As the covid pandemic continues for another year, we have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. While the United States may have had one of the worst initial responses to the pandemic, the vaccine rollout has, despite all other social and political failures, conveyed the technological might and industrial power of the greatest nation in the world. Nowhere else in the world has a greater variety of vaccines been made accessible, a greater quantity of vaccines been made available, and a faster rate of vaccination taken place. However, as the vaccine rollout continues under the Biden administration, cracks have begun to appear in the plan. Across the United States, pockets of resistance against the covid vaccine or vaccination, in general, have appeared. While for some people, opposition against vaccination may be caused by religious beliefs or medical necessities, for other people, such opposition is informed by conspiracy, political ideology, or simply personal ignorance. To ensure that herd immunity is reached in the greater American population, as much of the population must be vaccinated as possible.

Fifty years ago, the debate over the topic of vaccines would have been on mute. In the middle of the polio pandemic, citizens did not sit around and doubt whether a disease existed. They did not try to blame another culture for being the origin of the problem. They were more concerned with surviving or avoiding the paralysis that polio caused. When a vaccine for polio was finally released, parents rushed to have their children vaccinated. The motivation was not a desire to save others or, through vaccination, contribute to herd immunity. Rather, it was a simple desire to live. As a result, the public eagerly consumed the polio vaccines as if their future depended on them - which it did.

One of the main differences between the current covid-19 crisis and the earlier polio crisis is the patient. Polio largely inflicted itself upon the young, whereas covid-19 largely endangered the elderly. While covid-19 affects individuals of all ages, the young (age 18 and under) often shrug off the disease with nary a sniffle. On the other hand, elderly patients experience severe symptoms or even death at much higher percentage rates. Furthermore, in many parts of the Westernized world, the elderly are not often viewed as active members of society. Many of them live in separated retirement communities or retirement villages, visited upon as familial obligations during holidays and special occasions. Others that may be feebler and more placed in specialized nursing homes or assisted living facilities, seen as familial responsibilities and burdens. In either case, the elderly are most viewed as people who have lived full lives. As a result, elderly deaths, whether through covid or some other diseases, are mourned, but not viewed as traumatic as the death of children.

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