[ad_1]
The younger Salk said he rarely capitalizes on his name – but he believed this time it would make a positive difference, as now he was receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I publicly stepped forward so that I could be publicly vaccinated and have a chance to say something because I was hoping it would make a difference,” Salk told CNN. “I was hoping that if I stepped away from the back in the shade where I usually stay, it might help some people make up their minds. If so, I will be very grateful.
Salk, who has been feeling well since receiving the vaccine, said he was “delighted” to have his first dose. Part of the reason is that he has several underlying conditions and is a high risk patient, he said.
The other part is that he sees it as a feat of modern science. Salk has spent years as a vaccinologist studying the creation of vaccines, as well as how to make and transport them.
For him, the decision to be vaccinated was obvious, both for his health and for those around him.
“The chances of you getting infected with Covid-19 are so much higher than the risk associated with the vaccine,” he said. “It seems like an easy choice to me. I don’t want to risk my life or the life of someone I love.”
Salk has a message for them.
“The bottom line is that these vaccines are safe, they are effective and they will help us bring this pandemic under control,” he said. “You have to seize the opportunity to be vaccinated and be part of the solution.”
Polio and Covid-19 have both invaded the United States
The polio epidemic made headlines in the United States as most children were struck by the crippling disease. It caught the nation’s attention and the thrill of it all is something people who experienced it in the first half of the 20th century remember vividly.
The Covid-19 pandemic has some of that same emotion, Salk said, but the trajectory of the two diseases is markedly different.
“Polio came on gradually. It was a chronic disease or an endemic disease, and then it became epidemic as the susceptible population increased,” Salk said. “The Covid-19 virus, on the other hand, came on, everyone was susceptible and had no experience with it before. It spread like wildfire … around the world very quickly . “
Seeing the Covid-19 vaccines distributed made Salk think of his father and how “he would have been happy and excited to see this,” he said.
“It made me understand the importance of the work my father did, both to stop the epidemic with the vaccine itself and to demonstrate that one could use non-infectious agents to get vaccinated.” , Salk said. Her father used a killed polio virus to create the vaccine.
Living through the Covid-19 pandemic has had a duality for Salk, who is both intrigued and frightened by it.
“I had that kind of ‘push me, pull you’ reaction,” he said. “I was scared, but I was fascinated to be able to be a part of it, to see it and to experience it.”
US response to pandemic puts him in embarrassment
Simple acts like washing hands, wearing a mask and avoiding crowds could have controlled the spread of Covid-19. How the United States has responded to the pandemic frankly embarrasses Salk, he said.
“It’s a shame that in this country, which is supposed to be the quintessential advanced world, the response has been, I’m sorry, so badly spoiled,” he said.
“We are now swimming upstream,” he said. “It bothers me that the United States is number one in the problem with the Covid-19 virus, more cases than anywhere else, it is spreading faster than anywhere else. It is embarrassing to me that this country has not responded correctly because he was not driven by science. “
The way to get the virus under control is for enough people to get the vaccine and Salk is hopeful Americans choose to get it.
“Vaccines are safe and effective, and they should be used widely,” he said. “We will get away with it, but it will take the right behavior for individuals to get rid of it.”
[ad_2]
Source link