The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is in the news this week with 40% of all cases nationwide occurring in just three states with the lowest vaccination rates: Florida, Texas and Missouri.  It is no coincidence that the counties and states with the lowest vaccination rates are seeing a surge in the virus. Unvaccinated people are perfect reservoirs for the production of variants, such as the Alpha, Delta, and Gamma strains, which are of particular concern as they are more contagious than the first strain of COVID-19 that hit our nation’s shores over a year ago.

Viruses mutate at a rapid rate because that’s what viruses do: They find a reservoir, they reproduce, they mutate and create new varieties. All viruses, including COVID-19, mutate, while some mutations may be harmful to the virus, others can be advantageous and increase virulence and transmissibility. When a virus spreads to another person, it continues to replicate and mutate, and if these mutations are successful, the virus thrives as a new variant. This is why unvaccinated people are a national health risk.

If a virus cannot spread, it cannot mutate. This is where vaccines come in: Vaccines stop the spread. It’s science.

The reluctance of many people to get vaccinated boggles my mind. I believe in science and medicine, and vaccines have saved millions of lives since the development of the first vaccine, smallpox, in 1796 by British Doctor Edward Jenner. Jenner showed in his research that an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus offered immunity against the deadly smallpox virus that swept across every continent in the world. Jenner’s cowpox vaccine served as a vaccine until the modern smallpox vaccine was developed in the late 1950s. Thanks to the WHO, a global vaccine campaign that ran from 1958 to 1977 eradicated smallpox, making it the only human disease to be completely exterminated.

Vaccines work, it’s science. So why are people refusing to be vaccinated?

Our own state of New Mexico has been ahead in the fight against COVID-19, with a current vaccination rate of 56.5%. However, a recent UNM poll showed that 36% of unvaccinated New Mexicans say they will never get a COVID-19 vaccine, and 22% of all New Mexicans stated they would not consider getting vaccinated. Some of the reasons are due to a lack of information about the vaccine. For example, the New Mexico poll found that some individuals thought they needed insurance to get the vaccine (which is incorrect as it is free). Then there are the effects of misinformation about the vaccine. Claims about Bill Gates and microchips, genetic mutations and sterilizations caused by the vaccine continue to circulate not only on social media, but in the mainstream media as well (i.e. Fox News).

Vaccination rates in the US have leveled off, but as Delta variant cases rise, some cities are reinstituting mask recommendations. US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy stated last week that vaccine misinformation is partly responsible for Americans refusing to get the vaccine. Just last week Biden laid part of the blame on social media companies for allowing the spread of misinformation on their platforms.

Hany Farid, a University of California at Berkeley misinformation researcher stated in a recent interview that many institutions and companies have long tolerated misinformation and conspiracy theories. However, he added “The problem with these conspiracy theories that maybe seemed goofy and harmless is they have led to a general mistrust of governments, institutions, scientists and media, and that has set the stage of what we are seeing now.”

But vaccine misinformation and hesitancy are nothing new, and it’s as old as the smallpox vaccine itself. After Dr. Jenner developed his cowpox vaccine, it was immediately received with skepticism by many. Clerics warned their congregations about contaminating the purity of the human body with animal matter and condemned the vaccine as “unchristian.” Several of Jenner’s competitors who spent years (and made a lot of money) peddling smallpox cures claimed his vaccine was dangerous. One self-described doctor claimed that the vaccine would create bovine-like facial features in children, a rumor that spread like wildfire across Britain at the time.

I do take some bizarre comfort in knowing that humans are predictable, and vaccine hesitancy and misinformation has been around as long as vaccines have, but the sad reality is that this fuels distrust of science and institutions, in turn leading to an increase in infections and death. Over ½ million Americans have perished from COVID-19: Adults, children, family members and loved ones. It pains me that many Americans, after all these deaths, still do not realize the importance of vaccines in stamping out the pandemic.