By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

In June of last year, an article of mine was published nationally about the Coronavirus.[2] I have kept abreast of the developments ever since, right up to and including today.

I received both doses of the Moderna vaccine in January and February of this year, without any noticeable ill effects. I only did so because a friend—who has had at least two open-heart surgeries—went ahead and was vaccinated with the same vaccine, again with no noticeable ill effects.

I have two friends who have steadfastly refused to be vaccinated. One is a law school classmate of mine; and the other is a retired engineer. For a while, I was alerting both as to where they could be vaccinated for free; and then I stopped, because I sensed that I was alienating them. This is the last thing that I wanted to do. Every American has freedom of choice, or at least they should have.

Since its arrival in the United States, the Coronavirus has mutated into the "Delta variant" and now the "Lambda variant," and it is anyone's guess how many more mutations will occur. Perhaps the biggest issues today are how to curb the Coronavirus' spread, and whether small children should be vaccinated.

Because the vaccines were rushed into production, adequate multi-year testing has not been completed yet. Also, they are said to be "gene-altering," which is an assumable risk for Senior Citizens, but not for little kids—much less for pregnant mothers, because of the risks to their fetuses.

All of this presents an enormous conundrum for Americans, regardless of their skin colors, ethnicities, religious or political persuasions. Indeed, my friend who prompted me to get vaccinated says that he doesn't know what to believe anymore, which is true of vast numbers of Americans. 

© 2021, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams; and he can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See Naegele, "The Coronavirus And Similar Global Issues: How To Address Them?"or https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf (Timothy D. Naegele, "The Coronavirus And Similar Global Issues: How To Address Them,” Banking Law Journal (June 2020))