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WASHINGTON: With Covid positive cases ticking past 52,000 per day, the United States has once again surpassed India (less than 40,000 cases per day as per official count) amid growing regret and recrimination among some anti-vaxxers but also continued resistance among diehards skeptics of the vaccine.
Alarm bells are ringing again after a 170 per cent jump in cases over in the US the past two weeks. Experts are cautioning that continued resistance and defiance among anti-vaxxers is leading to what is being now being called the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
Three cases in the past week highlighted the political and ideological fight that has infected the debate on the pandemic.
In one, a prominent radio host who once wrote that he was not going to get the vaccine because his chances of dying from the virus were “way less than one percent,” ended up getting Covid-19, to the derision of pro-vaxxers. He is now hospitalized and on a ventilator, fighting for his life.
“I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense. What are my odds of getting Covid? They’re pretty low. What are my odds of dying from Covid if I do get it? Probably way less than 1 percent. I’m doing what everyone should do and that’s my own personal health risk assessment. If you have underlying health issues, you probably need to get the vaccine. If you’re not at high risk of dying from Covid then you’re probably safer not getting it,” Tennessee radio host Phil Valentine had said last December.
He had also mocked vaccines with parody version of the Beatles’ song “Taxman,” called “Vaxman”.
Now his family is asking for prayers for him, inviting withering response from those unsympathetic to plight. “Sorry, no prayers for Phil. He downplayed the virus. He mocked others. God is teaching him a lesson,” one critic tweeted in response to the hashtag #prayforphil
Elsewhere, an Alabama mother who lost her 28-year old son to Covid-19 says not getting the vaccine is her biggest regret. “It took watching my son die and me suffering the effects of Covid for us to realize we need the vaccine. We did not get vaccinated when we had the opportunity and regret that so much now,” Curt Carpenter’s mother Christy told the local media after he lost a two-month battle to the virus.
“If Curt were here today, he would make it his mission to encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Cayla, his sister, and I are carrying out that mission in his memory,” she added.
But even as Covid rampages through skeptics, some victims on the right remain defiant. Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins disclosed Sunday evening that he, his wife and his son all have Covid-19, the first two for the second time.
“Becca and I had Covid before, early on, in January 2020, before the world really knew what it was,” he wrote in a social media post. “So, this is our second experience with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) biological attack weaponized virus.”
It was not clear if Higgins and his family were vaccinated. Alabama and Louisiana, both Republican strongholds, have among the lowest vaccination rates in the US.
Alarm bells are ringing again after a 170 per cent jump in cases over in the US the past two weeks. Experts are cautioning that continued resistance and defiance among anti-vaxxers is leading to what is being now being called the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
Three cases in the past week highlighted the political and ideological fight that has infected the debate on the pandemic.
In one, a prominent radio host who once wrote that he was not going to get the vaccine because his chances of dying from the virus were “way less than one percent,” ended up getting Covid-19, to the derision of pro-vaxxers. He is now hospitalized and on a ventilator, fighting for his life.
“I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense. What are my odds of getting Covid? They’re pretty low. What are my odds of dying from Covid if I do get it? Probably way less than 1 percent. I’m doing what everyone should do and that’s my own personal health risk assessment. If you have underlying health issues, you probably need to get the vaccine. If you’re not at high risk of dying from Covid then you’re probably safer not getting it,” Tennessee radio host Phil Valentine had said last December.
He had also mocked vaccines with parody version of the Beatles’ song “Taxman,” called “Vaxman”.
Now his family is asking for prayers for him, inviting withering response from those unsympathetic to plight. “Sorry, no prayers for Phil. He downplayed the virus. He mocked others. God is teaching him a lesson,” one critic tweeted in response to the hashtag #prayforphil
Elsewhere, an Alabama mother who lost her 28-year old son to Covid-19 says not getting the vaccine is her biggest regret. “It took watching my son die and me suffering the effects of Covid for us to realize we need the vaccine. We did not get vaccinated when we had the opportunity and regret that so much now,” Curt Carpenter’s mother Christy told the local media after he lost a two-month battle to the virus.
“If Curt were here today, he would make it his mission to encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Cayla, his sister, and I are carrying out that mission in his memory,” she added.
But even as Covid rampages through skeptics, some victims on the right remain defiant. Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins disclosed Sunday evening that he, his wife and his son all have Covid-19, the first two for the second time.
“Becca and I had Covid before, early on, in January 2020, before the world really knew what it was,” he wrote in a social media post. “So, this is our second experience with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) biological attack weaponized virus.”
It was not clear if Higgins and his family were vaccinated. Alabama and Louisiana, both Republican strongholds, have among the lowest vaccination rates in the US.
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