. Oh, there’s also this: Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate of any state in the Union.

Hmm. What does that tell you? It tells me that vaccines are doing their job. It tells me that those who refuse to be vaccinated are putting themselves, their loved ones and their friends at potentially dire peril from the virus.

I have several good friends in Alabama, so I am going to send good thoughts to them and their families. As for those who refuse to heed the wisdom passed down by the medical experts about the efficacy of the vaccines, well, I hope they don’t get unduly sickened by a preventable disease.

The nation is beginning to reap the reward of vaccines that were fast-tracked in 2020 and that are now establishing their value against a virus that has killed nearly 900,000 Americans.

There might never be a day when the COVID-19 virus is eradicated. At the very least we are going to have to learn to live with it, deal with it and protect ourselves and our loved ones against its infection.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Pandemic = confusion

This blasted pandemic is confusing me to no end. Many things remain constant: masks work; vaccines are essential; social distancing is preferred.

Now, though, we hear that the Omicron variant — the latest such offshoot of the killer pandemic — is on the verge of petering out. It’s peaking soon, the medical pros tell us. We are going to see a dramatic reduction in infection, hospitalization and worse … quite soon.

Herd immunity. Do you remember that one? Now I hear that Omicron is going to infect damn near everyone. Not if we can help it in our North Texas home. We don’t want to test positive for anything resembling the virus. So far, so good on that one.

As for what lies ahead, we hear now that we might have this virus among us practically forever. We will have to treat it like the flu, or the common cold, nothing worse than that.

Hey, if that’s what lies ahead, I am OK with that.

I just am a bit puzzled as to what to expect, when to expect it and how to deal with it if and when it — whatever “it” is — arrives.

And, no … I do not blame Anthony Fauci for this, or the CDC’s Rachel Wallensky, or President Biden.

This world of ours is treading onto territory it hasn’t seen before.

I am going to deal with my confusion in due course and hope for the best as we battle through this pandemic.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Virus is here forever?

Admission time: It is beginning to look as though we’re going to have the coronavirus around for as long as most of us are alive.

That’s what I keep hearing as I listen to the news and read various publications. It makes me wonder: Will the virus continue to disrupt our lives?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s senior medical adviser, today was dishing out a bit of good news. He said that the virus will morph perhaps by the end of the year from a “pandemic” to an “endemic” disease, meaning that it will still be around but will be manageable enough for us to avoid major life disruptions.

Well … I can live with that.

The “new normal” appears now to include a lifetime with this virus lurking in the background. At least that’s what I glean from it at the time being.

As I have noted already, the idea of wearing masks is seeming to be more “normal” than not wearing one. I’ve been able to travel a good bit over the years and have noticed masks are the “uniform of the day” for most folks in places with poor quality. Residents of Asian cities such as Bangkok, Taipei, Delhi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Mumbai wear masks routinely as they go about their day. Now they have a virus to keep them masked up.

So, it might be for most of the rest of the world.

I’m OK with it, too — as long as it keeps my loved ones and me safe from the virus.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ready and waiting for an end … to the pandemic

Oh, brother. Let me count the reasons why I am so ready for the pandemic that has become part of our daily lives to be under control enough for it to no longer dominate every news cycle I watch.

The docs the networks trot out keep telling us that the current surge, the Omicron variant, will continue for a while longer. Then they tell us those who are stricken by it won’t be as sick as before, but that there will be more of them.

I am counting my lucky stars, my blessings and every little thing I can count for the fact that my wife and I have remained free of the virus. Same for our sons and their loved ones. One of my sisters got quite sick a year ago; her husband was asymptomatic with the virus. They’re recovering and I am thankful for that, quite obviously.

However, I am so-o-o-o-o ready for this virus to be controlled. The vaccines are working. They have those oral meds that prevent occurrences. I might stock up on the pills if I am able to find an outlet to acquire them.

It’s becoming clearer to me that we aren’t likely to exterminate the COVID virus. We’ll just need to corral it and keep a sharp eye on it.

I am OK with that. I just am ready to be free of the news barrage dealing with the COVID virus.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What’s happening to me?

I cannot believe what is happening to me. I find myself actually defending Donald J. Trump, albeit on a limited basis and focused only on a single issue.

The 45th POTUS — the former Imbecile in Chief — is defending vaccines as a way to fend off the scourge of the COVID-19 virus that is still sickening and killing Americans. He took the vaccine in the final days of his single term as president; he has taken the booster shot, too.

Now there’s this conservative anti-vaxxer, Candace Owens, saying Trump is “too old” to know better than to contest the vaccine and the booster.

I am not that far behind Trump in age, so I kinda resent her remark.

