SVSU students share their opinions
Connor Rousseau | Reporter
Politics during the current pandemic have been tense, and the controversies when it comes to mandatory vaccinations have hit home for many individuals across the United States.
Two SVSU students voiced their opinions on vaccine mandates and shed light on the many complexities of this topic.
Adam Uremek is a computer science and mathematics sophomore who feels a mandated vaccination would benefit the United States in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, if the vaccines are made accessible and widespread. He is vaccinated and boosted.
He said he was immunocompromised in middle school and wants to do everything he can to avoid severe damage to his lungs.
Uremek said he is fearful, however, to how some Americans may respond to such a mandate.
“2020 and 2021 has demonstrated political extremism to a degree that frightens me, and ever since the Jan. 6 insurrection of the US capitol building, I’ve felt that literally anything could provoke a violent dispute in this country,” he said
Uremek said that he feels if the world acted sooner with mandates, we may have found ourselves in a different position than we do at the dawn of 2022.
Uremek also said that he doesn’t believe vaccine mandates violate human rights.
“If we are defining ‘human rights’ as the right to have a fair chance at living in this world, then vaccine mandates probably support human rights more than they violate them since vaccines give us a better chance at surviving a COVID infection.”
Uremek said that the Coronavirus vaccines have become a political issue because people have been misguided by falsities.
“Vaccines are only ever a political issue when people don’t understand them,” he said. “Almost everyone that I’ve met who was against vaccines has been fed misinformation as to how they work, what they are, and what they do to you, and those that I’ve met who do understand vaccines and their benefits almost never have any opposition.”
Uremek said that he wants those who don’t support the vaccine mandates to know that their voices are being heard, but he fears the pandemic will continue endlessly.
“I understand how you feel and you absolutely have the right to oppose mandates, but just know that we are losing a war that we think we are winning, and if things continue the way they’re going now, this pandemic won’t end for at least another 3 years.
Abigail Sefcik is a political science sophomore and a professional and technical writing major.
She is vaccinated but concerned when it comes to mandates.
“In general, the concept of mandates makes me hesitant, not only when it comes to vaccines, but in every sense of the word,” Sefcik said. “The idea that there are other people who think they know what is best for me, without having taken the time to get to know my story in a unique way, makes me skeptical.”
Sefcik said that there is a difference between vaccines and vaccine mandates. She said that she believes vaccines help slow the spread of COVID-19, but that the mandates are not beneficial.
“Forcing the public to make choices they do not want to make is what causes division,” she said. “If various institutions want the public to be vaccinated, commercials likened to propaganda is not the way to do it.”
Sefcik said that SVSU has taken a softer approach to encourage vaccination in lieu of coercion or shaming, and that an individual’s right to choose has not been abused.
“SVSU administration is looking out for the students at SVSU, stepping in for us to see issues and devise solutions where they are needed,” she said. “I think it is wrong to look at healthy individuals and guilt them with the threat of causing harm to others as a method of persuasion, but that’s not what this university has done. They have offered students various options.”
Sefcik said that vaccines have morphed into a political issue when it is really about health and safety.
“Vaccines, no matter what kind, are a health issue,” she said. “However, the COVID-19 vaccine is over-politicized when it never should have been. Certain parts of the population are denying solid evidence, and other parts are denying real concerns that should be acknowledged and corrected. In order for communities to unite and move forward, the concerns of both sides should be acknowledged and respected.”
Vaccines will help end the pandemic
Alyssa McMillan | News Editor
Vaccine mandates are a topic that many Americans are currently divided on.
Some are in full support and others aren’t.
It’s become a political issue when it’s really not.
It’s about saving lives; not which political party is right or wrong.
While it’s hard to get a completely accurate number on COVID deaths in the United States since 2020, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates the number is around 862,492.
Many of those deaths were people who were considered immunocompromised.
What kind of country are we if we don’t try our hardest to protect those that can’t protect themselves?
What are we saying to the people who are doing everything right during this pandemic but are still dying because people refuse to get vaccinated?
This isn’t an issue that’s being pushed by the liberal agenda like many Republicans tend to think it is. The Democratic party gains nothing by mandating vaccines.
There isn’t some hidden motive that they don’t want people to know about. It’s literally about saving lives.
If the government had mandated vaccines the second they had become available, we could be done with the pandemic by now.
Thousands of lives would have been saved. We could be getting back to normal.
Instead, we’re pretending things are getting better and refusing vaccines by saying it’s unconstitutional and that it’s my body, my choice.
But what does that have to do with anything?
It’s a vaccine. Vaccines have been mandated for a long time.
Children have to have certain vaccines to go to school and even have to show
proof.
How is the COVID vaccine any different than that?
Almost every single person in the United States has received a dozen different vaccines throughout their life time.
We’ve completely eradicated diseases like polio and small pox.
The flu used to kill people until the vaccine came out. We could stop COVID the same way.
People are turning it into a political issue just because they want to.
Tensions have been high ever since the election and this is just the latest thing to get mad at President Biden about.
If you don’t like him, vote him out in the next election, don’t sacrifice other people’s lives because you’re too stubborn to get a shot that has been in the works for years.
It’s not about school and what we’re teaching our kids. It has absolutely nothing to do with the classroom.
It’s not about standing up for your beliefs or refusing to let someone else force you to do something you don’t want to.
If that was the case, there would be a lot of other things about our society that you would have an issue with.
Taxes, for example. This comes down to nothing more than ignorance. A simple Google search would clear up any legitimate safety concerns.
People have even gone so far as to compare what we’re going through right now to the holocaust which is absolutely disgusting.
What the Jewish people went through during World War II is nothing like the government asking you to get a vaccine to save lives.
Stop using a tragedy to try to justify putting other people at risk.
What has to happen for people to realize this isn’t a made up pandemic?
Will it take someone important to you to die before you realize you could have helped prevent this whole thing?
Or do you yourself have to be hospitalized from it for a change to be made?
I don’t want to lose anyone close to me because other people are too ignorant to get vaccinated. It’s a shot.
The worst thing that can happen is you feel bad for a few hours.
It’s not going to cause any life altering side effects.
And yes, I do know that for a fact.
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