This op-ed was written on December 20, 2020 and published on December 27, 2020 in the Florida Times Union through the “USA Today” news network as a guest columnist. The Times Union is the major newspaper for a metroplex of 1.6 million people and one of the top 100 newspapers in the country.

To fully understand this op-ed, you have to understand the heartbreaking calamity that was happening in Florida and Jacksonville at that time, and the revisionist history that is covering up this terrible completely preventable tragic loss of life now.

Here is the original essay from the Florida Times Union:

“Let’s do the right thing and vaccinate families as a single unit”

The CDC’s recommendations for the next two groups of people to be vaccinated raises almost as many questions as it answers. As expected, groups 1b and 1c comprise critical frontline workers, noncritical frontline workers, and people with health conditions that place them at higher risk.

These vaccine recommendations appear to be too heavily focused on the science and not enough on human nature and morality. The selection of critical frontline workers for inclusion in group 1b makes a great deal of sense. What does not make sense morally and possibly not even health-wise is authorizing the vaccine only for the worker instead of the worker’s entire family unit. 

It is likely that people who get vaccinated will become less risk averse. As a result, their work environment will naturally become riskier. We’re vaccinated. We’re safe. We can relax a little. It’s human nature.

We suspect the engine driving this pandemic is asymptomatic people. What we do not know is how effective these vaccines are at reducing the spread of infection. We know there is a low incidence of symptomatic infection in people who have been vaccinated. So it is likely that people who have been vaccinated and become infected will be asymptomatic instead of symptomatic, and we have insufficient data for how large this number might be. It could be huge.

So what this could all add up to is a possible increase in risk for the families of all vaccinated frontline workers. Right now, if an unvaccinated frontline worker gets sick, they are more likely to show symptoms, and therefore more likely to protect their family. After vaccination, this could all get turned on its head. We could be setting ourselves up for the unintended consequence of a major flareup in infection by not protecting the entire family unit. 

What father or mother is going to want to be vaccinated when their teenage children and spouse are not? This will lead to resistance to getting vaccinated, the exact opposite of what healthcare experts are seeking.

Further confusing matters, the CDC’s lifeboat decision to include smokers (current and past) in group 1c is morally and ethically wrong. So if you smoke, congratulations, you are at the head of the next line to get a vaccine. Does this include pot? Vaping? Come on. Smoking is a dangerous lifestyle choice which we are now going to reward? This group of past and present smokers has to include vast numbers of people. I smoked for 21 years and quit 25 years ago, so for that stupid decision, I get to be vaccinated before the family members of some of our frontline workers. That is so wrong. I think the government should tell smokers that they need to wait for the next lifeboat. 

I also believe everyone should be rapid tested for covid antibodies first, and if you have antibodies, then you should have to wait to be vaccinated. The size of this group who were previously or currently infected is estimated to be 20% of the country. By sending smokers and everyone who already has some protection, as indicated by covid antibodies, to the end of the line, we might just have enough vaccine to protect all group 1b critical frontline workers and their families. It is the right thing to do, even if it is not the most scientific thing to do.