No, forced vaccinations aren’t coming to your door. How SC officials promote vaccine facts

There’s a knock at your door.

You answer it and before you know it there’s a syringe in your shoulder and an “I got the COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker on your lapel.

Sound far-fetched?

That’s because it is.

There are no plans to send government employees or anyone else for that matter to your home armed with good intentions and a carton of syringes.

But that’s the impression many across the country, including here in South Carolina, seemed to have after President Biden’s comments were twisted and turned for the sake of scoring political points.

What did Biden actually say?

“Now we need to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and (oftentimes), door to door, literally knocking on doors, to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus.”

You can listen for yourself.

His remarks, however, led Gov. Henry McMaster to tell the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control to “issue direction to agency leadership and to state and local healthcare organizations prohibiting the use of the Biden Administration’s ‘targeted’ ‘door to door’ tactics in the State’s ongoing vaccination efforts.”

“A South Carolinian’s decision to get vaccinated is a personal one for them to make and not the government’s,” Governor McMaster wrote. “Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts.”

The governor continued: “The prospect of government vaccination teams showing up unannounced or unrequested at the door of ‘targeted’ homeowners or on their property will further deteriorate the public’s trust and could lead to potentially disastrous public safety consequences.”

But listen to Biden’s remarks again.

No talk of vaccination teams, coercion, intimidation, etc.

Here’s what we know.

43.1 percent of South Carolinians are fully vaccinated, an uptick since just last week, and 8,662 South Carolinians infected with COVID-19 have died with another 1,184 probable deaths.

Think about that for a minute. Thousands of your neighbors are dead.

No one is being forced to get vaccinated, but local, state and federal health officials are doing their part to stem the tide of deaths and save lives. It’s really that simple.

Those who opt not to be vaccinated must do what they feel is best for them, but that doesn’t mean that health officials, community leaders, our neighbors and friends should stop trying to do what’s best either.