The Aug. 6 counterpoint "I'm vaccine hesitant, and here's why" accused government and media of hiding information. Experts were blamed for not understanding a new pathogen a year ago, and for changing recommendations now that there is more data.

The government is not a shady, secretive, monolithic force; it is a collection of state and federal agencies, all of which have different expertise. Every single one of the counterpoint writer's questions has been answered and is in the public domain. Please go directly to the CDC and FDA websites. As usual, many people prefer their favorite Twitter feed and have no idea how to get reliable information. Then they blame someone else for their ignorance.

As one of the vaccinated who is now being asked to wear a mask again, I can assure you that it is not the "government telling you to" — it is your vaccinated friends and neighbors who are fed up with your excuses. We blame the unvaccinated for creating a stew of human hosts for new variants to develop, as well as for endangering our children under 12 and the immunocompromised. Contrary to the counterpoint writer's assertion, the unvaccinated are overwhelming our health systems in many states where our relatives live and now cannot get the non-COVID help they need, not to mention the sheer exhaustion and burnout in health care workers.

If answering the "five steps" in the counterpoint are enough to convince the hesitant to finally get a life-saving vaccine, I urge the Star Tribune to write an article addressing those exact questions. Of course, this is assuming that the vaccine-hesitant among us would ever believe an article written by "the media" and relying on information from "experts."

Priscilla Cushman, Minneapolis

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I have access to the same information that is available to the writer of Friday's counterpoint, and I think I can address most of his concerns.

The goalposts on herd immunity have been moved because the delta variant is so much more contagious than previous variants. If the virus is allowed to continue spreading, more variants will arise. Eventually there'll be one against which our vaccines are ineffective, and we'll be right back where we were in March 2020.

The data on side effects and efficacy are readily available. Search online for "Moderna side effects," "Pfizer efficacy," etc. Likewise regarding the need to get vaccinated if you've already had the virus. I started to type "If I've had COVID," and Google immediately offered "am I immune?" and "should I be vaccinated?"

The FDA approval process can take a long time, and I don't want the agency to take shortcuts. But we already have an enormous amount of data. More than 4 billion people worldwide have received at least one shot, and that number absolutely dwarfs the number of people involved in any study the FDA has ever done.

If you're not already aware of all of this, you should re-evaluate where you're getting your information. The pandemic response has become politicized, and that's had an unfortunate affect on the reporting done by some media outlets. Talk to your doctor or another health care professional.

Becky Carpenter, Minneapolis

It was morally wrong for Star Tribune Opinion to print an anti-vax/pro-pandemic manifesto from a writer with no apparent medical or scientific expertise without printing a same-day side-by-side rebuttal of his complaints by a medical professional. Lives are at stake.

Matthew Byrnes, Minneapolis

Thank you, retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul H. Anderson ("I'm through with the Vikings," Opinion Exchange, Aug. 6). How embarrassing for our state and for our country to have wealthy role models that are so very backward ("Kirk Cousins back at Vikings practice, talking about vigilance, not vaccines," StarTribune.com, Aug. 6).

How many people who are trying to decide on a vaccination that could save their lives, or the lives of others, will be influenced by the decisions of people like this "leader" of a football team?

How many servicemen in this country rolled up their sleeves and took the vaccines the military pushed? And this because they understood it was part of staying healthy enough to serve and to keep others healthy enough to serve. No questions, they just lined up.

Don Anderson, Minneapolis

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Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins considers COVID and vaccinations a "very private health matter." Wrong, wrong and wrong again! There's nothing private about COVID. It is a very public health pandemic that is affecting every person on the planet. It is about community health, civic responsibility and common good, but I guess he opted out of that civics course in high school. Only a very selfish person would ignore his status as a team leader and repudiate the notion that professional sports on the rare occasion is about being a team player.

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I believe Kirk Cousins and other Vikings players who may be unvaccinated have been waiting for the $100 state bonus before getting the shots.

I do not work in the medical field. I work in engineering design. I am appalled that a respected and renowned medical/health care/educational facility such as M Health Fairview is actually mandating vaccines as a condition of employment. It is absolutely shocking that they have announced requiring their employees/staff to be injected with an experimental drug. It is an unethical, dangerous and grossly miscalculated political decision that will have negative consequences for such an organization. Every individual, whether employee, staff or patient, has a right to choose treatment or vaccines for themselves.

Does this move indicate that at some point in the future M Health Fairview employees will be mandated to subject themselves to further abuses — such as signing forms of allegiance to moral, social, religious, or political views other than their own? Will patients of theirs not just have medical treatments recommended but forced upon them? This decision has less to do with preventing the spread of a virus that has largely run its course and more to do with trampling on individual freedoms and choice.

John Kavaloski, Lindstrom, Minn.