Bad and good news about COVID

In the top-down world of life with COVID-19, we stop to take note of some serious frustration and uplifting news that we hope brings us closer to closing the book on this terrible disease. .

Let’s start with the bad news: the large number of people who simply won’t get vaccinated.

At this point, it looks like most people who aren’t convinced they’ll get vaccinated will stay so, in the absence of something no one wants, an even more terrible increase in cases and deaths.

Trying to convince them is exhausting for those of us who have spent months making every argument of reason and emotion we can think of.

A survey conducted by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler gives some numbers on the number of Texans who just aren’t going to get vaccinated – a frustrating 18% figure. Another 6% say they are unlikely to take the hit and 9% “probably would”.

While we welcome a future where 76% of eligible Texans are vaccinated – the numbers the poll suggests are possible – we are not yet confident that will happen. As it stands, just under 60% of eligible people are fully vaccinated. Vaccines have been widely available for free for many months now, so there are more people resisting than the survey seems to admit.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Science shows vaccines are safe and effective in preventing serious illness or death from COVID-19 infection. In extremely rare cases, they cause side effects. Data shows that the risk of these side effects is much lower than the risk of serious illness or death from contracting COVID-19.

Our information flow is so corrupted now by misinformation, lies and baseless skepticism, there is not much we imagine we can say here to open the eyes of those who refuse to acknowledge scientific reality. We just hope that over time, as those vaccinated lead their lives without ill effects, some skeptics see the error of their ways.

Now for the good news. Many people who follow science eagerly await the chance to immunize their young children. Pfizer’s announcement that its vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11, and that the company is seeking government approval, must be music to the ears of parents sending their children to school despite high COVID-19 transmission in the classroom.

While serious illness and death in young children remains rare, the delta variant quickly increased the total number of sick children. Reports of intensive care units filled with COVID-19 patients in children’s hospitals have been a chilling new chapter.

Vaccinating young children promises lower transmission in schools, fewer cases among vulnerable adults and a faster exit from the pandemic.

We urge our local schools to be ready to set up quick and easy vaccination clinics in every elementary school possible. And here in Dallas County, we’re calling on county leaders to be ready to restart full operations at Fair Park and Ellis Field, which have effectively vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people.

The day the vaccine is approved for children is the day we need to immunize as many children as possible.