I’ve been in a minor funk the past few days after getting in an online tiff with an anti-vaxxer family member. I was called a “bully” and “judgmental” for refusing to join hands with this relative and leap into the fatuous fairyland where career civil servant Dr. Anthony Fauci is a Machiavellian schemer and the founder of a scam real estate “university” with a preternatural instinct for just how far up one’s rectum one must shove UV lights to once and forever banish all pestilence from our worthless little lives.
Needless to say, I’m fed up. And angry. And sad.
I understand vaccine hesitancy. In fact, because I have a serious needle phobia, I probably understand it more than most. But these vaccines are a miracle—a lifesaving miracle that could have all but snuffed out COVID-19 in this country, if only people listened to doctors and public health professionals instead of frozen fish stick twits like Tucker Carlson.
The latest pro-COVID abomination comes in the form of a Washington Post op-ed by Marc Thiessen entitled “Stop harassing the unvaccinated.”
Oh, is that what I’m doing? Would Thiessen have the same reaction if I insisted on taking the car keys from a drunk friend who, let’s face it, would probably get home just fine if he “chose” to drive? And, you know, on those country roads he travels, he’s really only endangering himself. Except in those really rare circumstances where a large-ish raccoon and/or toddler happens to get caught in the windshield wipers. Says Thiessen:
In recent weeks, President Biden has been trying to insult unvaccinated Americans into getting immunized. He has told the vaccine-hesitant that they are “not nearly as smart as I thought you were,” that they are responsible for the pandemic, that they are refusing to do their patriotic duty, and that Americans’ patience with the unvaccinated is “running thin.”
Yes, it damn well is, Marc Thiessen. My patience is now thinner than a DJT Diet Coke shart. Why? Because I’m well aware that I could be living in a virtually COVID-free country, able to freely move about as I did pre-pandemic, but too many people are 1) creating ever greater opportunities for the virus to mutate, 2) undermining our economic recovery, and 3) threatening my health, despite my responsible decision to get vaccinated.
That said, I assume I’m far less annoyed than our nation’s front-line health care workers who, I can only imagine, are well over this shit.
[T]he unvaccinated minority do not pose a serious threat to the rest of us. So far, 165 million U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, and 70 percent have now had at least one shot, which research shows is highly protective after just two weeks. This means 192 million in total now have vaccinated immunity. Breakthrough infections are still rare — NBC News reports that there have been about 125,000 cases in 38 states, which represents a rate of about 0.07 percent. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Aug. 3, only 954 vaccinated Americans have died of covid-19, and only 4,641 have been hospitalized.
Sure, tell those 954 vaccinated Americans the threat posed to them by COVID-19 wasn’t serious. Whoops, you can’t. And, yes, while I’m grateful to be vaccinated and a lot less worried than I was before getting the jab, I still don’t want to get sick. For one thing, it’s not fun. For another, who’s to say I won’t suffer serious complications short of death? Finally, I’d prefer not to unwittingly spread the virus to unvaccinated people—like, for instance, some of my dim-bulb relatives. Oh, and there’s also the bit about preferring not to attend any unnecessary funerals—particularly in COVID-19 hot spots. But you’re right, Thiessen, vaccine mandates are a bad idea ‘cause people’s feelings are way more important:
Another bad idea is vaccine mandates. The Biden administration is now requiring federal workers to get vaccinated and encouraging private businesses to do the same. This will only spark greater resistance, particularly among those who see mandates as an infringement on their individual liberty. The last thing we need to do is encourage more Americans to see vaccine resistance as a political statement against an overbearing government.
Will it spark greater resistance? Well, the day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced new vaccine initiatives, including the implementation of vaccine passports, 1.3 million people signed up for vaccines, most of them under 35. Apparently, warning people that they’ll no longer be able to go to Dave & Buster’s is a more convincing argument for some than telling them they can easily avoid an intubation tube.
Thiessen also dismisses the danger of COVID-19 to children while acknowledging the 406 Americans under the age of 18 who’ve died “with a covid-19 diagnosis code in their record.” If only they’d been little police helpers defending the U.S. Capitol—then we could ignore them altogether. And what better way to ping-pong more virus throughout our red-state redoubts than switching on all those little disease vectors? Oh, and there’s also the specter of hundreds of newly minted orphans.
So I don’t want to hear any more about the persecution of the unvaccinated. With a few notable exceptions, Americans have zero excuse for not getting the shot. It’s widely available and could roust the pandemic from our shores in a matter of weeks. Instead, the unvaxxed are putting us all in danger by creating a petri dish for more—and worse—disease.
Fuck. Them.
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