Thoughts on COVID and Death

As the media teams with government officials to whip up panic about the latest Delta variant of Covid, new data was released over the weekend that indicates the hype is overblown.

CDC and state Covid dashboards show about 164 million Americans have received a Covid vaccine. Of those vaccinated, approximately 125,000 have had a “breakthrough case” and gotten Covid. Take 125,000 and divide it by 164 million to get 0.00076 percent. Just 0.004 percent of that tiny percentage required hospitalization, a testimony to the fact that vaccination greatly diminishes the severity of the disease for the few who get it. And of those few hospitalized, 0.001 percent died from Covid-19 after vaccination.

The data gives us a number of takeaways. First, vaccination dramatically reduces the chance of getting Covid in the first place. Second, when vaccinated people get Covid, it’s usually not severe. Finally, even in post-vaccination cases requiring hospitalization, chances of dying from Covid are greatly reduced for vaccinated people.

But there are those who still choose not to get the vaccine. We must recognize that they have that right, whether we agree with their reasoning or not. In fact, it could be argued that since death from Covid-19 is relatively rare in healthy adults ages 18-30 and extremely rare in healthy children under 18, we could benefit from them actually getting Covid and recovering with natural antibodies in order to speed us to herd immunity.

It’s time to admit that Covid-19 will be with us forever, just like the flu and the common cold. And each of us must understand we have two options – get vaccinated or get Covid. If you get Covid, your overall health plays a big role in determining if you’ll die. But you know what? We’re all going to die someday. Shutting down all our lives over a miniscule chance of death is not acceptable in a free society. Yet that is what many in positions of authority are saying must be done again. And they’re using fear to manipulate the masses.

The Hong Kong flu outbreak of 1968-1969 killed about four million worldwide, far more than Covid-19 has. There were no shutdowns, no mask mandates, no mass school closings, no restrictions on gatherings – heck, Woodstock took place in the heat of that pandemic. We were Americans, dang it, and we weren’t about to let something smaller than we could shoot shut us down. What’s changed? Too many are afraid and willing to sacrifice freedom for perceived safety provided by the false god of government.

Americans fear death because we’ve neglected the foundational teachings about what comes after it. It’s hard to convince people they’re sinners in need of grace when the idol of self-esteem sits at the center of so many lives. We’re told we are all fine just as we are. Many denominations are even abandoning established doctrine in favor of less judgmental teaching for fear of offending. In response, church attendance continues to plummet because the truth is people deep down yearn for objective moral truth and structure in place of the shifting sands of subjective moral relativism.

It’s time to get vaccinated, cowboy up, and tell the fear mongers they’ve got no power over us because our personal motto is still “In God We Trust” even if the nation’s isn’t.