Regrets, They've Had A Few (Cont.)

 

We didn't have to do much digging for the latest examples of people who opted not to get the COVID vaccine, but now regret that they didn't, because Philip Bump did all the leg work.  Here are a few regretful souls he found (our emphasis):

Shelly Wachter was wary of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus because of what she described as the “white noise” surrounding its safety. After she had knee replacement surgery in Omaha a few weeks ago, though, she contracted covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. She was hospitalized and treated with supplemental oxygen, an ordeal she described as “pretty terrifying” to the Lincoln Journal Star.

“Now, knowing what I do, I would get the shot,” Wachter said. Doing so, she said, “could have saved myself and my family so much by having gotten the vaccination.”  [snip]

People such as Quentin Bowen, a farmer also from Nebraska, who told the Journal Star that he “thought I had time” to get vaccinated — but didn’t before getting sick. He described having to tell his young children that he was going to the hospital as “about the hardest thing I’d done.”

Asked for what advice he’d offer those who hadn’t gotten a shot, he said, “Trust the science, forget the politics and the social media, and get vaccinated.”

Chris Ard of Alabama told a local television station that contracting pneumonia after his coronavirus infection “almost killed me.”

“I would recommend everybody get vaccinated,” he said. “Don’t wait because when it’s too late, it’s too late and there were times I was going through this that I regretted not getting vaccinated.”  [snip]  

... Blake Bargatze, 24, contracted the virus in Florida. He ended up having a double-lung transplant.

“As soon as he got in the hospital, though, he said he wished he had gotten the vaccine,” his stepfather told a local news station.

Tennessee state Rep. David Byrd (R) had similar advice for his constituents. Byrd contracted the virus last November and has been battling covid ever since. That included two months on a ventilator in the intensive care unit and a liver transplant.

“I have never been against taking the Covid-19 vaccine, but I understand the concerns of those who are hesitant. To them, I would say Covid is real and it is very dangerous,” his statement said. “It is a disease that wants to kill us. Please take it seriously. Please consider getting vaccinated.”

Last year, Byrd voted in favor of a resolution that criticized the media for “sensationalism” about the virus.

Bump provides other examples of people who had various, suspect reasons for not getting vaccinated, including some who suffered even more tragic consequences than those above.  Science and logic seem to have not played much of a part in many of the decisions, as one might expect given the quotes provided. Most were banking on getting through a years- long pandemic on wishful thinking that it wouldn't affect them, possibly bolstered by the deadly misinformation being spewed on a daily/ nightly basis by right- wing media. 

The good news, if there is any, is that the Delta variant surge and these "I regret not getting the vaccine" stories might be responsible for the significant uptick in vaccination rates, especially in states and counties that voted for the malignant former guy, and who remain in thrall to his anti- vaxx, anti- American messaging.  Where the stories are not cutting through the "white noise," we'll see Darwin's natural selection process playing out in real time.

BONUS:  There's always one more former "invincible" turned advocate.