Man whose unvaccinated friend died of COVID says minds of anti-vaxxers can't be changed | Gianficaro

Preston Zeller got the shot. And then a second shot. And when they wave him in for a booster shot, he’ll get that shot. Know why? Well, let Preston tell you. 

“Don’t wanna die like my friend Perk died, see?” the Willingboro resident explained. “He didn’t get the shot. Wouldn’t trust the science, as they say. Perk listened to all the wrong people, and watched too much of the wrong TV. Said he was scared of what it might do to him. Scared they rushed the vaccine through. Scared there wasn’t enough testing. 

“Then he got the COVID. Last time I talked to him on the phone this year, he was gasping for air. Huh, huh, huh, like that, you know? We called him Perk because every time the boys went to his place, he’d say, ‘Have a seat. Just perked a fresh pot.’ Well, we ain’t goin’ to Perk’s place no more.” 

In a world with still far too many Perks, be a Preston. We’re coming up on 680,000 COVID deaths in America during the pandemic, as the delta variant lingers and spreads. More than 27,200 deaths in New Jersey. More than 51,000 infections and counting in Burlington County, and more than 900 deaths. Including Perk. 

Still, too many Perks remain despite the indisputable efficacy of the vaccines. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests 99.999 percent of people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 did not have a severe breakthrough case that led to hospitalization or death. Of the more than 166 million people have been fully vaccinated against the virus, 1,507, or about 0.0001 percent, died of COVID. Given those odds in a casino, wouldn’t you push all your chips in? Wouldn’t you bet the house, the farm, and your neighbor’s boat given those odds? Of course; we all would. Well, maybe not all, as the vaccine hesitancy that persists among far too many suggests. 

So, how do we convince skeptics to get the shot, to push all their chips in? Present the vaccine data? Appeal to their sense of greater good? Shame them? Zeller believes it’s all a waste of time. 

“People gonna do what they do,” he said. “Not gonna change their minds, which is sad and dangerous. If they haven’t gotten a vaccine by now, they won’t. I saw a story on the TV about a woman being interviewed who said she won’t get the shot because the chances of getting the virus are so low. She said she’d take her chances. 

“Then she got COVID, and the TV station interviewed her in the hospital. Guess what she said, all hooked up to tubes and stuff? She said, ‘I should have gotten the vaccine.’ Yeah, really? No (expletive) kidding!” 

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Forget what you’re hearing from your neighbor the accountant, who spews the ridiculous notion the vaccines cause infertility and give the government a way to track your every movement. Don't believe your coworker who genuflects at the altar of Tucker the Fox. Ignore the anti-vaxxers whose medical knowledge is limited to “Grey’s Anatomy” reruns. And as if attempting to one-up recent stupidity with regards to ivermectin, anti-vaxxers on Facebook and Twitter are now advocating for a new and unproven COVID-19 treatment: Gargling Betadine, an antiseptic used to treat cuts and scrapes. What, the pharmacy was all out of Mercurochrome? Dopes.

Rather, let the medical experts be your guide. 

“The delta variant is something that’s a newer version, a more fit version of this virus, and it will find unvaccinated people wherever they are,” wrote Dr. Amesh Adalja, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “If you’re unvaccinated right now, you’re not facing the original version of this virus. You’re facing the most contagious version of this virus, so an unvaccinated person is much more likely to get infected if they come into contact with the delta variant than if they came into contact with the original version of this virus or the alpha variant. That’s what’s raised the stakes.” 

I suspect many of the same folks who refuse to be vaccinated roll their dice in different ways. They rock climb a sheared mountain face, and get behind the wheel after three too many, and gently informing their significant other those jeans are a tad too tight, and somehow live to tell the tale. 

Not Perk. 

“Can’t say how many times we tried to get him to get the shot,” Zeller said. “But like I said, when people decide no, that’s it. You aren’t changing their minds. 

“Just wish we could’ve convinced him to get the shot. Just wish we could still be hanging at Perk’s.” 

Columnist Phil Gianficaro can be reached at 215-345-3078, pgianficaro@theintell.com, and @philgianficaro on Twitter.