Back in February 2019 when the new coronavirus broke out in China, I had no idea who to trust or what to do. Doctors and scientists and organizations such as the WHO and the CDC, were under funded and confused. Politicians and journalists had even less background knowledge and information, but that did not stop them from manufacturing thousands of stories.
A proliferation of misinformation grew daily and much of it is still circulating on the Internet. Sixteen months later we find ourselves drowning in a sea of conflicting information. What facts and solutions are going to help us to survive this viral pandemic of disease and confusion?
Even though I studied science in college, that was decades ago, and I don’t understand viruses or how the RNA vaccines work. My daughter teaches biology and my brother is a doctor and I know that they and the thousands of people developing and testing and manufacturing the vaccines have more extensive and up to date knowledge. But Covid is a newly discovered virus and it takes time to review and publish new research. Even the accuracy of medical statistics can be constantly questioned because the amounts of incoming data are massive each day and coming from 50 states and hundreds of counties in the US alone.
Each state and country has been reacting to the pandemic very differently, so it was impossible to quickly understand clear and effective ways to stop spreading this highly contagious virus. Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how the virus circulates indoors and whether or not mask wearing alone can be effective in planes, cars, public restrooms, and classrooms.
But as soon as money and information began to flow into the hands of scientists and researchers all around the world, this vast medical community was able to make rapid progress. At least six different vaccines have been created and tested in at least 10 different countries over more than six months.
This massive effort included thousands of scientists and researchers, volunteers in research trials, statisticians, public health officials, nurses and doctors, and the millions of people who got vaccinated early and sent detailed follow up information about their health to the CDC and local state agencies. No single person or group of scientists or doctors worked alone and that is why we can trust the results of their careful and collaborative work in creating, testing, and improving the quality and the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Of course we still have questions about long-term effects of a new RNA type of vaccine, but there are long-term studies of similarly made medicines. Doctors and researchers are studying and treating millions of people who survived a case of this COVID virus and are suffering from long-term effects that in many cases are quite debilitating. This disease is not just affecting older people or unhealthy people.
In fact, new variants of COVID-19 are being studied all over the world and there are some worrisome patterns of contagion in countries like India. Researchers are studying all the new variants and many are worried about the development of new, more deadly variants. The longer the pandemic lasts, the more chances there are to develop more variants of Covid and to spread them around the world.
That is why I think that all adults, especially those who have already had children, need to get vaccinated as soon as possible. If there are long-term effects on their fertility or ability to have healthy children, these adults will not need to worry about them. Instead, they need to keep themselves healthy so that they can support and care for their families and so that they will not be part of the extension of this pandemic for many years into the future.
The longer the pandemic lasts, the more difficult all our lives will be and the more likely that new variants (that could be more harmful to ourselves and our children) will have a chance to develop and spread.
I choose to get vaccinated in order to lessen these risks to my children and grandchildren and in order to focus on tackling climate justice and global warming.
Emma Stamas lives in Colrain.