It’s amazing when you stop to think about it: Only nine months after being slammed by COVID-19, America had a vaccine. Then that quickly doubled, and now we have three.
However, some folks apparently worry that the newest one, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, is not as effective as those made by Pfizer and Moderna, and say they won’t take it if offered.
David Leonhardt wrote an interesting column in the New York Times this week about such “vaccine alarmism.” It appears that not only are there people hesitant to get a coronavirus vaccination in the first place, but now there are some who might be choosy about the brand.
That likely is due to the reported efficacy rates. Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine is said to be 72-percent effective, while the two-shot Moderna and Pfizer versions are 94 percent and 95 percent, respectively.
But this is an instance in which you’ve got to get past the headline to read the full story: All three vaccines are nearly 100-percent effective at preventing serious illness and death.
Leonhardt points out that the efficacy rate is the vaccine’s ability to prevent all infections from this coronavirus. But in the big picture, coronaviruses are all around us, causing the common cold and other manageable illnesses. The problem with COVID-19 is how lethal it can be: It already has killed 15 times the number of Americans who die in an average flu season.
“Turning COVID into something more like a mild flu or common cold means victory over the pandemic,” Leonhardt writes.
He goes on to explain some differences in the three brands of vaccine. You can read the full story at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#search/Times/WhctKJWQhmSwSbFXlMTCTJbMwKTXZfhmzDGZJxcQmpBmsmGlLmzDTFVHnDMmsZTfjBGwbwb.
The point is that catching a mild case of the coronavirus should be the least of our worries. Instead, we should worry about becoming extremely sick and dying.
So if you haven’t already done so, sign yourself up for a COVID-19 vaccination. And whatever the brand, remember it is a major shot in the arm in Uncle Sam’s fight to keep you alive.
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