STEVENS POINT – Here we are, on the cusp of Independence Day, a nation riven by its differences.
But if the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need each other to be good citizens. Maybe this year we should celebrate Interdependence Day. Some facts to consider:
Wisconsin pretty much mirrors the nation in the population that’s fully vaccinated — 66.2% here, and 67.4% across the nation. In the 65-and-over age group, 91% are fully vaccinated in the nation and 95% here.
Despite politicization of the vaccine and vaccine skepticism, it’s obvious that a lot of those who identify as Republicans got the vaccine, despite the likes of whack jobs like Tucker Carlson. Who knows what their reasons were, but the end result was a safer world for themselves, their loved ones and their communities. That’s citizenship, right?
Unvaccinated adults tend to be younger. About two-thirds who haven’t gotten a vaccine are under 50 years old, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. More than half, or 56%, of those identify as Republicans or lean Republican, compared to about a third of vaccinated adults. Nearly half of them have a high school education or less. Only 17% of the unvaccinated have a college degree or more.
Throughout the pandemic, the unvaccinated and vaccine skeptics drew a lot of attention. Safe to say that most of those who opposed masking fit into those categories. Their screams and rants drew media coverage. Meanwhile, the good citizens who took the simple but effective steps recommended by public health authorities quietly went about their ways of being good citizens.
It’s hard to calculate how many deaths resulted from the anti-vax, anti-public safety crowd, especially conservative media outlets, but the number is likely huge.
But so is the number of lives saved by vaccination. A study recently released by Imperial College London, the first of its kind, put the number of lives saved at nearly 20 million in one year. The study modeled the spread of the disease in 185 countries and territories between December 2020 and December 2021. It found that without COVID vaccines, 31.4 million people would have died, and that 19.8 million of these deaths were avoided because of vaccinations. The study is the first attempt to quantify the number of deaths prevented directly and indirectly as a result of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Its authors said they were surprised by the high number of lives saved but added that many more would have been, had vaccines been more widely available worldwide.
The simple public health measures like masking and social distancing also likely saved millions of lives, but it’s hard to put a number on lives saved by such prudence. That has always been the case, stretching back to the 1918 flu.
But the fact remains that the majority of Americans took those steps and got vaccinated. Call them good citizens.
There’s an old saying that goes “Freedom is not free.” If the pandemic proved anything, it’s that good citizenship means balancing personal freedoms with the greater good of all. So, to the good citizens of this land, Happy Interdependence Day. 
