Your Views for September 1

Sliding back

The Delta variant of COVID-19 is conducting a master class in microbiology and epidemiology. Many in our society are selecting to flunk out — some permanently — by refusing to be vaccinated against the virus. Oh, the anti-vaxx adherents howl “ my body, my choice,” while others proclaim their “extensive research” determines the vaccine and its effects are worse than COVID-19.

Well, yours truly has also conducted “extensive research” with the emphatic conclusion that vaccines work.

Despite an approximate year or so of irrefutable evidence regarding the efficacy of the “rushed” vaccine, the anti-vaxxers cling to their conspiracy theories with outrageous self-assurance.

Now, reports are circulating of the ingestion of a deworming medication used for horses and livestock. This to prevent or treat COVID-19 despite a complete lack of evidence of its effectiveness. Heck, might as well just inject bleach or Lysol disinfectant into your body to eradicate the virus.

Science is a candle in the dark, as Carl Sagan once stated 25 years ago. Did he predict our collective response to COVID-19 a quarter century ago, what he termed “ a slide back into superstition and darkness?”

Let us have Sagan answer that: “The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites, lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

You geev um, Carl Sagan!

Unfortunately, many out there are deliberately attempting to blow out that candle in the dark, and because of that, the COVID-19 virus has hit paydirt.

Kerry E. Meyer

Hilo

Not swayed

I have been noticing quite a few passionate letters about getting vaccinated.

As a yet nonvaccinated person, none of the arguments to get vaccinated has swayed me. However, I did decide to make some serious lifestyle changes: to isolate, to wear masks, to not travel, to stay away from fast food restaurants, to stop smoking and drinking, to stop doing drugs and to adopt a vegetarian/pescatarian lifestyle. Oh, and to start exercising more seriously.

All this to strengthen my fabulous immune system.

I also decided not to put more babies in this already overpopulated world because it seems that our numbers are quite seriously messing up the delicate balance on our planet.

These are quite drastic lifestyle changes I actually made eons ago as a teenager; I am now 70.

Whether the virus came out of wildlife or was man-made in one of those scientific/warfare labs, that is a moot issue. We will most likely never get the answer to that.

As to the writer who suggested that ICU intake should be denied to nonvaccinated persons: I think that is a great idea as long as there will be someone at the gate who can objectively decide whether that nonvaccinated person came to be treated for COVID or for other underlying health conditions.

Stay safe, everyone!

Gerdine Markus

Pahoa