The headline in Sunday’s edition of The Republic was stunning: “They didn’t have to die.”
Those are the words of Dr. Deepankar Sharma. The critical care and interventional pulmonologist was lamenting the deaths of 19 Bartholomew County residents from COVID-19 since vaccines became widely available earlier this year.
We can only imagine the grief of families who have lost loved ones to this pandemic. And we can only imagine how grueling COVID has been for healthcare practitioners like Sharma, who practices in the intensive care unit at Columbus Regional Health.
Sharma shared some of his heartbreaking care of terminally ill patients with Republic staff writer Andy East. Sharma said when COVID patients’ conditions worsen and they are moved to the ICU, many of them have a simple plea:
“At some point, most of them had requested if they can get the vaccination right now,” Sharma said. “And unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. They’re already infected … Most of them, I would say, had realized that their decision about not getting vaccinated was incorrect.”
Sharma said based on the data he has reviewed, if those 19 Bartholomew County residents who have died since vaccines were available had been inoculated, about 17 likely would still be with us.
Unlike the early days of the pandemic, about half the local people who have died since vaccines were available were younger than 70. Some were as young as 19.
On a purely humanitarian level, this is beyond tragic. For the families and friends of those who are no longer with us, the loss will always be there. But so too will the haunting realization that it might have been preventable.
No politics, no fringe conspiracy beliefs, no misguided cries of freedom are worth this kind of pain. For those who still refuse to be vaccinated, it’s long past time to drop the flimsy, phony excuses. Get vaccinated already.
We realize many hardcore anti-vaxxers are locked in and tuned out to the real-world good that the vaccines have provided. They believe what they believe, data be damned. And the data prove COVID vaccines are widely effective at preventing serious illness and death.
Nevertheless, we also realize that distrust of science, medicine and institutions is epidemic, too. But for those who so distrust institutions and therefore refuse to take a vaccine, there is something we don’t understand. How is it that the conspiracy-mongers get a pass? Why do people who indict effective vaccines somehow have a monopoly on the truth?
Ironically, some of the loudest voices who condemned vaccines on the airwaves have been silenced by COVID. Forbes reported last month that five talk radio hosts around the country who spoke out loudly against vaccines have died due to coronavirus. Some made public deathbed confessions: They were wrong. They recanted. They wish they had gotten vaccinated.
They didn’t have to die.
We realize a somewhat hectoring newspaper editorial is unlikely to move someone who thus far has refused vaccination for fear of needles or fear of some conspiratorial bugbear.
But we’re going to make another appeal anyway. And if an appeal to reason won’t work, perhaps an appeal to emotion will.
If you won’t get vaccinated for the sake of your own health, think of your family and friends. Think of your community.
Think of those 17 people just in Bartholomew County who didn’t have to die.
