This is the reaction to vaccination I don’t really understand (boldface mine):

James Ring, president of the Republican Party of Lakeland, Florida, said he had grown complacent about remembering to wear a mask and hadn’t gotten around to getting vaccinated yet.

The former Lakeland Police sergeant and U.S. Army Reserve chief warrant officer, who was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, described himself in a Facebook post as a healthy 39-year-old with no pre-existing conditions. Because of that, he said, he had “always haphazardly assumed it wouldn’t be that bad if I caught the virus.”

…On his tenth night fighting the virus, he was admitted to the emergency room at an area hospital, he wrote on Facebook. He was treated with an experimental anti-viral antibody cocktail and sent home, only to return again the following evening, he said….

“The ER physician immediately transferred me to the COVID unit where they determined both my lungs were full with COVID pneumonia. They also determined that the COVID virus had thickened my blood and made me susceptible to blood clots in my heart, lungs and legs, which could ultimately prove fatal. They gave me steroids for my lungs, a breathing treatment, shots in my stomach to thin my blood, and a cocktail of medications to fight the infection in my lungs and fever.”

…“I’m not anti-vax, but I’ve never taken the time to get the vaccine. I’m not anti-mask, but I’m not very good about remembering to wear one. Needless to say, I contracted the virus and unknowingly passed it to some of the people I love the most,” he said. He didn’t share who he had passed the disease on to.

To start with, I’m glad he’s doing better.

I realize that most people, as is the case with many things, typically don’t veer towards the extremes. I busted my ass to get vaccinated, but then again, I’m an infectious disease microbiologist. I pay attention to this stuff.

But with over 600,000 deaths, one would think that someone who isn’t anti-vaccination or anti-mask would make the damn time (and given his role in the local Republicans, he probably could make the time). If direct personal harm is the only way to reach many people, then we won’t be able to solve problems like global warming.

This doesn’t bode well. And get your fucking shots already.