Among those who endorse the coronavirus vaccines as both safe and effective: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Hospital Association, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, the Michigan State Medical Society (representing thousands of individual Michigan doctors), more than likely, your family doctor, probably your neighbor who’s already received at least one dose, and, if you care about this sort of thing, musician John Legend and director Spike Lee.

You can read many, many, many falsehoods about the vaccines online, but all of the best and most respected minds in medicine agree the benefits of vaccination outweigh the minimal risks, and you should get your shot.

Failure to do so could allow the coronavirus to continue spreading and mutating — potentially mutating into a form our currently available vaccines can’t fight, so we could get pushed back to square one on this pandemic.

Getting vaccinated protects your community, as well as yourself. It’s the best way to ensure we stop this thing and save lives, that we stop this thing and our economy fully reopens.

Unless a legitimate medical condition makes vaccination too risky for you, we urge all readers to go out and get their shots. They’re pretty much available anywhere now.

Visit Michigan.gov/COVIDvaccine to find out where you can get your shot.