CREEDE HINSHAW: Vaccination a private choice, not a ‘religious’ one

My wife and I eagerly received our Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot last week. I am grateful for epidemiologists, scientists, physicians, nurses and others who devote themselves to the mission of human health and healing. I’ve received vaccines all my life, beginning with childhood polio and chicken pox shots. I’ve been vaccinated at health departments, doctor’s offices, pharmacies and grocery stores. I’ve had both the old and new version of the shingles shots. I get the annual flu shot and wince every time.

Call me a wimp when it comes to shots. I hate getting them. I can watch a gory monster movie without so much as a gasp, but don’t show me a scene of a person getting a vaccination. I close my eyes.

Call me a wimp, but don’t call me suspicious of the COVID vaccine. Don’t tell me God made our bodies to heal without medicine. Don’t quote some Bible verse to prove the vaccine is of the devil. I’m not buying those things.

Some persons will not get vaccinated. I’m not going to argue with them. They have (except for various mandates) freedom to choose as they wish. Some might be squeamish (like me) about shots. Some are concerned about side effects. Some don’t like anybody telling them what to do. Some mistrust science. Some mistrust the government, remembering when people were forcefully sterilized, given electric shocks or euthanized. Some are proudly anti-authoritarian. Some say no because others say yes. Some put complete faith in folk remedies while others fatalistically conclude that “when it’s your time” there’s no stopping death.

If an unvaccinated person wants to tell me why they’ve taken that path, I’ll listen. I won’t debate. I won’t try to change their mind. I won’t even ask other people if they’ve been vaccinated or not. People will not be coaxed, browbeaten, cajoled, bribed or shamed.

Some who resist vaccination cite religious objections. Practically every major religious denomination has supported vaccination, which at least calls into question what such an objection means. But then again, anybody can be “religious” without adhering to or practicing any particular faith, let along belong to a church, all of which makes a “religious exemption” a confounding reason to avoid the vaccine. It is an intensely personal reason. How does somebody discern whether such a statement is sincere or whether the claimant has recently found “religion” so as to conveniently avoid what they wanted to avoid anyway?

One tells the truth or one doesn’t.

We are all made in the image of God. None of us has the complete answer to anything. Suspicion and wariness can be healthy or unhealthy. Trust in science can be healthy or unhealthy. Blind acceptance of governmental authority can be healthy or unhealthy. Even faith systems can get it wrong.

I wish everybody would get vaccinated. But that’s not going to happen. I want to be humble around others and respectful of decisions made for reasons different than mine.