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Giving Up Our Shot: Dealing With the Unvaccinated
We think those who aren’t vaccinated are anti-vax Trump supporters. The truth is more complex.
Vaccinated America has had enough.
As infections and hospitalizations from the Delta variant of COVID-19 grow, a number of writers are expressing their anger against the unvaccinated. Vaccine passports now! No traveling on planes or busses! Government mandates! Make their lives a living hell until they get their shot!
I’m not sympathetic towards anti-vaxers and those like Alex Berenson who spread lies about COVID and the vaccines. But are we misunderstanding why people aren’t vaccinated?
The way that writers like former New York Times reporter Donald McNeil write about the unvaccinated, they are an odd bunch that needs the stick to force them to get the shot.
Now that most employers and retailers recognize the danger, we could be easily blocking the unvaccinated at the doorways to stores, restaurants, bars, theaters, airplanes, buses, subways, hotels, schools and other venues just as easily as Walmart and Target were eventually able to compel their customers to don masks. The vast majority of Americans have cellphones that could display something like New York’s Excelsior passport.
Yes, there will be statehouse demonstrations. And screaming matches and, sadly, even some shootings. Some people don’t like to wear masks or seatbelts; some don’t like gun background checks or paying taxes. But this is why we have store security guards, the police and the highway patrol, the I.R.S., A.T.F. and F.B.I. — and why every state passed quarantine laws back in the 19th century. Sometimes the unwilling must be given a stark choice: whether you are suffering from a sense of murderous rage or from a communicable disease, you can either abide by the law meant to protect your fellow citizens from you — or you can stay in your house. If you do come out and endanger others, you go to jail.
Instead, we’re on the honor system.
For David Frum, the pandemic would be over if not for Trump supporters who reject the vaccine and COVID:
In the United States, this pandemic could’ve been over by now, and certainly…
