I lost my school teacher brother to COVID in January 2021. At that time, vaccines were not available, emergency rooms were full, and the Health Department told many people to quarantine. My brother was not old.  He would have been here if a vaccine was available. People now have that luxury of not becoming critically ill, if they take a vaccine.

If you have to watch your loved one, wait for a bed in ICU, on a ventilator for 2 and half weeks on FaceTime as a hospital visit, take care of funeral arrangements from out of state, with funeral homes filling up, and do a private burial where only the immediate family watched on FaceTime, put ourselves at risk flying to take care of arrangements. Restaurants were at 50% capacity. The world did not know if the vaccine was going to be completed and when.

Now, the vaccine is available, people are not understanding because they are not looking at the impact of someone with no vaccine going around people and making others ill, especially immune compromised and elderly people.  

We should take care of our children and every employee should be vaccinated, unless health compromised.  It is wrong to have so many people who are teachers and staff in schools to not do what is right.  America is falling behind the rest of the world with vaccination rates.  It is wrong for people to resist a health issue. Scientific research based facts and studies illustrate the impact of immunizations. School teachers are educated and should know they impact they have on the children. There are students with immune-compromised systems (asthma, cancer, etc.). As an educator, our duty to is set the foundation for a better world and to protect students by getting immunized.