Mandate the vaccine

No more talk

Leon E. Panetta, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, has suggested that the U.S. military mandate COVID vaccines, since protecting the troops is a matter of national security. The COVID vaccine is the single most effective tool against the spread of the coronavirus and its variants. At this point, the vaccine is voluntary among members of the military, though the senior leaders are preparing for a mandate.

Why the shot remains voluntary — for the military, for civilians — is beyond me.

Pres. Biden has been reluctant to make it happen, but today, COVID-19 variants (Delta and Lambda, among them) are burning across places such as Indiana and Missouri. In fact, the Delta variant accounts for every single new coronavirus case in southwest Missouri, where just 35% of people have been vaccinated, and they’ve run out of ventilators. SaLUTE, hillbillies.

I feel compelled to say this photo was taken not in southwest Missouri, but in Los Angeles. Sad, that.

Nationally, the U.S. is heading toward a 50% vaccination rate. In Connecticut, we’re closer to 62% fully vaccinated. We certainly have our issues in Connecticut, but we read here. We discern. And we act for the better of ourselves and our neighbors.

When I was out in southwest Missouri a couple of weeks ago, someone told me that her grandmother is 83, and the older woman’s attitude is that she’s ready to die, so if she gets COVID, well…

I wonder if that grandmother is ready for her children and grandchildren to die, as well. A family is only as protected as its weakest link. Did they all take a vote and decide to roll the dice?

(For what it’s worth, the morning after I returned from COVID Land, I got a rapid test, just in case I carried anything nasty home. The test was negative.)

Clergy appealing to better natures hasn’t worked. Lottery prizes for the vaccinated haven’t worked. Going door-to-door to offer the vaccine hasn’t worked. In fact, that latter initiative has been mischaracterized by certain members of the Republican Party as an attempt by Big Government to take Bibles and guns.

(Puh-leeze. The mind reels at the stupidity. It reels, it wanders off the trail, and then it lays down to sleep things off.)

So enough. Enough talk about freedom (which has literally nothing to do with this public health crisis). Enough reaching across the aisle. Enough tip-toeing around the stupid. Mandate the vaccine. Every single state has some form of mandate for already-existed vaccines. (And let’s consider removing religious/philosophical exemptions for all vaccines. Just saying…) Add the COVID vaccine to the list of must-haves. Let the mouth-breathers whine, sue, and pout — as is their right — but be sure to enforce the mandate and punish (A fine? Public shaming? I’m down with either) the scofflaws.