The COVID-19 pandemic required two critical elements. First, a highly contagious infectious viral agent that spread easily from human-to-human contact. Secondly, dissemination of that virus through worldwide travel.
Infections are generally spread by insects or animals – bats, rats, humans, mosquitoes, and ticks. In the instance of the corona virus, it was human to human contact that was essential for the development of the pandemic.
The Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Research Center estimates that nearly 32 million people in United States have been infected and another 570,000 persons in the US have died. If we do not do something, do it together and do something now, the numbers will only grow. Loved ones will continue to die or if they do survive, may live a life of ill health.
Stopping pandemics is not easy, but working together we can, and we must do something about it.
Stopping the pandemic requires reversal of the two elements that promoted it. First, reduction in human-to-human spread through the utilization of personal protective equipment like masks, observing social distancing, limiting travel to only that which is essential and respecting the well-being and lives of others.
Second, it is important that we reduce the contagion, and the only safe and effective way to do that is through vaccination. The World Health Organization stands firm on its perspective that vaccinations or immunizations are the single most important advance in medical science over the past 100 years. Smallpox has been eliminated worldwide; polio is nearly unheard of in developed countries. Childhood illnesses like measles, which were once deadly, have also been significantly reduced through vaccination. The list goes on and on.
Pfizer and Moderna have administered their vaccine in huge numbers with few serious side effects. The technology its state-of-the-art science utilizing the genetic code of the virus to produce the vaccine rather than a weakened viral particle from the virus itself.
Power your path to happiness! Enjoy life through sensible social distancing; travel using best practices personal protective equipment, and for gosh sakes, get vaccinated.
This is Dr. Jim for Be Healthy! Be Happy! Power your path to happiness – get vaccinated.