To say that I am sick of COVID-19 is an understatement. Thankfully I haven’t been physically sick from COVID-19 but the mental anguish has been significant. It’s been a year and a half of uncertainty, fear, isolation, anxiety, grief and frustration. I’m sure some of you are quite familiar with these feelings.
Right now my overarching emotion is disappointment. I am disappointed that we are still living through this pandemic. I am disappointed that our country is divided on how to best handle the virus. I am also disappointed that so many people are rejecting facts and beneficence in favor of misinformation and self-interest. This is dangerous territory.
When did people start renouncing what is scientifically proven to be best for the whole in exchange for what “might” be best for them personally? How did upholding personal freedoms become more noble than ensuring the safety of the masses?
Recently I read a quote that really stuck with me and seems wholly applicable to our current situation.
The Cherokee elder Stan Rushworth said, “The difference between a Western settler mindset of ‘I have rights’ and an indigenous mindset of ‘I have an obligation’ is instead of thinking that I am born with rights, I choose to think I was born with an obligation to serve past, present and future generations, and the planet herself”.
These are powerful words that mirror the split happening over Coronavirus.
66% is a D. That's too Close to Failing.
I had assumed that the vast majority of people would be of the “obligation” mindset but my assumption is inaccurate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 66% of Americans age 12 and older - those eligible for the vaccine - are fully vaccinated. I’m not comforted by this percentage rate; it feels much too low for such an unpredictable, deadly virus. Are four out of ten people okay rolling the dice on this one?
I have to wonder how people have lived through the same past 20 months as me but have chosen not to vaccinate, not to mask up, and not to protect themselves and their loved ones from COVID. How are they so confident they’ll survive? How do they not fear inadvertently killing another human being? Were they not watching the same news as me - of tractor trailer trucks lined up on city streets, acting as mobile morgues because the hospitals were too full of dead bodies? That haunting image alone was enough to make me think the vaccine was worth getting.
Towards the beginning of the pandemic, I remember watching footage of nurses in NYC walking into their hospitals with neighborhood residents cheering and banging pots and pans together from their apartment balconies in a show of support and love. I hoped these same people showing their support outwardly and loudly were doing what was needed behind the scenes: quietly getting their vaccinations without fanfare. I hoped they were doing what was necessary to actually prove their allegiance to those fighting on the hospitals’ front lines.
What Can We Do?
As nurses, we can help turn the tide of COVID by educating our patients and peers on the dangers of misinformation and the vital importance of doing all we can to stop the spread. We can disseminate factual knowledge to those who need it, loudly. It’s our obligation to set the record straight and offer evidence-based research to those who may be getting their news from less-than-reliable sources.
It’s Our Time to Be Outspoken. Lives Are On the Line.
We can spread the facts at our patients’ beside, to their visitors, on social media, and to our anti-vax friends and family. We can volunteer at vaccination clinics. We can tell real-life, modern horror stories of how intubation works or how organs shut down due to this disease. It’s time to scare people straight.
We can sport a cheery “I’m Vaccinated!” pin and wear masks in public, even when not mandated. We can run for the school board and help influence safety measures in our children's classrooms. We can help organize transportation to local pharmacies for citizens who may not be able to get to a vaccination site otherwise. There’s a hundred other ways we can do good work and keep people safe.
Over the past 20 months we’ve established that healthcare professionals are heroes. Let’s continue to do heroic things, not just with our skilled hands, but with our loud, determined voices. Make yours heard.
