I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a balm and refuse to use it.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a salve and refuse to apply it.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a cure and refuse to accept it.

And you’d think that at some point, reasonably intelligent people would get it. You’ve been somewhere in the sanctuary all your life. You grew up in the church. You’ve been diligent about going to bible study and Sunday school. You’re always on time for BTU (some of you won’t know what that is). You come to prayer meeting. You are always present at Saturday morning prayer breakfast. You know John 3:16. You know Philippians 4:13 and Proverbs 22:6. You know Mark 9:23 and know for yourself that God will never put more on you than you can bear and that no weapon formed against you will prosper. You know that in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. You especially know that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.

Yet, you still dare look at someone somewhere in a white coat and refuse to take a vaccine that could potentially save your own very life and that of the ones you love. Shame on you.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a vaccine for COVID-19 and refuse to take it.

If you refuse the vaccine or refuse to believe that COVID is real, I think it is remarkably irresponsible to get on social media and ask us to pray for a miracle for you when you are lying up in the ICU two seconds from intubation. What we will pray for is for you to get the vaccine now.

God gave us science. God gave us medicine. God gave us physicians. God gave us treatments. God gave us vaccines. If I didn’t believe that, I couldn’t do this every day. I wouldn’t.

If you think you are invincible, COVID does not care.

You are not invincible. We are all susceptible to infection by this virus, and the Delta variant is evidence of that.

Get vaccinated yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the days after that. Get vaccinated. Please.

Dare to live.

Earl Stewart, Jr. is an internal medicine physician in Atlanta, Georgia, a 2023 Doximity Digital Health Fellow, and a 2023 Climate and Health Equity Fellow (CHEF) with the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. He can be reached on E.S.J., M.D., LinkedIn, Twitter @EarlStewartJr, and Doximity.

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