The COVID vaccine: Will they force it on us?

The mad scramble to avoid COVID-19 – stay at home, close businesses, schools and churches, wear masks, avoid crowds, social distance – and, at the same time, the frantic efforts to develop a vaccine to protect people from the virus, is virtually all we have been exposed to via the media for weeks.

Are we tired of it yet?

Californians are not happy with the move by Gov. Newsom to close beaches, especially when the temperature is in the 80s and 90s, and his proposal to open schools in July. New Yorker's are not happy with Gov. Cuomo's restrictions on their activities, religious and otherwise.

And don't even get me started on Michigan.

The question is, what is the effect on the average American. Fear? Annoyance? Skepticism? Anger?

How are they reacting to threats of arrest and fines for any violations of the new government restrictions on their activities? So far, it doesn't look good – and if the rules get even stricter, there will be a revolt. It won't be pretty, and it already has begun in varied locales.

It's hard to imagine how the story of this virus has swept the world, and all we hear are the statistics of the sick and dead along with estimates of what the ultimate toll might be if nothing is done to stop the spread. It is doomsday multiplied.

We are told daily that the only way to put an end to it is to develop a vaccine, that frantic research is underway with daily reports of small successes. The idea is that when there is a vaccine that's considered effective, everyone will have to be vaccinated. There are people who claim that eventually we will have to carry identification showing that we either have survived COVID-19 or that we have been successfully vaccinated.

Which brings up an interesting issue: What about the person who does NOT want the vaccine – for whatever reason?

Given the attitude of politicians these days, it appears that the ramifications for those "refuseniks" would be quite severe.

A bit of history here will clarify some of that thinking.

In 1976, 19-year-old Pfc. David Lewis developed symptoms of the flu and in 24 hours was dead. Other recruits at Fort Dix, in New Jersey, also developed the illness.

There were other cases of this new form of flu virus (swine flu), and politicians and health officials feared it would be the beginning of a pandemic similar to the Spanish flu of 1918. There was no "pandemic," but there was a panic; and the story swept the media.

I was working in television news in Los Angeles at the time, and every night more than half of our broadcasts focused on the flu and the search for a vaccine.

To complicate matters, it was the year of a presidential campaign and election, and then-President Gerald Ford became part of the story. He promoted the search for the vaccine and supported legislation to fund the research. Finally, when one was developed, he and his family got their shots on camera for the evening news. I remember the night we aired that story. Interestingly, his political opponent in that campaign, Jimmy Carter, did not get the shot.

Keep in mind that the public at that time had gone through almost annual polio epidemics and were relieved when there was a vaccine available for swine flu. I recall restrictions on public gatherings during "polio season" and restrictions on swimming at lakes and the ocean.

One of the girls at my high school came down with polio – she had been a cheerleader. She was selected to be in an iron lung – a large tank-like contraption that helped her breathe. She was put in a special bus that was driven to towns so that we could see what polio does to people.

Remember, too, that at this time President Roosevelt also was stricken, although it was kept secret from the public for a long time so as not to threaten his career.

This also was a generation that had endured devastating epidemics of smallpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough and other "childhood" diseases. There was a wonderful young man in my high school who caught the measles in his junior year and died. Just about everyone got one of those diseases – I caught the measles from a girl in my sixth grade class – and the next year, my brother got mumps.

Such experiences led most people to welcome vaccines as they became available, and the 1976 effort for a flu vaccine was welcomed by many.

A vaccine was developed, introduced to the public, and millions were vaccinated. I admit, having reported on the story for my job, I believed what they told us. I got the shot, too.

BIG MISTAKE. I got sick – never so sick in my life, before or since. I was literally in bed for two weeks, could barely stand, eat or do anything else.

I did survive, but it left me with the determination never to get another such vaccine. And I haven't, and won't. And I haven't been sick like that since. I don't even get colds.

Compared to some I was lucky. There were over 450 cases of a rare, neurological disease – Guillan Barre Syndrome – that paralyzed many and killed others. A good friend of mine got it but thankfully survived.

It didn't take long for the medical community and politicians to realize the disaster they created with the vaccine, and so it was dropped. What has many today concerned is that with the frantic efforts to get a vaccine for COVID-19 – we may be setting ourselves up for a similar disaster.

The latest I heard on the news tonight is that doctors are predicting a vaccine by September. If that happens, Katie bar the door. They'll try to get everyone vaccinated.

Are you ready? Think about it.

I know what I'll do. Nothing.

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