The Life of the Unvaccinated American Adult Is About to Become Very Difficult

Good.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for vaccine passports. Human beings would act rationally, in their own self-interest, out of their own desire to return to a post-pandemic world (whatever that looks like), and just get the shots that will help save their lives and the lives of the people around them. We are closer to this than it might seem. It should be remembered that, as of August 2, 70 percent of the adult population has received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine. Seventy percent is a lot! Seventy percent is a victory: It is difficult to get 70 percent of American adults to agree on anything.

Unfortunately, 70 percent isn’t enough. This is an underrated and underappreciated aspect of the challenge to get all Americans vaccinated: You need to get a larger percentage of the population to care about the rest of the population than, uh, the percentage of the population that actually does care about the rest of the population. It is almost like a national health filibuster. It’s not enough to get 70 percent of American adults on the same page; that 30 percent is ruining it for everyone else. That 30 percent is stopping the rest of us from getting anything done. It is moving us all backwards.