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Over many months of the pandemic, the discussion has focused on personal rights not to vaccinate in contrast to public health. For many the challenge to personal freedoms brought back that old battle cry, “Live free or die.” Regrettably, many did die and continue to do so. The power of misinformation will no doubt continue to take a toll on many, especially those who have the greatest need for protection.

You go to bed feeling fine and the next morning you awaken to a cough and a bit of headache.  The coffee lacks the usual wonderful aroma as it brews and you find you are dragging. So you ask yourself – what is this? Is it COVID? Sinus? Allergies? A cold? The flu?

I am a senior, and I am a physician. We seniors have and continue to make up the substantial majority of those who become seriously ill. We seniors overwhelm the healthcare system; we suffer greatly, and we die, leaving our lives incomplete and our families grieving our loss. What is best for folks my age regarding COVID now? What has changed?

With a large percentage of people in our community saying they are “over COVID,” although COVID is still here, how does that make you react? Many people are acting in ways that could have a dramatic impact on you, unless your gut feeling, intuition, or instinct quickly tells you how to be safe.

COVID-19 immunizations saved 235,000 American lives during the first nine months that those vaccines were available, from December 2020 to September 2021 (JAMA Network Open, July 6, 2022). Now, a year later, they have spared additional tens of thousands of us from premature death and long COVID.

COVID-19 is most known as a virus that causes respiratory disease. It has had varying effects on people infected by it, with symptoms as basic as a headache to the inability to breathe or extreme fatigue. It has been just over a year since I got COVID and had a double lung transplant to save my life.