By Samuel Strait – December 3, 2020 Vaccines, vaccines, are they the holy grail for defeating Covid 19? The attempt to conquer viruses has been a long and arduous task, not always as successful as one might think. Some say that the only success at eradicating a particular virus, is the one that was conducted against small pox and that took well over two thousand years. More recently discovered viruses have been much less successful at being contained and eradicated. As such in modern times, vaccines have been the normal route towards keeping viruses in check while the search for a cure continues. The problem being, is that previously vaccines take a number of years to develop and determine whether or not they are truly safe to be distributed to the public. Vaccines were never meant to be any more than a way to give science the opportunity to find a permanent cure. Previously, herd immunity and quarantine of the sick were the only options. Vaccines are a product of the last couple of hundred years, and even then there have been certain alarming problems that have been revealed following voluntary universal distribution. As with everything we are being told about Covid 19, the effort to keep the world's population safe, and now the development of two, shortly followed by maybe two more vaccines, there remain a multitude of questions about the speed with which the vaccines have been developed, the mixed messaging about Covid 19 in the first place, and whether or not the significant element of fear that is being injected in the US population is warranted. Has the pandemic really been proven to be the pandemic of the ages, necessitating the rush to vaccinating the world's populations in such a coordinated fashion, or, as recent reports that have surfaced, that it is far less deadly than has previously been orchestrated through a hysterical media and bureaucratic class that relishes in control would have us believe? Do we, the world's population have more time to determine whether or not the new vaccines will expose new serious side effects not yet discovered? Is the death toll from Covid 19 real? If a person were to Google vaccines, they would think that vaccines were the keys to the kingdom, and all potential and real side effects from vaccines in a relatively few instances give license for those in power to mandate these new vaccines be given to all. Yet, are we willing to play Russian Roulette with those that are reluctant to be guinea pigs and may suffer the consequences of the short term testing of the vaccines when vaccines are mandated, only to have dire side effects appear. There already exists suggestions of a pattern of coercion, should people not wish to be vaccinated, no school , no employment, no travel, and any other refusal of liberties that may force people to become vaccinated. Setting aside the obvious fear that is palpable in the US population about Covid 19, has this become a time where autocratic government control has overwhelmed our country's fundamental right to personal liberty, the right to chose whether or not we wish to be vaccinated without penalty? It is said that only 70% of the US population is comfortable with the current Covid 19 vaccinations. It is said that a growing percentage of the US population questions the response to Coovid 19, the mortality rate from Covid 19, the reliability of Covid 19 testing, and whether or not any of these questions will ever be answered. Are the mandates that we currently exist under about keeping us safe or are they simply a way for those in power to determine just how far the people are willing to surrender their liberties. I suppose we will find out when we know how successful the vaccine distribution becomes. At the local level, it is reported that we can expect 100 doses out of 20,000,000 currently available. It seems in any event it will be awhile before we have any idea locally if the vaccine is safe or is effective. Hopefully in the interim we will learn more about Covid 19, what is true, what is false, and if the rush to vaccinate is the best path forward.