Moreover, while I know that Trump has never actually been an anti-vaxxer, he was silent about the efficacy of the vaccines while he served as POTUS. So, for him to say now that he believes in the vaccine is a good thing. I am going to offer a timid golf-clap form of applause for his coming around.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Trump angers the cultists?

Now comes word from the hinterland that Donald Trump’s praise for vaccines to fight the coronavirus pandemic is drawing the ire of the cultists who continue to cling to some phony suspicion about whether the vaccines work.

Of course they work! Donald Trump recently has stepped up his support of the vaccines in the wake of President Biden’s praise over his predecessor’s work to make them available.

Some of the diehard Trump loyalists, though, ain’t buying the notion that the former POTUS is pushing, that they are doing the job they are intended to do.

And that only the unvaccinated are the remaining Americans who are “getting really sick” from the pandemic and its assorted variants.

They are mistaken. The former president is correct.

There. I said it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Patience gets tested

It’s time for an admission: The latest surge in COVID-19 variants, this one is named Omicron, is testing my patience.

OK, that all said, I don’t intend to give up, to surrender to the virus that has now killed more than 800,000 Americans.

It’s just that these surges are driving me batty. Dr. Anthony Fauci wonders whether we’re prepared for another “surge” of cases caused by Omicron. Sheesh, man!

I am starting to believe what some medical experts have suggested: that we’ll never be free — as in totally free — of the virus. I don’t know if Dr. Fauci has said such a thing. He well might have; I just lose count of the warnings.

I simply am going to just suck it up with regard to masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing, generous use of hand sanitizer … those kinds of things.

My wife and most of my immediate family are vaccinated fully; my wife and I have received our booster shots, too, along with our sons and daughter-in-law. I hear that some members of my extended family are digging in against getting vaccinated against the killer virus; I hear they distrust what’s in the vaccine and one of my extended family members reportedly has said she won’t heed the warnings given by “liberals and Democrats.” She lives far away from us, bless her steely heart.

I’ll deal with the Omicron variant the way I have dealt with prior variants. I’m just gonna keep my distance, mask up and say a prayer that we can get this virus under control.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Legislature showed a bit of courage

Texas legislators surely did not distinguish themselves during their three special sessions. The abortion ban, the voter suppression bill and redistricting are among the low points legislators played out.

It wasn’t all bad, though. I want to offer this example of a bit of political courage.

The Texas Legislature did not act on Gov. Greg Abbott’s demand that it approve a bill that would have given Abbott authority to tell businesses they cannot issue vaccine mandates for employees.

The Legislature dug in on that one. To which I offer a hand-clap, albeit it’s a bit muted … more like a golf clap.

Abbott is supposed to be a pro-business Republican. His effort to ban business owners from issuing vaccine mandates is about as anti-business as it gets. The vaccines are aimed at preventing human beings from being struck down by the COVID-19 coronavirus, which has killed more than 700,000 Americans.

Happily, the rate of infection and death are decreasing. Abbott is likely now to join his pal in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, in taking a victory lap for the result.

I am just glad to see the Legislature exhibit a touch of courage in standing up to Abbott’s goofy notion that government can tell private business owners how to run their businesses … and protect the people who work for them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Vaccination rates need to ramp up!

The stories we keep hearing — all of them verified by medical records — of unvaccinated Americans dying of COVID complications are beginning to drive me utterly insane.

Additionally, we keep hearing from local public health officials from coast to coast to coast that the vast majority of COVID-related hospitalizations involve those who haven’t been vaccinated against the killer virus.

What part of “common denominator” do the numbskulls among us not understand?

The unvaccinated Americans who for whatever reason — many of them idiotic — are not getting protection against the virus simply stun me into silence. I have nothing to say to them or about them.

I heard a story that was reported today about a young man, 24 years of age, who died of COVID complications. The network had recorded him saying he had resisted taking the vaccine because he bought into the idiocy that the pandemic was made up, that it was a “conspiracy” concocted for reasons no one can comprehend.

Then he got sick. He told the TV interviewer he wished he had taken the vaccine earlier. He was convinced it would save his life.

The young man died over the weekend. He leaves a wife and a young son.

Thus, I am left with this conflict of emotions: Do I feel sad that a young man died? Or do I just blow it off, just as he did when he refused to get inoculated?

Pfizer is getting closer to having its booster dose approved by the feds. When that moment arrives, my wife and I will be among the first to get in line and receive it. We got our second shots in February. We have been fortunate so far. We mask up. We practice “social distancing” when it’s possible. We don’t go anywhere out to eat. We stay home as much as we can.

I am fighting hard to keep my sanity, though, while we hear these stories similar to the one I just described. That might be more difficult than the struggle to remain clear of the COVID virus.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com