V is for Vaccine and Victory

Ringside Report Op-Ed by Melissa Manchester

If you’ve ever brought your toddler to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese you’ll recognize the following image…your kiddo jumps gleefully into a bin of brightly colored plastic balls with all the other baby birthday guests. There they romp, breathing the same air, holding the balls with sticky fingers, tossing the colorful balls, licking them, smelling them, sneezing on them and all the other little ones are doing the same and having a grand old time. Turns out it’s a germ-fest!

Later that night or the next morning your little one wakes up with earaches, fevers, sniffles. He or she is rushed to the pediatrician where bubble-gum flavored Amoxicillin is prescribed. Little one recovers until the next birthday party. Sound familiar? Of course you wouldn’t deny your kids the chance to share in festivities with their little buddies but you as parents understand the potential consequence for the choices you make on their behalf.

These memories rush back to me as we slog through more months of the latest plague, Covid 19 and now the Delta Variant.

Science has shown that wearing a mask protects not just me the mask-wearer, but you and your loved ones and neighbors as well as these viral strains are now known to be highly contagious. The vaccine gives us enormous protection and if a follow up booster is required I’m taking it with a grateful and appreciative heart to scientists and researchers everywhere. I trust the wisdom and presentation of the science by Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the Centers for Disease Control and I appreciate President Joe Biden for addressing the catastrophic consequences of the hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths due to the bungled mis-managment of the former administration with an actual plan to vaccinate as many Americans as possible as well as to help other countries in need of our arsenal of vaccines to protect their citizens.

During the 1918 Flu epidemic 50,000,000 died worldwide.Mask resisters were called’ Mask Slackers’ and were fined for said refusal and were regarded as un-patriotic

Getting back to those little ones in that ‘ball bin’ …

For those who resist wearing masks and/or getting a vaccine they are effectively living in that ball bin while forcing those of us masked and vaccinated to potentially incur the burden of their consequences.