EDITORIAL: A prayer for the unvaccinated

This is for those who remain unvaccinated despite a massive resurgence of COVID-19 in North Carolina and elsewhere.

This is for those who don’t trust the scientists, who have done their own research, who refuse to live in fear.

This is for those who are afraid of needles.

This is for those who heard the vaccine has a microchip inside it, for those who believe it will make them magnetic, for those who think a vaccine is what turned everybody into zombies in the film I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.

It was not a vaccine that turned everybody into zombies in I Am Legend. It was a virus.

This is for those who think it is safer to get COVID-19 and be naturally immunized against it than to get the vaccination.

It is not.

This is for those who believe that the Delta variant is mostly affecting people who have already been vaccinated.

It is not.

This is for those who say that vaccinated folks are just as likely to land in the hospital as the unvaccinated.

They are not.

This is for those who won’t get vaccinated for political reasons. This is for those who won’t get vaccinated because someone they trust — on TV, in church, on social media — told them not to. This is for those who won’t get vaccinated because they already told everybody they wouldn’t, and they don’t want to back down.

This is for those who still believe the lies, and this is for the liars themselves. This is for the people using fake vaccination cards and for those thinking about getting one. This is for the just plain lazy, and for those who are too busy to get it in their schedule.

You are in danger. We all are in danger. But not as much as you.

Get the vaccine.

Get The Vaccine.

GET THE VACCINE.

It will not make you magnetic. But it will make us all safer. Right now, that’s the best we can do.