To the Editor:
I’d like to respond to the writer who stated that it was shameful to use bribery to vaccinate people. In my opinion, what’s shameful is that we actually need to bribe people to get vaccinated. During the last pandemic, the Spanish flu in 1918, we didn’t have a vaccine. Yes, as argued by many anti-vaxxers, the Spanish flu was finally defeated by herd immunity, but the cost of that herd immunity was 50 million lives worldwide. In the US, we’ve already lost over 658,000 lives and the number is rising.
Fast-forward to the outbreaks of smallpox and polio. Neither of these diseases reached herd immunity, yet were defeated almost entirely world-wide. How? Mandatory vaccinations. With very few exceptions, everyone got the vaccines without complaint. Today, politics has gotten involved, lines have been drawn, and misinformation is rampant. That has slowed down the rate of vaccinations and allowed 3 variants to emerge. The COVID virus doesn’t care about the politics. Its job is simply to infect and spread.
As to the term “bribery”, we bribe family, friends, and even ourselves each and every day, but we call it “incentive”. For example: “If you finish up your broccoli, you can have ice cream for dessert.” or “I need help moving some furniture. There’s a $100 in it for you, if I can use your truck.”
So, if it takes offering the incentive of $100, or a free meal, or a t-shirt, to get people vaccinated, then good. The bottom line is that we need to get more people vaccinated if we’re to defeat COVID and prevent more variants from emerging. It’s the best choice to defeat COVID because the potential loss of life while trying to attain herd immunity is unthinkable and unnecessary. Remember, one of those lives lost could be someone you love. Or, it could be you.
Mary Suchanek, Wautoma
