The recent spate of social media posts and news reports of people who refuse to get free, potentially life-saving Covid vaccines reminds me painfully of two stories about people I knew.
Spoiler alert: The two are no longer with us.
One was good friend and former roommate Bruce Obits at Grand Valley State College. The other was Donna Smith Matthews, ex-sister-in-law of old chum Jon Gambee.
Bruce Obits was one of three roomies I had during my sophomore year in college. We had a lot in common and were good friends.
But I learned in 1971 he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. He underwent radiology therapy for treatment, and as so often happens, “they thought they got it all.” They were wrong.
Bruce in 1972 announced his cancer had returned. But then he made a crucial and fatal decision — he refused chemotherapy, maintaining he didn’t want those toxic drugs circulating inside his body, drugs that could be worse than the disease.
Bruce opted instead for vitamin supplements and natural “remedies” touted as being effective and more benign. He died in November 1973.
I remember talking to him over the phone when he was in the hospital. Because of my cowardly attitude toward him during his last days, I tried to forget my passive and innocuous conversation. All I remember was his telling a nurse to take back a shake he was prescribed for gaining weight.
Bruce’s death deeply affected me personally. In 1968, I introduced him to Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony, which he took home and played for his mother in Newaygo. He requested the second movement (“Goin’ Home”) to be played during his funeral.
I was even more personally affected because I myself was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease in March 1981. But there were two crucial differences between Bruce and me. I reluctantly agreed to five rounds of chemotherapy, and 40 years later I’m still alive.
The drugs I had to take made me very sick and even gave me Shingles, but I somehow survived the ordeal.
While undergoing chemotherapy, I read two books by Laurel Lee, “Walking Through the Fire” and “Signs of Spring,” outlining her battle with Hodgkins Disease. I learned she only had radiotherapy at first in 1975, and the disease returned about a year later. So she was stuck with those awful drugs that really made her sick.
But Lee didn’t die until August 2004, of complications from pancreatic cancer. She lived for 29 years after her first diagnosis.
Donna Smith Matthews was the sister of pediatric nurse Dorothy Smith Mika Gambee, Jon’s first wife. She had a crushing breast cancer diagnosis a couple of decades ago.
But rather than have those terrible drugs invade her body, Donna chose a treatment regimen similar to that of Bruce Obits. Her tragic result was the same.
I have heard other stories about people who have bravely rejected traditional prescribed treatment, and the results almost always have been death. Some desperate souls have even taken up healing claims from charismatic preachers and their ilk. Don’t get me started on parents who have let their children die because they don’t believe in medical treatment such as blood transfusions.
Readers should watch Steve Martin’s movie “Leap of Faith,” or even better, Sarah Kernochan’s Oscar-winning documentary “Marjoe.”
So I am both astonished and sad when I see and hear Facebook postings and meeting attendees reject a free vaccine that very likely will save lives insisting the issue is nothing more than a matter of choice and freedom.
Their comments bring back terrible memories that don’t end well.
And once again we have to endure the never ending “covid soap box speech”. I am truly sorry that you lost these special people to a terrible disease, I have lost special folks to cancer as well. It sucks! These people made a choice. They exercised their FREEDOM to make that choice,their choice, just like those of us who choose not to take the jab. I hold NOTHING against those who get vaccinated but I sure would appreciate it if the those who feel differently than I do about exercising my FREEDOM would respect my CHOICE as to what I feel is best for ME! You need to understand that one way or the other I have my reasons for feeling and doing what I do with my life and that is nobody elses business. In God I trust! So please can we give it a rest? Thank you.
If you do not want the vaccine, fine. Please stop using God, Freedom and Choice as your excuses. God is an example, not a guide. I know a lot of Sunday only Christians. Freedom is a gift earned from veterans from years ago. Freedom for the rest of us needs to be earned every day, not a given. Choice if you chose to stand in the road most likely you be hit by a car. Do not ask me or others to cry for you saying I only did what was best for ME!
Mr Young
As the saying goes ” you can lead a horse to water,but you can’t make him drink”.
As sad as it may be, we just have to let the herd thin itself out. Yes, they have the freedom and choice. Hence, we also have the freedom and choice not to mourn their death if we so desire.
We all live and die by the choices we make in the name of freedom.
