By Lance Chilton
The latest state incentive for New Mexicans to get their COVID-19 vaccines expired August 31 with a last-minute rush to get that $100 gift card. New Mexico Department of Health COVID information lines were jammed with people who had been on the fence and were finally pushed over, thanks to that card. By the end of my shift yesterday at the information line, though, we still were able to find places to get the vaccine before the end of the day. And of course, availability of appointments, if not incentives, remains excellent throughout New Mexico.
On August 28, a column by activist and retired Los Alamos family physician Tyler Taylor, MD was published in the Albuquerque Journal. Dr. Taylor catalogued fifteen good reasons for getting the vaccine [see below]. I spoke with him about his column: He said he wrote it hoping to convince some of those who are undecided about the benefits or risks of the vaccine. Probably few of you who are reading this article are in the undecided group – nationally, some 88% of Democrats have gotten the vaccine. But some of you – horrors! – have Republican friends or relatives who need convincing, as only 55% of Republicans and only 60% of independents have been vaccinated against COVID. Let them see Dr. Taylor’s column.
As the Delta variant makes its way around New Mexico, the country, and the world, the remarkable efficacy and safety of the three vaccines we have available becomes all the more important. While some of the cases being seen these days are among the vaccinated (so-called breakthrough cases), they tend to be far less severe than those in people who haven’t seen the light. According to a recent British study, the vaccines are more than 90% effective in preventing severe disease, hospitalization from COVID, and death from the Delta variant. And if we’ve already seen alpha, beta, gamma and delta, can epsilon, zeta, eta, theta (etc.) be far behind? They will be coming soon if we don’t protect an adequate proportion of the population with vaccine.
COVID vaccines don’t cause fertility problems, they aren’t imbued with chips, they don’t change our DNA, they don’t cause autism. . . You get the drift; they are very safe.
Dr. Taylor noted the very high rate of vaccination acceptance in his home county, with a corresponding low rate of recent COVID cases. He pointed out the connection between low case rates and high immunization levels, and when I looked up some of New Mexico’s largest counties, the correlation is indeed remarkable.
| County | Immunization rate | Cases per 100,000, last 14 days |
| Los Alamos | 86.9% | 10.2 |
| Santa Fe | 78.6% | 20.3 |
| Doña Ana | 71.4% | 25.8 |
| Bernalillo | 71.1% | 28.8 |
| Chaves | 45.2% | 91.3 |
| Lea | 45.2% | 126.5 |
| Eddy | 44.5% | 105.9 |
Dr. Taylor noted that his list of reasons to accept vaccines is not intended to create a feeling of guilt among those he’s trying to convince. It emphasizes the personal benefits of receiving the vaccine, soft-peddling the very real benefits to society as a whole. His list notes the safety of the vaccines, the ease with which they can be obtained, and the lack of cost to the New Mexican receiving it. The vaccine is free, even if the $100 incentive is no longer available.
Tyler Taylor moved here from Virginia and began a practice on “The Hill” that served people there for 18 years. He believes strongly in advocacy, and has been very active in the campaign for the Health Security Act, which would provide a state-level single-payer health system. Dr. Taylor has been an asset to Los Alamos and to the state, not least in giving us good reasons to be immunized against this endless pandemic – endless if we don’t get immunized.
Are you still on the vaccine fence? NM doctor lists 15 advantages
By Dr. Tyler Taylor / Family Physician, Los Alamos, 8/28/2021
1) If you get vaccinated and get COVID, you’ll very likely have a much milder case because of the shot. And you’ll be much less likely to get hospitalized and end up with a huge bill.
2) You’ll also be far less likely to die, after days on a ventilator separated from friends and family. Since February, 97% of New Mexicans dying from COVID-19 have been unvaccinated. This pattern is basically the same across the country.
3) The folks you spend a lot of time with will be much less likely to catch COVID from you. Also, vaccinated friends and family members who care about you hope you’ll protect yourself and get one of these shots. That’s not being controlling. Friends look after friends – especially during a national crisis.
4) These vaccines are extremely safe, with about one serious side effect for every 10,000 doses given. Almost all of those are allergic reactions that happen within 30 minutes and can be easily treated. That’s why people are asked to stay around after their shots.
5) All the U.S. vaccines are amazingly effective. They prevent about nine out of 10 serious COVID infections. For comparison influenza shots are roughly half as effective at preventing the flu each year.
6) The COVID vaccine made by Pfizer is now fully approved by the FDA. The second vaccine to come out, made by Moderna, is very likely to get similar approval soon. Till now, they were considered “experimental.”
7) In America, the vaccines are completely free and are now easy to get in every part of the country – at pharmacies, clinics, health departments, etc. When did you last get something very valuable for free?
8) If you’ve got a “good immune system,” take advantage of it! The vaccines fire it up to work super-well at protecting you.
9) Health care workers desperately want all Americans to get vaccinated. About 4,000 of them have died of COVID while taking care of us the last 16 months.
10) There is nothing alive in today’s two most common COVID vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, so they can’t possibly cause an infection. Over 202 million Americans have gotten them. And no, there’s no evidence they cause sterility or DNA damage.
11) If you avoid getting COVID, you’ll also never get the “long-haul” symptoms that go on for months. About three out of 10 COVID-19 patients struggle with them, even those with milder illnesses, and many thousands of those unlucky folks now can no longer work.
12) For American businesses to fully recover, jobs to be plentiful, and our social restrictions to disappear, we’ve got to crush COVID ASAP. Like folks in the U.S. military, we civilians are being asked to do our patriotic duty for the good of the nation.
13) The longer this pandemic rolls on, the more new strains of the COVID virus will keep appearing. Some are even more contagious and deadly than the first strain, and they will spread first through people who aren’t vaccinated. The delta strain we’re now facing is so contagious that the average infected person will spread the virus to six to nine more people.
14) In 16 months, about 630,000 Americans have died from COVID – 110,000 more than died in WWI and WWII combined. Eleven times the number who gave their lives in Vietnam. COVID can’t be stopped with bullets or peace treaties – only with syringes.
15) If you don’t get vaccinated and end up in the hospital seriously sick with COVID, you’ll look and feel like a complete idiot.