A funny thing happened last night. We were watching the Olympics and minding our own business when we perused CNN online and saw the headline and picture. It was someone my wife had gone to school with. She was right there plastered on the headline. Seems she had not taken the vaccine and was now in the hospital.

She was quoted as saying that she wasn’t anti-vax, but just hadn’t gotten around to taking it. Sure. Makes perfect sense. There are tons of things I don’t seem to get around to doing. I haven’t finished cleaning the garage. I haven’t gone to the dentist in years. There are still a stack of papers on the kitchen table that need to be sorted. I’m sure many of you have a similar list of chores that keep piling up.

A part of this is simple priorities. We do the things that are important to us and put off the things that aren’t. So, for this person it seems getting the jab just wasn’t a priority. She admitting being mad at herself and my wife confirmed she has been like this for the past 30 years.

Some people are selfish. Some people are lazy. Okay, let’s get real here. Most people are selfish and most people are lazy. Most people don’t do what’s best for them even when they know what that is. For approximately half of the population, it is also about knowing more than the experts and not wanting to be told what to do.

In less than two weeks we will be returning to school. The governor (in his infinite wisdom) has lifted the mask mandate. To put it more accurately, he has said that you cannot mandate masks. So, some people will wear them, but most people likely will not. It is the same with the vaccine. Some people got the shot and some people didn’t

As negative as it might sound, this just isn’t good enough. Time and memorial have proven that we can’t successfully do this. You can’t simply allow people to make up their own mind on things like this. They have to be drug, kicking and screaming, into the future. It happened with the polio vaccine. It happened with the small pox vaccine. It’s happened with the measles and the mumps. We had to force people to get the shot.

Small pox is gone. Polio is virtually gone and certainly gone in the United States. We’ve put a serious dent in measles, chicken pox, and the mumps as well. Your feelings and my feelings didn’t matter. We got the shot or we didn’t go to school. We could find an obscure YouTube video or a Google site that spouted some bullshit all we wanted. We still got the shot.

COVID isn’t a dirty garage. COVID isn’t a stack of papers on the kitchen table. COVID isn’t a cavity or potential root canal that is being pushed back. It’s not an uncut lawn or faded siding on the house. Now, that we are going back to school it is high time we start requiring the shot at least of all the adults working in the school. Children over 12 should be getting it too. COVID doesn’t care about your feelings about vaccines and we shouldn’t either. Sit down. Shut up. Get the shot.