No vax? You deserve the axe!
I am as American as anyone. I cherish our democratic process and individual liberties. I support independent thought and the right to express alternative views, even radical ones as long as they are not harmful to others. I don’t like the government wading into purely private matters. But there are clearly exceptions that have to be made – where individual rights have to be sacrificed for the good of society. Getting vaccinated in the time of a worldwide pandemic that has killed millions of people and won’t seem to go away is clearly one such time.
We are at a critical juncture in the COVID crisis. Brilliant scientists have worked around the clock to come up with an antidote to defeat a horrific and deadly virus. Drug manufacturers have produced hundreds of millions of vaccines in record time. The Government has poured billions into mass distribution of the vaccines to our citizens for free. Volunteers and medical professionals have worked tirelessly to get them safely into the arms of over a hundred million citizens.
And yet over a hundred million Americans remain unvaccinated and have no plans to do so. We can’t say good riddance to COVID if large numbers of the population refuse to take it. If people truly want to get back to “normal” – go back fully to work and school, dining out and traveling without health concerns and wearing masks – the best (and only) way to do that is for all (or at least a lot more) of us to get vaccinated.
And for those who simply refuse, we need to step up the pressure on them to do so!
Some say that whether to get vaccinated is solely their own decision and that no one, especially the government, can or should tell them what to do. Guess what? You are a citizen of a country and a member of society. You are told what to do by the government in many areas of your life for the good of others- and you usually do it even when you don’t like it. And if you don’t, there are consequences. You’re not allowed to drive a car if you’re drunk. If you do you lose your license to drive. You can’t shoot someone just because they rudely butt into line and you just feel like exercising your “Second Amendment” rights. You will wind up in jail if not on death row. You are required to pay taxes on your income, real estate taxes on your home and sales tax when you buy things. All these things theoretically take away your individual freedom. But it’s not all about YOU. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t like for the collective good and to attempt to protect the rest of us.
Some say that getting vaccinated is different because it involves your health which is the ultimate personal choice. I would ordinarily agree IF this only involved YOUR health- but it severely impacts the health of lots of others. Hospitals often require their nurses to get flu shots to protect patients whether they want one or not. Employers often tell workers who are sick and contagious to go home and recover so as not to get their colleagues sick. Anti-abortion activists (of which I suspect a significant number are anti-vaxxers) sure want to tell women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies for what they believe is necessary to protect another “human life.”
And throughout history our government has required that young folks make the ultimate health sacrifice – enlist for the military draft and be shipped off to war when many didn’t want to and it certainly wasn’t good for their personal health. Once again, I suspect that many anti-vaxxers don’t have a problem with the draft in cases of war or threats to our nation’s security because most consider themselves “patriots” who profess to love our country. Getting vaccinated for the benefit of the rest of Americans (even if you don’t want to) is also an act of patriotism. And unlike the real possibility of being maimed, killed or sustaining serious mental illness for the rest of your life, it merely involves the slight imposition of a shot or two and a couple of days of potential side effects. Your chances of being harmed by the vaccine are minuscule and remote compared to going off to war.
Then there are some folks (apparently from outer space) who believe that the whole COVID thing is a hoax and not real – a conspiracy by the left or Bill Gates or whatever daily insane proposition they concoct. This must be one hell of a conspiracy that involves every nation and government on earth and is able to produce “fake” evidence of millions of people dying. One of the more notable proponents of this fallacy was rock star Ted Nugent. And yet in a stroke of poetic justice he recently admitted that he got COVID and that it was really bad and almost didn’t make it. And the biggest hero for many of those in this camp, Donald Trump, not only got COVID despite being the most protected man on earth, but needed to be flown by helicopter for emergency treatment to save his life. And despite all of his bravado that COVID was really no big deal, he made sure that he and his family got vaccinated.
There also many who don’t get vaccinated because they just don’t believe in them. They espouse such things like “vaccines don’t work” “are dangerous” or even “I could get Covid from taking it.” I am admittedly no scientist and can’t personally prove they are wrong. But the people who ARE scientists – indeed, the smartest doctors in the world who do this for a living and have every interest in making this safe since they are also taking it – universally say that is nonsense. If you think that you (or the people you follow, including admittedly a few quacks who call themselves “doctors”) know more than the folks who studied at Harvard, Stanford Johns Hopkins, Washington University and other leading medical institutions, you’re delusional. If your peeps were running the world there would still be polio and a measles and mumps epidemic and we would all be paying miserably for your utter selfishness and stupidity. Yes, you are entitled to your opinion, however foolish it is – you just shouldn’t be entitled to make the rest of us and society suffer because of it.
Some are more understandably concerned about the long-term consequences of taking a vaccine that doesn’t have decades of research and study behind it. But that’s the case with any new medicine or treatment, and no one can know the future with certainty. In a crisis like this one we can’t afford to wait around for decades to see if we all grow a third ear- the house is on fire and needs water. The leading scientists in the world have carefully researched the best options with the least risk and after study of millions of subjects (and giving it to their own parents and children) do not believe that there will be any meaningful long-term consequences. This is a risk-benefit analysis where the benefit far outweighs the risk for society under the circumstances.
