Hi, everybody, this is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where we answer questions from people like you. I got to tell you– I have to tell you that Johnny, Marty, and I are going to weigh in on this one. Well, they might, if they’re smart they won’t. This is one of those questions, we’ve got to tell you that when it came across my desk, everyone in my organization, or the three or four people who saw it, said, “I don’t know if you want to touch it.” In fact, I’ll just share the note on the letter. It says, “I don’t know if you want to touch this one but it is a Mondays with Mike question.”
All right, I’ll tell you, I’m not scared, I’m not scared. I’m a little scared. All right, I’m terrified but we’re going to answer it. Here it comes, are you ready?
“It looks like, according to the data, that 47% of people in the United States are going to take the vaccine, meaning 53% will likely not take it. The rest do not trust the science. Your thoughts.”
First of all, I don’t have any independent verification that your data is correct, no offense. Do you guys know if that’s the right number?
Marty: No, I don’t.
Mike: I have no idea. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t trust the science. I think in some cases, like I know for a fact, there are certain nursing home employees and healthcare providers who are electing not to take it. I don’t know why. Here is what I do know, and this is what I’ll say about this, it is always risky to weigh in on an interpretation of something until you actually know what the data is. I would look at that and not prescribe meaning.
For instance, I have a very good friend who is now considering not taking the vaccine. Not in a high-risk group and actually had an appointment to go get the vaccine and didn’t get it. The reason they didn’t get it is because somebody else that they know got it and got extremely, extremely sick. Now, we don’t know if that was the reason because there’s not enough science around it.
Two things, my thoughts are, I don’t know why people would elect not to get it. I don’t know why some people want to get it and some people don’t, some people are scared. There’s a whole movement out there of anti-vaxxers, “We’re not going to get a vaccine, we’re not going to get the vaccine no matter what.” They don’t want to vaccinate their children. I know somebody very well who doesn’t want to vaccinate their kids.
Here are my thoughts. It’s a very personal decision and it’s a decision that should be left in the hands of the people who are making the decision for themselves. The fact is, that even if you get it, if you get the vaccine, it doesn’t mean you can’t get COVID anymore, it just means you probably won’t be hospitalized and probably won’t die. Also, it doesn’t mean, according to the most recent science, that you can’t give it, you can still carry it around. I think it’s a deeply personal question. I don’t prescribe or try to understand other people’s motives. Do you guys have any thoughts about that?
Johnny: I think that’s a very politically correct way of saying– [crosstalk]
Marty: You skirted that perfectly.
Mike: Thank you.
Johnny: No, I agree. I think it’s a personal choice. I’m personally going to get it. My girlfriend got it. She was perfectly fine, but again, that’s just a one-person’s story. That’s just me.
Mike: What about you Marty?
Marty: I completely agree with that. Like Johnny said, I’m also personally going to get it but I do think it’s a personal choice. It’s so new that it’s hard to say one way or the other because science takes time.
We don’t know, we don’t know, right?
Marty: Yes.
Mike: What I do know is, in about a year, we’re going to be watching TV and some law firm is going to be on TV saying, “If you were exposed to copious amounts of hand sanitizers in 2020, call 1-800-Sue-Purell.
Marty: I think this question speaks to the– We get so much information from so many different places today and a lot of those places are telling you the other places are wrong and I don’t think any of us have ever lived through a situation like this. I think people are just trying to navigate the overwhelming amount of info that we get and, I don’t know, people have a hard time maybe–
Johnny: Deciding which track, which avenue to follow.
Marty: Yes, exactly because who do you trust today?
Mike: You can’t. You don’t know, right? You just don’t know. It’s crazy. Although I did see something funny today speaking of COVID. I’m not making light of COVID but this was funny and I think you guys have a sick enough sense of humor to appreciate this. I don’t watch the news but something came across my feed this morning that said– I swear it’s true, you look it up. It says, “Foreign visitors angry because China now requires anal swabs for COVID testing.”
[laughter]
Is that one way to slow down tourism? That’ll slow it down. Wow.
Johnny: Slow it down, speed it up depending on– [crosstalk].
[laughter]
Mike: All right, that’s the answer for today. Thank you, guys.
Be courageous.
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