According to Dottie Jones, Lydia Rodriguez's cousin, "They weren't careless. They quarantined. They masked. But they didn't get the vaccine."

Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez should have gotten vaccinated, because out of the nearly 190 million Americans who are now fully-vaccinated, only 0.001% have died from COVID-19. Of the current monthly deaths from COVID-19, 99.5% of the dead are people who were unvaccinated.

If you get the shot, chances are that even if you do get COVID it's not going to kill you. It's going to continue to kill unvaccinated people like Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez, from La Marque, Texas. The couple didn't believe in vaccines, and didn't want to get vaccinated right up until they were hospitalized.

"Before she got intubated, one of the last things she told me was, 'Please make sure my children get vaccinated,'" Dottie said.

Lawrence Rodriguez died August 7th. Lydia Rodriguez died August 16th. They leave behind 4 children.

I don't blame Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez for dying and leaving their 4 children behind. I blame the people who filled their heads with misinformation and doubts, people who convinced them not to get vaccinated.

I blame Fox News anchors Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, who told their viewers that a de-worming medicine for livestock could treat COVID while sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubts about vaccines.

I blame conservative radio talk show hosts like Phil Valentine and Dick Farrel, who mocked the virus and vaccines on their radio shows, convincing their listeners to ignore doctors and public health officials and not get vaccinated, only to have a sudden change of heart when they themselves got sick and had to be hospitalized.

I blame religious leaders like Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who spread unfounded rumors about microchips were being placed under the skin of every person, and who cast doubt not just on vaccines, but on the motives of doctors and scientists who are trying to save people's lives.

I blame every troll on Facebook spreading false information and memes, and every friend of Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez who forwarded misinformation to them, causing them to make a fatal choice.

All of you have blood on your hands.

We can slow the virus down and reduce the load on hospitals by masking up and keeping socially distant, but to get things back to normal more people will need to get vaccinated, and the number one reason that the vaccine-hesitant become vaccine-takers is because someone they personally know and care about died from the virus. That's literally the only way that anti-vaxxers figure out that maybe they should get vaccinated, when someone they know dies and it occurs to them "that could have been ME."

Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez did not live long lives, but by setting a terrible example and dying in a horrible, unnecessary, and easily preventable way, their deaths can help others to live.

Get the goddamned shot motherfuckers.

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yungstud@pigdog.org