After reading this article on no-vaxxers and their self-centeredness, and then this article on vaccination hesitancy among Latino evangelicals, it occurs to me that statements like this need a rejoinder:
“I thought for a while ‘I’m not going to get it’,” Miranda said in Spanish to an audience of about 100 Latinos, largely from the Caribbean and Central America. “Not because I thought there was something harmful, sinister in the vaccine, but simply because God has brought me here without having to use any kind of medicine. God has protected me,” he said, as people nodded and applauded with excitement. [WaPo]
And it’s roughly this:
How many here have been exposed to smallpox and not become ill? I see no hands going up, no hands going up – no, you haven’t, put your hand back down. Do you know how I know that? Smallpox has not been seen in the wild for decades. And do you know why?
Vaccination.
You, all of you, didn’t suffer agony, you didn’t have terrible disfigurement inflicted upon you, you didn’t die a hideous death from smallpox, because hundreds of millions of people underwent smallpox vaccination – and thus benefited themselves, their children, their friends, and you.
Don’t prance about proclaiming God would never let you become ill with Covid 19. Vaccination is how you haven’t had smallpox.
Now it’s time. Now it’s time to pay forward your debt to those people who ensured you didn’t have to endure the tragedy of smallpox. Whether vaccinations are the work of Man or the work of God, either get your Covid vaccination, or admit you’ve spat upon a gift.
