One of the worst side effects of COVID has been the intensity with which people feel free to judge the personal decisions others make.
I’m pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. I don’t believe that sniggering at the unjabbed is good health policy. I know people who, like me, are fully vaccinated but unlike me, spend a lot of energy blaming the unvaccinated for the spread of COVID. That’s counter-productive.
As I was musing on those individuals, I thought of one of the better voices I’ve heard on vaccine mandates, Stanford University Medical Professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
See for yourself. In this interview with the Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson, Bhattacharya called out how “fear of COVID” with its “primal panic” prompted many to turn on vulnerable people.
Their reaction, he said, showed that their so-called values were “lip service.” An example: California had the second to last number of public school days last years, Bhattacharya offered. That can’t be good for kids
Bhattacharya also is pro-vaccine — he says COVID jabs are “extremely effective” — and anti-mandate.
He knows first-hand that vaccination is not a guarantee against infection, as he was vaccinated and later got COVID.
Breakthrough infections, of course, generally are less severe.
“The coercion that we’ve used to try to get everyone vaccinated is misguided,” Bhattacharya offered. They may not be necessary, for example for those who have had COVID and thus have some immunity.
“The vaccine is not the key to ending the disease,” he added, it is key to protecting the vulnerable.
This is my take on vaccination shaming.
Fully vaccinated folk also are getting and spreading COVID — so there is an element of scapegoating when the vaccinated blame the unvaccinated for the continuing pandemic.
I got the jabs as soon as I could, but I’m in my 60s. Healthy, younger people might prefer to forego a vaccine and risk getting the virus in the hope it will result in more effective immunity. (Yes, I know, I am not a doctor.)
It’s counterproductive.
Vaccinated people need the unvaccinated. Many are “essential workers.” They’ve been kept streets safe, schools open and grocery stores stocked. Now, they’re chopped liver? Is it any wonder they lack trust in their betters in immunization?
People, if there is one thing we should have learned by now, it is the importance of humility and recognition that there are things we don’t know. A year ago, many people thought vaccinations would end COVID. What else were we wrong about?
Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.
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