Letter to the Editor: Norman Plotkin

Letter to the editor,

Responding to Allen Lipis’ Op-ed in the Aug. 15 edition.

Mr. Lipis wrote about why people don’t want to be vaccinated. I wanted to respond as to why people should be vaccinated.

I have read the new Delta version of the virus transmits at a rampant rate, 100 times faster than the original COVID-19. Children aged 0-12 are filling our hospitals. UK reports 12,000 children with long-term health issues.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world have died from this virus. What can I do, as a Jew who cares about mankind, to stop the spread of this horrible disease? I can get an approved shot from Pfizer. If I am leery of the new technology, I can get a Johnson and Johnson shot.

Can you imagine what it would have been like in the 1950s if people refused to get the polio vaccine because it was new, and the long-term effects were unknown? Did schools in the 1950s have the right and obligation to require students to be vaccinated against polio?

If you are healthy, do you care about not spreading this virus to your family, friends and co-workers?

I am OK if someone chooses not to be vaccinated. But I am also OK with employers and schools requiring vaccination. If one chooses not to be vaccinated, that may be their right. But they should not endanger the rest of society. They should remain quarantined so as to not contribute to the spread of this nasty virus.

Norman Plotkin, Sandy Springs