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I keep seeing patients who are still too afraid of getting the COVID-19 vaccine

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Tonight we have a column from a doctor who is struggling with patients who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. We also have a column about how automation will change our in-person shopping experience and a column about the filibuster. 

I keep seeing patients who are still too afraid of getting the COVID-19 vaccine

By Dr. Thomas K. Lew

A man recently brought his elderly mother to my hospital – she was very ill with sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection. It took significant effort to save her life, involving ventilators, large IVs in the neck and extended rounds of powerful antibiotics. Her son told us she had been suffering with a bad urinary tract infection for a week before coming. It was easily treatable at that point, but because he waited, it spread to the blood. He said he was afraid to bring her into the hospital earlier, because he feared we would force the COVID-19 vaccination on her.

Despite hundreds of millions of vaccinations against COVID-19 given out in the United States, the fear against the shots continues. It is unnecessary. This poor lady suffered unnecessarily – not only because the hospital cannot force a vaccination against someone’s wishes, but because science and medicine, time and again, have shown these vaccinations to be overwhelmingly safe, with the benefits far outweighing the risks.

Today's Editorial Cartoon

Police violence hurts voting today: Our democracy needs urgent reform

By Cornell William Brooks

Two Black men killed by police, 80 hot summers apart, symbolize two of the greatest threats to democracy in 2021: racialized violence by police and racialized voter suppression by public officials.

George Floyd, the symbol of America’s racial reckoning, was murdered in 2020 and Elbert Williams, the first martyr of the NAACP, was killed in 1940. The circumstances and causes of their deaths represent threats to democracy today. These threats provide Congress the urgent justification to pass both comprehensive voting rights and transformational police legislation.

Passing this legislation over a filibuster threat would be a “democracy exception” to the usual requirement of 60 votes to move legislation in a nearly evenly divided Senate. 

Hispanic Heritage Month reminds me how lucky I am in Biden's America

By Tom Perez

Every year, millions of Americans come together for Hispanic Heritage Month to celebrate our community’s contributions to this country. As the proud son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, I saw firsthand the sacrifices my parents made to ensure a good life for my four siblings and me.

My parents came to this country because they had to flee a brutal dictator. My father served with pride as a legal immigrant in the United States Army. They taught us to value the freedom this country gave us. Millions of people have come to this country hoping that our leaders will support them in their quest for the American dream. But for four long years, Latino Americans watched as Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress turned their backs on them and their families.

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