Finally, I have heard some say that “I’m not personally worried about it – I’m in really good shape and have a great immune system (or I take some supplements that reduce my risk), and that if I get it I am confident that it won’t be that bad and that I can beat it.” The fact is that plenty of heathy and even young people have suffered serious long-term consequences and even death from COVID. But even if your speculative assessment of your own health and ability to withstand disease is accurate that’s beside the point. You are taking the vaccine as much for OTHERS as you are for yourself. Just because YOU may be in good health and won’t be severely affected doesn’t mean that your grandmother, neighbor, colleague at work, mailman, grocery store attendant or fellow citizen won’t be severely harmed and even killed by your lack of action. It’s a moral issue for God’s sake to do what’s right for society as a whole and a really minor imposition in the scheme of things.
Unfortunately no words, logic or reasoning will persuade most of the hard-headed folks who vehemently oppose getting the vaccine (after all, most of them still don’t even believe Joe Biden won the Presidential election!). And at the end of the day, they will say: “You can’t force me to get a vaccine- it’s my arm, my health and my decision. This is a free country.” And we can’t just round people up in the streets who refuse to take the shot and hold them down against their will.
But here are five things that I think we can and should do as a society and a government “by and for the people” that just might meaningfully move the needle – consistent with our own free will to protect the well being of our family, friends and nation. (I know that there are HIPPA laws and other things lawmakers may have to work around and potentially modify.)
- We should provide to every person who gets a vaccine an official ID verification card or equivalent (something that would be very hard to forge) verifying that they have been fully vaccinated.
2. We should allow and encourage all businesses, especially ones that have large gatherings (stadiums, theaters, concert halls, airlines, hotels, restaurants and bars), to demand to see verification from customers, visitors, patients that they have been vaccinated and deny entry, access or treatment to those who have not been vaccinated. It would incentivize vaccinated folks to feel comfortable frequenting their establishment and it would incentivize non-vaccinated folks who want to shop, eat or stay there to get vaccinated. If companies decide not to do so, that is their prerogative but the rest of us can then exercise our independent right not to support those businesses. So if, hypothetically, American Airlines had such a program and Delta did not, we the consumer could opt to only fly American. If all the airlines got on board the anti-vaxxers would then have to then drive if they wished to travel (a major inconvenience), and if all hotels and Airbnb’s got on board they would have to sleep in their cars (or more likely their pick-up truck or minivan). If these consequences encourage some anti-vaxxers to do the right thing (and I think it would), then I think it’s well worth it.
3. We should allow and encourage all businesses, especially ones whose business involves extended close interactions with others (hair stylists, massage therapists, doctors, dentists, physical therapists) to require their employees to be vaccinated. The employee naturally has a choice not to do so – just like he/she has the choice not to comply with a whole host of issues mandated by the employer involving their health and personal freedom, such as drug testing and taking and passing a physical. It’s just that they won’t have that job any more. I’m not saying we can mandate that companies fire employees who refuse to get vaccinated – only that employers should be allowed to make that choice for the safety of their customers and other employees without repercussion and with immunity. I suspect that faced with the prospect of losing their job, many holdouts would choose to get vaccinated.
4. We should deny any person who has not been vaccinated (now that it is available to all Americans) access to any hospital or medical provider for treatment of COVID. This may seem cruel and inhumane. (I should tell you that it was actually my wife’s idea – a nurse and just about the most caring person the world). But it’s really a no-brainer. You may be able to choose not to get the vaccine because you don’t believe in them or because you believe COVID won’t harm you. But you shouldn’t be allowed to thumb your nose at science and the rest of society and then choose to expose other people- like doctors, nurses, health care workers and other patients – because of that decision.
5. The health treatment preclusion should also apply to receiving a heart, kidney, liver, cornea or any other kind of human transplant. No person who is unwilling to do what’s best for society because they only care about themselves and their personal freedom should benefit from the ultimate sacrifice to society made by others.
Attempting to persuade the anti-vaxxers with dialog and reasoning is largely futile. There needs to be significant tangible consequences for them if they continue to choose to exercise their individual rights at our nation’s peril.
P.S. Positive incentives also work. I love the fact that New York announced today that those attending the Yankees and Mets games will be offered free tickets if they get vaccinated at the game (though it probably would be a lot more effective at a NASCAR event!) Perhaps employers could give employees who get vaccinated a day off, the government could give the verifiably vaccinated a special deduction on their tax returns and/or companies could move vaccinated customers to the front of the line at a busy restaurant, car rental line, when buying concert tickets or any other thing that people seem to care about more than their fellow citizen. The possibilities are endless. I suspect that when it starts impacting their time and money, many anti-vaxxers will suddenly choose to do the right thing.
