More Americans Are Getting Vaccinated After Summer Of Delta Variant Convinces ‘It’s Real’

When the vaccines to combat the coronavirus became available in mid-December, Ron Brown was skeptical.

“My initial thought was, ‘I hope it’s not being rolled out too soon in the interest of politics, and that it will be effective’” he said. “It was being rolled out right at the end of the Trump administration … there was a hint of politics in it.”

But the staggering number of deaths and hospitalizations connected to the virus gave Brown ample reason to reconsider, and when healthcare professionals were among the first to receive the vaccines, he felt more confident about taking the shot.

“I said, ‘Well, maybe it’s legit if you’re putting it in the arms of people who are supposed to take care of people: doctors and nurses,’” he recalled. “Basically, that is what changed my mind.”

Brown, his 93-year-old mother and siblings were vaccinated. He wanted the Moderna vaccine because the extremely cold temperatures required for storing the Pfizer drug concerned him.

He explained, “When they can’t even keep beer cold in regular stores, I thought, ‘Wait a minute.’”

While Brown and his immediate family moved relatively quickly to get vaccinated once the drug became available for the general population, his extended family remained uneasy about the vaccines. He understood some were “hesitant about the needle” and held fast to a “mistrust of the establishment.” They were also young, he added, and thought their immune systems would protect them against serious illness.

But a few weeks ago, tragedy visited their family and upended the debate about vaccinations. One of Brown’s younger loved ones, a mother in her early 40s with three children, became infected with the Delta variant and died.

According to Brown, “There were those who said they weren’t going to get the shot. The younger people thought they were immune. They said they were going to do the right things not to get the coronavirus until someone relatively close to their age and related to them became sick and died within four days. That convinced them it was real.”

In states around the country, particularly in the South where the Delta variant surged much of the summer, more people are getting vaccinated after the increase in deaths and hospitalizations targeted the unvaccinated who had little medical protection against the highly transmissible virus. There have been breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, too, but their symptoms have been milder.

President Joe Biden is hopeful that the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday will ease concerns and motivate millions of unvaccinated Americans to get the shot.

Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have squared off as students return to school. DeSantis is withholding salaries from administrators at schools that impose mask mandates, a decision Biden described as “not good.” In Missouri the state’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit, challenging mask mandates in schools which Biden said is “completely unacceptable.”

With vaccination rates on the rise after stalling for months and a booster shot being offered for the already vaccinated, healthcare experts hope the fall months, known for the seasonal flu and common cold, will see a significant decrease in coronavirus cases.