Dave, in reading both these comments above (Harry Smit and Just an old farmboy), I’m most struck by JAOF’s limited vision. He confines his choice to only what’s good for him. He seems to have no sense of what his choice might mean for others in his community, however that might be defined. Yet he also states that “In God I trust!” Does that mean he limits his relationship with God to what God can/will do for him alone? Or does he have a broader view of God’s relationship with His people? And in that view, does God require him to care for the welfare of others in and through his personal choices?
I don’t intend these as rhetorical questions. I’d like to know how JAOF reconciles his faith with his freedom.
AZ words,
“He confines his choice to only what’s good for him. He seems to have no sense of what his choice might mean for others in his community, however that might be defined.”
Is this any different than you and your liberal friends wanting weed legalized? People consuming weed potentially are putting their friends and neighbors and community at risk, but the argument, is it’s their right/freedom. Hard to have it both ways sweetheart………
Cheers!!
Well, I am not surprised to hear from you Lynn. Let me help you understand my view in things. I am a Christian. I feel that my life’s destiny including death was determined by God almighty himself the second I was conceived. This being said I refuse to live my life in a cave afraid to enjoy my limited time on earth because of this over blown covid horse droppings! I know many people have passed due to this mess and I sympathize with their loved ones, but I also feel that the numbers are scewed to benefit someone’s agenda. I have heard of many cases of someone passing with other terminal conditions but were chalked up to covid.( Maybe for financial gain?) Just this morning I was listening to Rand Paul talking statistics of the new variant. Yes it is more easily transferred but is showing to be much less deadly. Now I know Rand is no dr flakey ( I did spell that correctly didn’t I ?) But he does do his homework. We aren’t hearing that from the main stream media are we. If you are concerned about the covid by all means stay home, wear your mask , two of them if you like and please get vaccinated. I do care for all of your safety. All I am saying is I have looked at this thing for over a year, studied on it and am sure at sometime have been exposed and refuse to restrict my life’s activities due to the continued fear mongering and division this is causing in this great country of ours.
The BIG question I have is why are we not able (or is it willing) to determine in over a years time where this mess came from initially and to make DANG sure it or something similar NEVER happens again. Would it not be much more logical to track down and eliminate the threat of another pandamic like this ever happening again by all means necessary? But what do I know, I am just an old farmboy.
If we were neighbors I suspect Old Farm Boy” would have a dung hemorrhage and be calling state and county officials if I exercised my “Freedom” and brought what turned out to be disease carrying cattle carrying a virus that was introduced when my cattle got to close to his infecting his cattle requiring him to destroy his infected cattle.
However he and others who share his self-centered and myopic view of “Freedom” never consider their “Freedom” and “My Body, My Choice” attitudes in the age of COVID means they can infect others even if they are asymptomatic or are fortunate enough to be infected and don’t get sick enough to require hospitalization.
Unvaccinated people (and their unvaccinated children can go to church, school and other public gathering places and infect those who aren’t vaccinated like children under 12 who aren’t approved to be vaccinated; organ transplant recipients whose anti-rejection drugs aren’t compatible with the current vaccines; people awaiting organ transplants; individuals who are recovering from cancer surgery and are receiving chemotherapy.
I have no time nor empathy for those who want to weave a toxic message mixing “conservative” politics, their interpretation of individual rights overriding public health with a self-serving interpretation of Constitution and alleged Bible based ideology.
Unfortunately their zeal and fanaticism are far more threatening to the health and well-being of American citizens than the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or other Islamic extremists in Afghanistan that are dominating recent headlines.
And so it goes
Can someone explain how somebody getting the vaccine helps ME?
Vaccinated people: 1. Can get covid 2. Can transmit covid to others 3. Are likely to have less severe symptoms (and thus survive or not need hospitalization)
Unvaccinated people: 1. Can get covid 2. Can transmit covid to others 3. Could have severe symptoms.
The vaccine only helps those that get the vaccine by helping reduce their symptoms. It doesn’t help anyone else around them. So by those saying that people not getting the vaccine is a selfish choice and impacts you, please explain how.
You could argue the other is true. Those that receive the vaccine are more likely to experience less symptoms so they do not even know they have it and therefore do not quarantine or help stop the spread – and end up spreading it even more.
Before you attack, I am vaccinated. However, it is a personal choice. This is NOT something that should be force onto anyone. Nobody should be bullied or shamed into getting it.
Stop the hate. Thank you!
