BIO235 Introduction to Microbiology
Unit 5 Discussion
To vaccinate or not?… That is the question….
The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected every person either directly or indirectly in some way. The fact that Covid-19 is a virus makes the challenge even greater – viruses are not living entities and they cannot be killed. We have to wait until our immune system can destroy the virus, or we can get help from man made vaccines which boost our immune system to combat the virus. Viral vaccines are nothing new. The first viral vaccine was the polio vaccine in 1955, which was closely followed by many other virus vaccines such as measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis, rabies, smallpox, etc. And every year a new “flu” vaccine is formulated and widely distributed to combat the yearly new strains of flu viruses.
So in the US we have been successfully distributing new and quickly developed Covid-19 vaccines by several different pharmaceutical drug companies, and booster vaccines are readily available. Expectedly, everyone should be thrilled with the prospect of receiving the Covid-19 vaccine – vaccinating everyone against polio had eradicated polio outbreaks worldwide. Once our population gets vaccinated we can finally get a handle on this devastating pandemic and start putting back the pieces of a normal daily existence. However, there is a significant amount of resistance by numerous people who say that they will not take the vaccine. For example, some people don’t trust the vaccine, some say the side effects and efficacy are not known, others claim it’s against their religious beliefs, some say they won’t take it because it has been developed under the Trump presidency, and some claim vaccines cause autism. Some have medical exemptions.
Should the US population get vaccinated by mandate? What happens if in the future we start developing undesirable side effects – should we continue the vaccinations or not? The Biden administration has mandated that certain groups of workers get vaccinated by a certain date if they want to continue working. Will employees actually get the vaccine or lose their jobs? Can stores/restaurants/gyms/movie theaters, etc. require that only Covid vaccinated people are allowed to enter their establishment? Is this another form of discrimination?
Start the discussion board by clicking on the blue “ To vaccinate or not?… That is the question….” heading. Express your original thought/post under “Create Thread”, then make at least two replies to your classmate’s original post.
