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There is a pandemic raging across the United States and throughout the world. It is deadly. It is pernicious. It has already killed countless people and it will kill countless more.
The pandemic is not COVID-19, which medicine and science are handling about as well as can be expected. It’s the pandemic of ignorance that is raging out of control.
More than half of the U.S. adult population is now fully vaccinated, with others still eager to roll up their sleeves. But about one in five adults say they will refuse to do so, and about half as many more are undecided. The goal of reaching the 75 to 85 percent threshold needed for herd immunity now appears unlikely.
Of course it’s political. More than 40 percent of Republicans and just 5 percent of Democrats have told pollsters they won’t be getting vaccinated. There are about as many medical professionals who think not getting vaccinated is a good idea as there are scientists who don’t believe in global warming.
A significant share of the populace has been effectively immunized against facts, science, and reason.
Some people think getting vaccinated, like wearing a facial covering to reduce the risk of infection, is an intolerable infringement on their human rights. Some think Bill Gates is trying to inject microchips into them, so he can keep track of their fascinating lives. Some have doubts about whether the vaccines are safe, effective, or what God wants.
“Let us be clear, God damns every single one of those godless moves,” declared James Altman, a Catholic priest in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to his congregation, while referring to public health measures designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 as “Nazi-esque controls.” He also said those complicit in these “godless restrictions” are destined for the “lowest, hottest levels of hell.” And his church’s bulletin called the vaccines “an experimental use of a genetic altering substance that modifies your body—your temple of the Holy Spirit.”
A private school in Miami, Florida, has warned that teachers who get vaccinated cannot have contact with students, and may be permanently replaced. Jessica Alexander, a white city council member in Temecula, California, has likened her refusal to wear a mask to Rosa Parks’s refusal to sit in the back of the bus. And Tucker Carlson of Fox News wants his followers to harass people whose children wear masks.
“Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart,” Carlson told his millions of viewers. “Call the police immediately, contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you’re looking at is abuse, it’s child abuse, and you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.”
It’s horrifying that we have come to this, where a significant share of the populace has been effectively immunized against facts, science, and reason. Craving victimhood and full of righteous rage, they bleat protestations at the unfairness of it all.
“When do Americans get their freedom back?” Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, demanded of Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious-diseases doctor, in mid-April, grousing about “a year of lost liberties.” Said Fauci, in response: “We’re not talking about liberties, we’re talking about a pandemic that has killed 560,000 Americans.”
The U.S. death toll from the pandemic is now about 600,000. How many more will die depends in large part on whether the public listens to health officials like Fauci or blowhards like Carlson and Jordan.
Speaking of blowhards, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, put his ignorance on full display, as he so often does, when he declared that vaccinated people should not concern themselves with whether others follow suit: “What do you care if your neighbor has one or not?”
The reason you should care is that the unvaccinated threaten vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike, by maintaining a high risk of infection and allowing the virus to mutate into new and deadlier strains. Whether the United States experiences a continued reduction in deaths or huge new outbreaks, like those in India and Brazil, hinges on whether we are able to get vaccines into the arms of the vast majority of U.S. citizens.
Not getting vaccinated is not just dangerous, it’s wrong. No one has the right to infect others with a potentially fatal and often health-damaging virus. Businesses, schools, churches, and other public venues should close their doors to those who refuse to do their part to minimize the threat.
It may or may not be what God wants—that’s always a bit tricky to figure out—but it’s the right thing to do.