End of blog post. Well, not really.
Truthfully, I shouldn't have to say more than this, but unfortunately, I do. Increasingly it seems as though some people think the only reason anyone isn't yet vaccinated is because they haven't had the opportunity to be. I've had the opportunity. In fact, I've had many opportunities, but I haven't gotten it, and may never get it.
The reason is quite simple, I am not afraid of Coronavirus. Never have been, and never will be. I take to heart the words of Matthew 10:28, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." The absolute worst thing that the Coronavirus could do to me is kill me, which is unlikely to happen. Even if it did, my future is secure. In Christ, my death secures me a one-way ticket to Heaven, where pain and disease no longer exist. I'm not in any hurry to get there, and I'd rather not get there because of a disease that slowly strips my ability to breathe, but no matter what, I still get to spend eternity with my Savior.
A month ago, our bishop sent out a letter to the churches. While it mainly focused on wearing masks, toward the end, he encouraged pastors to ask those who had not yet gotten vaccinated to prayerfully consider doing so. That assumes that anyone who hasn't gotten the shot hasn't prayed about it and that everyone who has gotten the shot did.
The truth is, I have prayed about it. I can be quite a stubborn person and know that my stubbornness does have a tendency to get in the way of God's plan for me. Early on, I considered that my distrust of the vaccine could be rooted in that stubbornness, and so I prayed about it. I asked God if I was just being too stubborn, and He assured me that I wasn't. I am completely at peace with my decision.
I'm not sure how many people who have gotten the vaccine actually prayed about it beforehand. Many people I know were so scared that they jumped on the first opportunity to get the vaccine so they didn't need to be scared of the virus anymore. As I mentioned in Covidolatry, that didn't actually work. Now, there might be people who actually prayerfully considered it. After all, I can't tell if they did any more than they can tell that I did.
Just because two people pray about the same thing doesn't mean they'll get the same answer. For over four hundred years, the Israelites prayed for freedom from their slavery, but only Moses was called to deliver them. Any one of the faithful disciples could have been chosen after the Ascension to replace Judas, but only Matthias was. Getting different answers to the same prayer doesn't mean that only those who got the "right" answer prayed. As the film Bruce Almighty teaches us, God answering every prayer the same way leads to disastrous consequences.
As I mentioned in Covidentity, not being vaccinated does not change who I am. However, in some cases, it seems like being vaccinated does. Some of my friends have gone from being caring people to downright vindictive since they received their shots. Now, some of this did start before they got the shot. Last year was stressful for everyone, and some people did not handle it well. Recently, this antagonism has morphed into pure discrimination. Unfortunately, there are probably people who I know and love who will read the title of this post and shun me because of it. They likely won't read the whole post. Much of the antagonism I've seen from "friends" doesn't reflect a full reading of whatever they're commenting on. In preparing this blog post, I noticed that two of them have recently unfriended me.
In both previous posts, I mentioned my dislike of the requirement for unvaccinated people to continue to wear masks, and my subsequent refusal to do so. Making people wear masks because they haven't gotten the shot treats them as though they are all infected. Most unvaccinated people saw the asymmetrical restrictions as discrimanatory, and refused to wear a mask as a result. People are now blaming those who are unvaccinated for spreading the virus because they stopped wearing masks. This condemnation ignores the fact that vaccinated people can spread the virus as well. Throughout history, those who use a particular group as a scapegoat for their problems are never remembered fondly.
Since the CDC changed their minds yet again in July, everyone is now "encouraged" to wear them in church once again, which was the reason for the bishop's letter mentioned earlier. The reason I put encouraged in quotation marks is because some members of my church are treating that new guidelines as a requirement cleverly disguised as a suggestion. My bi-monthly meeting, which had been meeting in person since June, will become virtual once again starting next week because the leaders are requiring us to wear masks, and one person won't come if he has to wear a mask. I sent an email to the leaders detailing my concerns with this plan, but it didn't seem to matter to them.
I do wear a mask to church and to these meetings, although I held back on putting it on that first Sunday. I wanted to see just how we would be "encouraged" to wear our masks, and our pastor was compassionate in asking the congregation to wear them again, so I slid mine on. I don't, however, wear a mask other places. I don't currently have to at work, and I never have enjoyed wearing it while shopping. Wearing a mask heightens my anxiety, makes me dizzy, and gives me a headache. After having time where we didn't have to wear them, I'm not going to wear one unless required to or asked nicely. Wearing it in church is hard enough.
