To vax or not to vax?

Should you get the COVID-19 vaccination, or not? That is the question of our time. Unfortunately, there’s no one good answer to the question that fits all people.
As a result, COVID-19 vaccinations — the lack of them, or the mandate of them — is yet another issue driving a wedge between American citizens, friends and in some cases family members.
With COVID-19 making another surge in the country due to the delta variant, the debate over vaccinations has became more heated. On Sept. 9, President Biden threw fuel on the fire when he issued vaccination mandates for numerous sectors of the economy. Get vaccinated or get tested weekly. While Nebraska has continued to keep a level head over mandates thus far, Colorado even beat Biden to the punch. On Aug. 30, the State Board of Health in our neighbor to the west mandated that all health care workers in the state be vaccinated, with exemptions for medical and religious reasons considered. Both mandates show little, if any, consideration for the effects on rural communities.
Just look at the example from Holyoke, Colo., where my sister Brenda, a former teacher here in Aurora who publishes the newspaper there, had to cover a gut-wrenching local debate. Their hospital is required by the state to mandate vaccinations. They have employees who are not vaccinated, nor do they plan to be. What happens? Do the employees walk or get fired? Do people strongly in favor of vaccination deny health care from or to someone who isn’t vaccinated? Then what happens to health care?
All too often we see the overreach, especially by the federal government, of one-size-fits-all solutions. Mandates on masks? Mandates on vaccinations? One size does not fit all.
Personally, I believe it’s up to each individual whether they get vaccinated or not. Me, I got the two-dose Pfizer shot as soon as it was available and I’m watching and waiting for information on a possible booster.
I’m not an anti-vaxxer or a aggressive proponent of vaccination, but it seems that for people who are, their stand aligns with their political preferences. The issue becomes not a question of vaccines but of personal rights and whether or not those rights are being trampled on with mandates. Thus, this boils down to left versus right in an already deeply divided country.
One thing that does perplex me is the inconsistency with which policies are applied. Here in Nebraska, you can go to a Husker football game with 90,000 people jammed together for hours, few wearing a mask, but you can’t go into some businesses without masking up. That makes no sense.
There are all sorts of reasons a person doesn’t want to get vaccinated, but to get shamed into it is another issue entirely.
Who knows how long we will be affected by COVID-19. But one thing we all learned over the last 20 months is that the draconian measures that shut down schools, rocked our economies and locked people down in nursing and care homes isn’t the answer.
Kurt Johnson