To yet another anonymous responder:
When most people are immunized against a disease, fewer people are adversely physically affected by that disease. That is the basic truth behind vaccination programs around the world for many scores of years, and has been successful in protecting young children from possibly life-threatening diseases – like measles, whooping cough, and small pox – for decades. That is how vaccination helps you and your loved ones. When the germs are kept to as bare a minimum as possible, you are more likely to remain healthy.
But there are benefits beyond the physical, which may reach people on a more concrete level.
Vaccination means fewer people will miss work, thus having a positive impact on the economy. It also means individuals who don’t have health insurance won’t feel the impact of devastating medical bills should they contract the disease and require extraordinary – and extremely expensive – hospitalization. This benefits all of us whose tax dollars are used to care for those who fall through the cracks of the system. People like you and me.
Vaccinations mean that any of your loved ones who may be susceptible to contracting the virus have a greater average probability of escaping its consequences, like long-term, expensive care, or death.
Vaccination benefits you in ways you haven’t yet considered. The benefits are indirect, but can affect your finances and your self-esteem when you consider how your participation in a decades-long mitigation strategy makes life for your wider community better.
An addendum to the previous remarks:
I have just read in the news that the UK will be banning unnecessary travel from the US to the UK due to the spike in Delta variant cases in the US effective now. Others being vaccinated can benefit people like Stop The Hate by flattening the spikes that make other nations prohibit our citizens from traveling to other countries. If STH were one to travel for pleasure he would be less likely to be banned from countries like the UK were others vaccinated so our numbers wouldn’t be so alarming. The list of benefits to him of others being vaccinated is wider ranging than what is seen superficially.
The obvious reality is this vacine does not immunize. If fact, not even close.
The reason some folks stay anonymous….. Sadly there are many left wing radicals who commit cowardly acts on those they know are just. Many of us are more than capable of self defense, but gracefully try to avoid its use.
Stop the hate,
Wow! Excellent!! Can’t wait for the responses you are sure to get!!!
Cheers!!!!
John Wilkens is encouraging others to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater again, while he sits on the sidelines and watches while making smarmy comments.
Does Mr. Wilkens and others of his ilk want to play the victim as they go along thinking their choices to infect others take precedence over public health?
What does John Wilkens think?
Does his right to refuse to be vaccinated gives him the freedom to infect children, organ transplant recipients, those waiting for organ transplants and other at risk individuals in the name of FREEDOM?
I couldn’t care less if John Wilkens or others like him choose not to be vaccinated and get infected with COVID. But if he gets sick I suspect his family will expect to want him to be in an area hospital and in an ICU if COVID attacks his respiratory system. Unfortunately when that happens his individual freedom is now costing others who can’t get a hospital space for procedures from cardiac surgery; organ transplants, joint replacement or even more everyday maladies such as gall bladder attacks or appendicitis because unvaccinated infected John Wilkens is taking up an ICU bed and getting ICU bills that are $10,000/day or up to $40,000 per day if his condition deteriorates when a ventilator is added to the treatment.
If Mr. Wilkens gets real sick, his family will be requesting an ECMO machine that takes blood out of the body to enrich it with oxygen then reheat and reintroduce the blood back into the body because his lungs can’t do the job. That’s a big ask since there are less than 500 ECMO machines in the U.S. and that treatment costs start at $60,000 per day.
As fiscal “conservatives” are John Wilkens and others concerned that many of the unvaccinated making up the hospital’s ICU populations are underinsured or worse, uninsured, so those tens of millions in unpaid medical bills will be shifted to future health insurance premiums.
I have the freedom to buy cigarettes but the public places I choose to frequent: my workplace, school buildings for events, public libraries, village offices, churches, malls, restaurants, airports and commercial aircraft all limit my freedom with non-smoking rules. If I choose to smoke in my home, my family is exposed to the risks of second hand smoke. (If you believe the science and that’s a big if in 2021.)
I do support John Wilkens’ right to die by means of his choosing. He can choose to overeat and suffer from the effects of obesity. He can use tobacco products and die from a variety of cancers tobacco is proven to cause. He can ignore a diabetes diagnosis. He can eschew any drugs a doctor in an emergency room prescribes.
But John Wilkens’ right to infect others without their permission or knowledge because he spread an active COVID variant in the name of FREEDOM? I don’t think so.