I thought last May that my personal pandemic had pretty much ended. That was a few weeks after I had gotten my second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, meaning it had hit maximum effectiveness and I was considered fully vaccinated by the CDC. Meanwhile, the government was starting to peel back its recommendations on masking, and there was a definite feeling that happy days were here again.

We all know how that went, and we’re back in the ditch again, although I feel considerably more optimistic than I did in 2020. But I can’t help noticing that the fuel keeping this pandemic going is largely provided by the unvaccinated. And a lot of them have dug in Because America.

Of all the many levels of stupid surrounding our current political crisis, this sure looks like the stupidest, and quite possibly the most evil. Hundreds of thousands of people have died unnecessarily and many more have suffered deeply because they’ve somehow equated their denial of a free, safe, effective medical treatment with their personal freedom. The loss would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, and now it feels like it’s being met with a shrug. And a group of politicians (almost all vaccinated, by the way) have built a business model around this avoidable carnage — a deeply, deeply twisted development.

But the consequences go beyond the unvaccinated and those who are using them for gain and profit. Thanks to the nature of COVID, these folks populate the factory that builds new variants. How long before we get one that dodges vaccines and starts to really kill us all again? Why do the immune-suppressed and others for whom vaccines aren’t effective or an option have to suffer for this perversion of ‘freedom’?

It’s at times like this that I have to remind myself that all pandemics end. Of course, it would certainly speed things along if everyone would do their part.