In this article, I will explain why you should trust your doctor, not a politician, for Covid-19 vaccination advice.
Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is a smart guy; he graduated from Yale and Harvard Law School. But he has more ambition than character. These days he’s slamming Covid-19 vaccines. Here’s why you should ignore him:
- He’s a flip-flopper. In July 2021, he said, “If you are fully vaccinated the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from Covid is effectively zero.” Now he’s singing a different tune, because his party is full of vaccine deniers, and he wants to appeal to them for votes.
- He’s a liar. In August 2022, he shouted, “They lied to us about the mRNA shots. They said, ‘If you take it, you will not get Covid.’” Doctors and health experts never said that. They always said the vaccines had limited effectiveness for preventing infection, but were highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death.
- He appointed a quack as Florida’s state surgeon general. His appointee, Joseph Lapada, has promoted discredited remedies and “herd immunity” as a substitute for mass vaccination, and asserts young men shouldn’t get booster shots because of a heart attack and stroke risk he based on a data analysis no serious scientist would accept as valid.
- His record sucks; only 12 states have worse Covid-19 death rates than Florida (see chart here).
- This is obvious but bears mention: He has no medical training, and zero qualifications to be giving medical advice.
Taking Covid-19 advice from Republican politicians has proved deadly for their followers. Yale University researchers found that in Florida and Ohio, registered Republicans were 1.5 times as likely as registered Democrats to die from Covid-19 (see story here).
Everyone, not just Republicans, has pandemic fatigue and wants life to be normal again. But health experts and doctors are raising alarms about what’s coming this winter: “A flurry of new Covid-19 variants appears to be gaining traction globally, raising fears of a winter surge. In the United States, these are BQ.1, BQ.1.1, BF.7, BA.4.6, BA.2.75 and BA.2.75.2.”
They’re urging people, senior citizens especially, to get the new booster — which for some people will be their fifth Covid-19 shot — because it specifically targets these variants, and the older shots aren’t very effective against them. But keeping your Covid shots up to date isn’t just about staying alive. People who’ve had Covid-19 report it can feel much worse than the flu. And people with long Covid-19 have found themselves still struggling with uncomfortable and debilitating symptoms many months later.
Don’t be stupid. Don’t listen to Ron DeSantis and his ilk; get your booster shot now. You arm may hurt, and you may even feel lousy, for a day or too. But never mind the side effects; getting the disease when unprotected is much, much worse. And if you’re smart, you won’t vote for DeSantis when he runs for president, either. He’s not someone you can trust; he’ll say whatever he thinks dummies want to hear, and it changes with the political winds (read story here).
