Getting the COVID-19 vaccine is not a “personal choice.” It never was, really, but the onslaught of cases fueled by the delta variant has removed any doubt.

And yet that’s not what Florida’s governor would have you believe. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis actually uttered these incredible — and incorrect — words about the vaccine: “It’s about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn’t impact me or anyone else.”

Doesn’t impact anyone else? Talk about a profile in selfishness.

Roughly 46,000 have died of COVID-19 in his state since the pandemic began. Too bad we can’t ask the thousands who have died SINCE vaccines became available if they wished everyone around them had gotten vaccinated.

This governor already has gone to war against school boards and parents who want to keep kids safer in schools with mask mandates. He’s fought against cruise lines that want to preserve their businesses by making sure their customers can stay COVID-19-free on ships, by requiring vaccines. Now he’s dismissing the role of vaccines in reducing community spread.

And it’s the opposite of what he says. COVID-19’s spread actually is a community problem, and solving it starts with vaccines.

Getting the vaccine certainly helps the person who gets the shot — the governor’s not wrong about that. It vastly reduces the chances of being hospitalized or dying of the disease. But it also reduces the spread of the virus to others. Yes, there are breakthrough cases, when vaccinated people still become infected. And, yes, there are some legitimate medical and religious reasons for not getting vaccinated. But by all others getting the vaccine, you cut down on the chances that you’ll get COVID-19 and then pass it on to others.

That means you, as a vaccinated person, are helping to safeguard people who can’t get the shot, like children under 12 and the immunocompromised, such as those with transplanted organs. You’re also helping to protect seniors whose immunity often isn’t robust enough even if they are vaccinated. You might even be saving the life of someone who simply refuses to get the vaccine.

If that’s not enough reason, spare a thought for health care workers. We called them heroes a year ago, banged pots and pans at the end of their shifts, sent them lunch and dinner.

Now, 18 months in, they’re exhausted. They’re battling burnout and a feeling of futility. This latest wave of delta-variant infections has broken all the previous records for cases and for deaths. Those who are hospitalized are younger, too, and almost all of them are unvaccinated. People under 20 made up nearly 1 in 3 of all new COVID-19 cases during the week ending Aug. 26, the Miami Herald reported.

During a recent discussion with the Miami Herald Editorial Board, doctors and nurses from Baptist Health, Jackson Health System and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital told us they’re immensely saddened by the largely preventable deaths of unvaccinated patients who have been overwhelming their hospitals for weeks.

And they pointed out that the massive influx of patients is harming others. Dr. Yvonne Johnson, of Baptist Health, told us that she had to call a young cancer patient and postpone her surgery because her doctor was not confident an ICU bed would be available after the operation. Johnson noted that, at Baptist Health’s South Miami Hospital, 40 people died of COVID-19 in August. All were unvaccinated.

Johnson said she thinks it’s time to make vaccinating the population a community project: “So much emphasis has been placed on this decision as a personal one for your own personal risk, and not as much emphasis put on, ‘How does this affect our community?’”