Advice to vaccine skeptics who oppose the jab | Mullane

JD Mullane, Bucks County Courier Times
·4 min read

Another celebrity died from COVID last week and, like so many across America’s fruited plain, he tempted fate by mocking the vaccines and those who’ve chosen to get jabbed.

Vachik Mangassarian, 78, was an actor who had roles in "NCIS," “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” and other shows I’ve never watched.

Mangassarian insulted the vaxxed on social media, writing, “Millions test positive of SHEEPLE-19.” By which he meant that those who’ve been vaccinated are sheep who blindly do what they’re told. (In fairness, some are.)

His death followed Marvin Lee Aday, the rock star better known as Meat Loaf, who was 74 when he died on Jan. 20. He, too, criticized vax mandates, and while his family has not said specifically what caused his death, the celebrity gossip site TMZ reported that it has a source that confirmed Meat Loaf’s death was from complications of COVID. And while it’s unclear if he was vaxxed, it’s clear he didn’t like being pushed around by pro-vaxxers.

“If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A shot is prepared as part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. in Binghamton N.Y.
A shot is prepared as part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. in Binghamton N.Y.

These deaths are among the more high-profile since the pandemic began in early 2020. Ironically, several conservative talk show hosts have also perished from the disease, after expressing vaccine skepticism. These include Memphis, Tennessee, talker Phil Valentine.

Valentine, 61, had been a vax skeptic, and didn’t get the jab himself because he didn’t believe he’d die from COVID. After he became ill in August 2021, his health quickly deteriorated, and he was placed in critical care. At the time, his brother, Mark, said Phil regretted “he wasn’t a more vocal advocate of the vaccination.”

“I know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ‘Go get vaccinated,’” Mark Valentine told the local paper. “Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories.”

Eternal rest to all of them.

Like so much of the culture, COVID became needlessly political in 2020. During the vice-presidential debates, for example, VP candidate Kamala Harris said, “If Dr. Fauci, the doctors, tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it," Harris said. "But if Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I'm not going to take it."

It must have been ironic for Harris when Trump, at an Alabama rally, implored his MAGA base to get vaxxed, and was booed.

Now, I get it. The messaging from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been muddled. Fauci didn’t help with his equivocations and contradictions, or when he counterattacked his critics, stating arrogantly that he represents science. (Last week, the humble doctor was widely mocked when a photo circulated online showing that he has an enormous portrait of himself in his office.) However you feel about Doc Fauci, that’s odd. I mean, who does that sort of thing? Would you take medical advice from an ego like that? Not me.

When I’ve asked why anti-vaxxers refuse the meds, it’s clearly an emotional issue for them, aligned with their politics. I'm not sure why. What other therapeutics to treat potential life-threatening illnesses have you refused because you’ve made the personal political? Crickets.

Phil Valentine, a conservative talk radio host from Tennessee who had been a vaccine skeptic until he was hospitalized from COVID-19, died Aug. 21, 2021.
Phil Valentine, a conservative talk radio host from Tennessee who had been a vaccine skeptic until he was hospitalized from COVID-19, died Aug. 21, 2021.

I've been jabbed and boosted, don't trust partisan politicians, and see Dr. Fauci as a sadly comic figure enamored with his celebrity.

When I decided to get vaccinated for COVID, I didn’t seek advice from Fauci, the CDC web site, journalists, health policy experts, the governor, or entertainers like Rachel Maddow and Joe Rogan, or local radio hosts.

I went old school and — this will shock some of you — asked my family doctor. Unlike Fauci and all the other media flap jaws, my family doc has taken care of me since the late 1990s. He knows every health issue I have. He’s a decent man, always conservative in his approach to treatments.

He told me I should get vaxxed and boosted. Good enough for me.

A question for the anti-vaxxers: Do you trust social media and Tucker Carlson more than you trust your own doctor? If you don't have a family doctor, you should get one, preferably one with whom you can grow old. That's my situation, and I wouldn't trade his advice for all the health data and frightening headlines online.

When I’ve asked the anti-vax types where they get their info that keeps them from taking the vaccine, they prevaricate. Their fear may be social media driven, or they give me familiar boilerplate like, “I'm free and they can’t force me to take medicine I don’t want.”

Fair enough. I don’t think anyone should be forced to take meds they don’t want. But if you’re older and refuse the vaxx on ideological grounds, refusing to seek sound medical advice from a trusted doc, all I can say is there’s no fool like an old fool.

Columnist JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: The COVID jab was a no brainer for me, because of who said "Get it."