We Will Ever Get Our Lives Back?
A screed against the anti-vaxxers
I’m not feeling very optimistic. I’m afraid. The pandemic, with this Delta variant, is kicking our collective butts. Breakthrough infections among the vaccinated…horrifying.
But it is the hideous politicization of the vaccine that is really hurting us. Look at Florida, Texas, and the sunbelt states. Outrageous that so many aren’t vaccinated.
And all the misinformation. When I hear someone say that they don’t want the vaccine and that they have “done their research”, I just want to scream, “WHAT F…KING RESEARCH? YouTube videos from osteopaths (not experts), right wing nut jobs (definitely not experts), right-wing wing bats (oh, and Tucker Carlson GOT vaccinated so don’t listen to him!).
I’m beyond angry. The Delta variant SWEPT through the UK…but guess what? NO problem..why? Because almost 90% of the adult population have had their first dose of vaccine, and around 74% of adults have had both doses.
Herd immunity. The UK reached herd immunity.
But in the US, governors like Florida’s Death DeSantis and Texas’ Bubba Abbott have worked against vaccines…masks…prudent precautions. Nuts like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert make vaccines political.
The misinformation is insane. I know of a vegan restaurant who won’t serve anyone who IS VACCINATED! Their theory is that the vaccine changes a woman’s fertility — and get this — just by a vaccinated woman sitting near an unvaccinated woman. NUTS!
So, while folks in London are visiting with friends, and dining out, and returning to theatres and museums, we are stuck looking at more mask mandates, more mandatory testing, more shutdowns, more closures…
Airlines, hotels…every private business should require proof of vaccination for service. No shoes, no service. No vaccination, no service. Period.
Government organizations should require vaccinations. Schools require routine vaccinations…why not require Covid vaccinations as well.
Oh, yeah, the anti-vaxxers will yell and scream about personal rights. Well, who gave them the right to endanger OUR lives? You don’t want to get vaccinated? Fine. Find a little hidey-hole with your other paranoid crazies and get out of society so the rest of us can get our lives back.
When did this ardent mistrust of science take hold? Look, sure there has been a lot of chicanery by drug companies. A recent story about the Olympics drug testing athletes revealed that drugs are manufactured in facilities that are sloppy and under regulated and thus, some pills for one ailment may actually contain traces of other drugs. And Big Pharma is notoriously corrupt and poorly regulated. Heck, China has better control over drug manufacturing than the US. So, I get it that people are mistrustful…but THIS MISTRUSTFUL?
I trace it back to the climate deniers. They made science a dirty word and tRump put the final nail in the coffin…our coffin as it turns out.
Anti-vaxxers aren’t just conservatives. They are also left-wing “free thinkers” (Robert Kennedy Jr for example). Their fight against vaccinations in general has left the door open for hideous diseases once eradicated, to return.
Enough. Over 600,000 people are dead. Dead. Mothers. Fathers. Aunts. Uncles. Kids. Grandparents. Dead. And who are the folks now filling out hospitals and endangering nurses, orderlies, doctors and the rest of us? The unvaccinated.
So, c’mon, folks. Let’s get vaccinations mandated. Let’s get on with this.