Aunty, tell the other side of the vaccine story!
19 April 2021 |
Dear Aunt Sevvy:
You are correct that there is a lot of misinformation out there on Covid-19 vaccines. But in the interests of good journalism, should you not at least allow for the other side of the debate, and let informed citizens decide for themselves? In George Washington’s day, expert medical opinion had him bled. Not so many decades ago, expert medical opinion said smoking tobacco was no big deal, and that heart disease could not be reversed.
Signed, No Vax for Me
Dear No Vax
Good journalism provides the best truth that we have. It doesn’t hold back because someone has floated proofless conspiracies. As for letting informed citizens decide for themselves, who’s preventing you from deciding for yourself? Aunty isn’t coming to your house to hold you down and jab your arm.
You, on the other hand, seem to not want to hear the universal consensus of reputable experts: that beyond any possible doubt the effects of COVID-19 are far worse than the risks of a vaccination.
An informed view of medicine must trust experts who know more than we do. Says AT’s own medical consultant, Dr. Jack Hoehn:
The anti-vaccination feeling may be sincere, but the evidence grows with each month that it is sincerely wrong. Primitive 19th-century vaccinations, with much higher risks of side effects, were recommended to Adventists by our prophetess. What we have now to fight disease is many times safer than Ellen White had.
Every Adventist and every human should try to get at least one dose of an approved Covid-19 vaccine. They all are safe and amazingly effective compared to Covid-19, which is not safe.
To raise doubts from the lack of scientific evidence in George Washington’s and Ellen White’s days is to put you (and others) at risk of disease, death or long-term disability. We understand medical treatments far better now. Yes, in millions of vaccinations there will be some adverse reactions—10 or 100 or 1,000 may have a dangerous side effect. But those cases must be understood in the context of the nearly 600,000 American deaths from Covid-19, and millions of deaths across the world.
In short, there has never been a safer time to take a scientifically studied and tested vaccine.
What if someone in whose mind you raise enough doubts that he or she refuses the vaccination, gets sick and dies, or has life-long complications? Are you willing to risk their life on your unproven doubts?
And as for Adventist end-time conspiracies, it can’t be said better than by Gary Gibbs in an article in Amazing Facts: “The mark of the beast concerns enforced worship,” he writes, and enforced worship “is not an element of the current pandemic.”
Aunt Sevvy
You can write to Aunt Sevvy at DearAuntSevvy@gmail.com. Please keep questions or comments short. What you send us at this address won’t necessarily be, but could be, published—always without real names. Aunt Sevvy writes her own column, and her opinions are not necessarily those of Adventist Today’s editors.