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<p>Many believe, and rightly so, that incurable diseases have been the major cause of death among modern humans.</p>
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<p>But the brilliance of American scientists, especially medical researchers and Big Pharma, now are saving the world from wholesale death from infectious diseases. Thanks to incredible advances in basic science, they have discovered a new and startlingly effective platform, messenger-RNA. This new genetic technology has opened heretofore tightly locked boxes hiding the secrets of diseases that have bedeviled humankind throughout history.</p>
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<p>In the wink of an eye in the typical timeline of vaccine production, which previously took years, herculean efforts from these scientists have produced billions of doses of incredibly effective Covid-vaccine — in the high 90 percentiles — that provide near total protection from infection and ultimately death.</p>
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<p>Among Americans older than 65, 89 percent have had one vaccination and 80 percent two. Meanwhile, almost half of all Americans have not even received on injection of vaccine.</p>
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<p>The latest polls indicate that among unvaccinated American adults, 35 percent say they probably will not, and 45 percent say they definitely will not, get vaccinated — 80 percent combined. Many millions of our kinsmen are looking to use a free ticket to take a fast ride on a death train instead of getting vaccinated? Playing Russian Roulette with a 5-chambered pistol? Good luck with that.</p>
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<p>Why are the “red” States of the Deep South leading the way — less than 40 percent are fully vaccinated? This sad reality is not coincidental; might we be seeing a cause and effect relationship?</p>
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<p>In the early 1950s, after the Salk polio vaccine was invented, but was not yet officially authorized, more than 600,000 mothers rushed to line up their children to receive the unproven polio vaccine. This was the high watermark of the American public’s strong belief in science (with a capital “S”). Since then, our nation’s trust in science has steady declined, with the able assistance of one of our two political parties.</p>
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<p>Science defeated small pox, chicken pox, polio, influenza, and numerous other disastrous human diseases. The proof of the safety and efficacy of our nation’s vaccine industry, overseen by the CDC and the FDA, is responsible for saving millions upon millions of our citizens from horrible physical consequences and death.</p>
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<p>Numbers do not lie, unlike those fools who have been spewing the sewage of another Big Lie, led, like herds of lemmings over the cliff of death, by the biggest liar of all, aided and abetted by a certain so-called TV “news” channel.</p>
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<p>A simple but deadly mutation in SARS-CoV-2, has produced a new, apparently deadlier and more easily transmitted variation – DELTA. The original was bad enough; it bequeathed to us more than 600,000 American lives lost, and more than four million deaths world-wide.</p>
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<p>What might we expect from cousin Delta, which is now bulldozing America into a new Covid-19 pandemic, steamrolling into every corner of the country, on the heels of our misplaced belief that we had conquered Covid-19?</p>
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<p>I just don’t understand this lunacy that defies logic and rational thinking. People doing what is clearly not best for themselves is sometimes called suicide. What is it that unvaccinated folks do not understand? If we needed a classic example of “folly,” as defined by one of our great historical writers, Barbara Tuchman, this is it.</p>
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<p>Infected with the disease of stupidity, our unvaccinated citizens do not just harm themselves; they are directly harming the rest of us, who had the good common sense to get vaccinated. The economy is already being impacted negatively as many businesses have again shut down, some perhaps forever; hospitals are overflowing with Delta infections, thus preventing folks with other serious maladies from getting adequate medical care. These depressingly low rates of immunization will prevent the country from reaching “herd immunity,” thereby causing many more thousands of needless deaths.</p>
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<p>Delta is not last year’s Covid-19. It is deadlier and much more easily spread; the number of Delta-caused cases have tripled in the past three weeks alone. Evolution did not produce the magnificence of the human brain to be wasted on such utter foolishness. Where is plain old common sense when we need it most?</p>
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<p>We know what works: Vaccines and putting them into our bodies. Get vaccinated now or face The Grim Reaper head on. After infection, it will be too little, and way too late.</p>
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<p>Catching the last train to Boot Hill? The choice is yours.<br></p>
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<p><em>“Well, all I know is what I read in the newspapers.” – Will Rogers.&nbsp;</em></p>
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<p><em>David M. Taub was Mayor of Beaufort from 1990 through 1999 and served as a Beaufort County Magistrate from 2010 to 2015. You can reach him at david.m.taub42@gmail.com.</em></p>
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