THE EARTH IS FLAT, THE MOON IS MADE OF GREEN CHEESE, AND THE COVID VACCINE WILL KILL YOU—PART IV
“Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army . . . we should have more to dread from it, than from the Sword of the Enemy.”—George Washington, General of the Continental Army, and later first President of the United States of America, describing his decision to mandate Smallpox inoculations for all troops, January, 1777.
PART 4: MANDATES
By autumn of 1777, George Washington and his Continental Army were locked in a war with the world’s mightiest military force: the British Army and their German Hessian allies. Things weren’t looking good for the General from Virginia.
British troops occupied New York City, and were advancing on the Capitol of Philadelphia. The Continental Congress escaped to York, Pennsylvania, where they tried to hold the fledgling American government intact. As winter approached, Washington had no choice but to pull his forces away from Philadelphia to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and attempt to regroup and retrain.
Accounts of the retreat fill history books. Poorly clad and hungry, the troops left bloody footprints as they trudged through the snow.
At Valley Forge, things weren’t much better. Influenza, pneumonia, and dysentery killed soldiers by the hundreds. Only one disease was absent from the devastation suffered by the troops.
Smallpox.
Earlier that year, Washington had ordered (OK, mandated, if you like) that all Continental troops receive the Smallpox vaccine. As a student of history, Washington knew full well that in prolonged military campaigns, wide-spread disease killed far more men than did enemy weapons. Also, he was still stinging from the previous year, when an attempt to catch the British off-guard by pressing an attack into Canada had been an unmitigated disaster when Smallpox devastated the American invaders.
By January of 1777, Washington had seen enough, and ordered the vaccines to be given to all troops. It was one of the most important decisions that affected the War’s outcome. By spring of 1778, Smallpox cases among the American soldiers had dropped from 13% to around 1%. From a functional standpoint, Washington had just increased the size of America’s fighting force by over 10% with a single order.
It was a bold and courageous decision. It was also illegal.
In 1776, the Continental Congress, swayed by anti-inoculation zealots, had passed a law prohibiting military surgeons from administering Smallpox inoculations. Washington simply ignored it. By 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, a revitalized Continental Army brought British colonial rule to an end.
What is it about human nature that instinctively rejects what is clearly the right thing to do, simply because someone else tells us we “have” to do it? Why is it that many who consider themselves to be “patriots” on a par with Washington and his men refuse to take the same vaccination steps to protect their country that Washington took? What if Washington’s men had refused as well—would we be singing “God Save The Queen” today instead of “The Star-Spangled Banner?”
And why have we used the word “mandate” to connotate anything we don’t want to do, but feel that other laws and rules that protect our interests are just fine? All states have laws that mandate speed limits, especially in school zones. But what if I consider myself a good driver? Why shouldn’t I be able to drive 80 miles per hour past a grade school at 3 O’clock in the afternoon? Because I’m a great driver, restricting my right to drive by “mandating” a 25-mph school zone is blatant oppression, isn’t it?
How you feel about that question may depend on whether you’re the driver in question, or whether you’re the parent of one of those school kids running out of the building at 3 PM. So it is with plenty of other laws, rules, and yes, “mandates” if you’d like.
In the fall of 2009, I had just been named Vice-President for Health Sciences at Creighton University. The H1N1 strain of the influenza virus was just hitting the country. I helped formulate a plan to vaccinate all medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy faculty at our institution. It was the right thing to do.
Influenza vaccines had been around for decades, so there was nothing new or “experimental” about it. Nonetheless, several faculty members were appalled that the vaccine was “mandatory.” Several of them threatened to quit. A few even did. But Creighton endured the outbreak with one of the lowest campus disease rates in the nation.
I’ll never forget one senior faculty member who was adamant that he would not take the vaccine. “You have no right to force me!” he said, red faced and fuming. “This is just another example of big government! This is what’s going to happen with Obamacare!” (Remember, this was 2009).
I shook my head. “Look, Bob (not his real name),” I said. “I know how I could get you to take shot.”
“What do you mean? You can never make me take it!”
“Of course I can,” I responded calmly. “I’d just hold the syringe right in front of your face, like this.”
I held up my thumb and forefinger as if I were holding an imaginary syringe. “Here’s the vaccine, Bob, but you can’t have it! We’ve decided only certain faculty can get it, only those who are really important and whose work is indispensable! And that’s not you!”
“Wha. . .What?” he stammered.
“That’s right, this is rationing! Nooooooo, you can’t get the vaccine. You’re too old! You don’t deserve it! You’re not worthy! This is a Death Panel—just like Sarah Palin warned you about! Everyone else can get the vaccine, but not you! No matter what, you can’t get the vaccine! No matter what you say, no matter what you do, no matter what happens, no matter how bad this outbreak gets, you won’t get the vaccine! You won’t ever get it!”
By now, Bob was stuttering and shaking. “Come on, Bob, get real,” I said, dropping my hands to my sides. “If I did that long enough, you’d grab the damned syringe out of my hand and give yourself the shot, wouldn’t you? So why don’t you just stop all of this nonsense and just take the damn shot?”
He turned and stomped off without a word, but I’d apparently made my point. He ended up taking the vaccine.
Let’s be honest. This is purely a matter of ego. It’s a matter of “I’m too important to do what I’m told, and that’s all that matters. Screw everyone else.”
Of course most people won’t have the guts to admit that. Instead, they’ll come up with all sorts of weird rationalizations—this is really a plot, this is an affront to my freedom (yeah, tell that to George Washington’s men), the vaccine doesn’t work, it just might-possibly-maybe-remotely-theoretically have side effects.
Anyone who says this deserves a one-word response: B.S. (OK, that’s really two words, but I’m trying to be polite and just use initials).
My Father, my Uncles, as well as the Fathers and Uncles of everyone I grew up with, served in World War II. Most of them didn’t volunteer. They were drafted. They weren’t exactly crazy about going, but they did their part to preserve our nation.
They didn’t do it so that 75 years later, when America was at another war, this time against the COVID virus, our nation would throw its hands up and say “Oooooooh! I don’t wanna get the vaccine! Oooooh! I don’t wanna wear a mask! Oooooooooooh! This is all about me, and not my fellow countrymen. Ooooooh! You can’t make me!”
As I said in my first post to this blog https://afamilydoctorlooksattheworld.com/?p=77, nothing would make our adversaries happier than for us to continue this kind of nonsense. If we’re really dumb enough to keep this up, we might as well hand the keys to America over to our enemies.
If this makes anyone uncomfortable, I suggest you do something right now. Go to a mirror, and take a good hard look. Ask yourself if whatever it is that makes you think this virus isn’t real, whatever makes you think that you shouldn’t “have” to wear a mask or get vaccinated—no matter how it might ultimately help someone else—whatever is compelling you to deny the science, is it worth it? Is it really worth it? Is it what Washington’s men who willingly took the smallpox inoculation, and the Americans who fought the world over were really risking their lives for? So you wouldn’t “have” to wear a mask?
Do you really think mask wearing is an unreasonable sacrifice, when compared to everything they gave?
Think about it. Think about it long and hard.
When I began these last four posts, I said I’d talk about viruses, vaccines, masks, mandates, and whackos. I haven’t been able to get to the last item on the list—the whackos.
And it’s a long list. Stay tuned for the next posting.