Not getting the shot and not wearing a mask does not mean that I am not taking any precautions. I am supplementing my immune system by taking zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D. I am continuing to wash my hands and use hand sanitizer when it's needed. I eat healthy, drink plenty of water, and exercise at least three times a week. I much prefer to bolster my natural immunity rather than receive a shot that hasn't been tested enough to be proven effective.
Already, there is evidence that I was right to trust God's leading in this situation. The Delta variant that is spreading like wildfire right now doesn't seem to be affected by the vaccine, meaning that even fully vaccinated adults are becoming desperately ill and even dying. One of my friends has a husband that is currently fighting for his life even though he got vaccinated. Another contributing factor is that the vaccine's effectiveness drops after five months, but people are not allowed to receive a booster for eight months. This means three months where the "vaccinated" aren't actually much more protected than the "unvaccinated", and maybe less so than those of us who are boosting our immune system.
An article I read called the shot a "leaky vaccine" because, like the flu vaccine, it doesn't prevent infection or transmission, just lessens the severity. Like other leaky vaccines, it's mere presence causes the virus to mutate so it can get around the protection the vaccine provides. The article compares the effects of the vaccine and the presence of the Delta variant to what happens with Marek's disease in chickens, where vaccinated chickens are safe, but unvaccinated chickens die much faster now than they did before the vaccine was created. The author concludes that the reason we are having such a problem with the Delta variant right now is because the vaccine was created and distributed so swiftly, and the continuous push for more people to get vaccinated will only heighten the problem.
About a month ago, I saw a post about the stages of manipulation, and I can definitely see these stages playing out in terms of the vaccine. The first stage is fear, and that weapon has been wielded since the very beginning. Fear caused the shutdowns and stay-at-home orders of last year, and when the vaccine was first released, fear drove many people to jump at the chance to get it. This tactic didn't work on me because as I stated before, I have never been afraid (and according to this article, there's actually nothing left to be afraid of).
The next stage is flattery, and I have seen many of my friends employing this tactic. They're encouraging people to get their shot so that as a team we can beat this virus. Others are saying that getting vaccinated is a way to show Christ's love to others and be a good neighbor. One post I saw compared getting the shot to the story of the Good Samaritan (although having Jesus use profanity at the end made the analogy break down quickly). I don't need the shot to feel like a good person. Since God told me to wait, by not getting the shot, I am being a Godly person, and their flattery doesn't change that.
The third stage is bribery, and that stage is in full force right now. A couple of months ago, Kroger had a contest where getting the vaccine at a Kroger-owned store gave you the chance to win $1 million or free groceries for a year (although there was a way to enter without getting the shot). More recently, my county gave people who got the shot during a specific time period a $100 reward. I see this paltry amount as an insult to our intelligence. Back before I prayed about my decision, I said I wouldn't get the shot because I was unwilling to be an unpaid lab rat. People in drug trials get paid much more than $100. Now that my refusal is based on God's answer to my prayer, I find this attempt at bribery even more laughable. No measly $100 is even going to come close to enticing me to disobey my Creator.
The fourth stage is violence, and while this hasn't happened yet, there are hints that it is coming. People have started calling for hospitals to no longer treat unvaccinated people. Companies have threatened their workers with termination if they don't get the shot by a certain date. Some people are of the opinion that everyone who has not gotten the shot need to be shunned from polite society. Others think there should be financial consequences to being unvaccinated. President Biden has now said that nursing homes who don't have a fully vaccinated staff will lose their federal funding.
I know I'm taking a bit of a risk in sharing this post. While some people already know that I haven't gotten the shot, sharing this will tell more people about my unvaccinated status. Already, my church has said that having the shot is a requirement for working in the church nursery. While I don't work in the nursery very often, I will miss doing so. As I mentioned earlier, I have already lost some friends, and I could potentially lose more. There will be no more hiding once I hit publish on this post.
However, I need to share this. Recently, God helped me to realize how much attempting to keep this a secret was eating me up inside. As I prepared to write this post, I have been more willing recently to openly share things that reflect my views on the shot. I'm writing this post not only to publicly announce that I have not gotten the shot, but also to explain why. I pray that my friends take the time to read it so they can understand my decision.
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