Vaccination pins should be badges of honor

Imagine opening a time capsule in 100 years that contains artifacts from this year of COVID.

What would it contain? Certainly masks of both the creative and pedestrian kind. We would have contributed one or two of those old-fashioned newspapers blaring the march of doomsday. Some wise guy would have tossed in toilet paper. Directions for using Zoom, a Netflix schedule, virtual class schedules, takeout menus, a “closed” placard. Expressions of life as well as documents of death.

But in that time capsule must also be pins worn by recipients of the vaccine.

The pins, and stickers being offered by the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (“I got my COVID-19 vaccine!”), reflexively summon thoughts of Election Day “I voted” counterparts. Unfortunately, we know all too well that the people who show up at polling places tend to represent a fraction of eligible participants.

In New Haven, the city is distributing pins co-branded by AT&T to the first 5,000 residents to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

There’s something fitting about the telecommunications giant getting this message out via a tiny piece of metal with a pin on the back. In this chaotic year, so much has reverted to primitive methods.

Concerns are already rising, though, that such pins and stickers risk becoming modern Scarlet Letters, inviting blowback from the anti-vaxxers crowd.

“People might be afraid to wear the pin because of any criticism they might get from individuals who are anti-vaccine,” Quinnipiac University law professor John Thomas opined.

Connecticut kicked off immunizations Dec. 14 with health care workers. Next in line are nursing home residents and staff, essential workers, the elderly and residents with health conditions. The healthiest adults and children are at the end of the line, unlikely to receive the vaccine until about mid-2021.

The labels symbolically divide people in different camps, those who have

gotten the doses, those who desire “the cure,” and those who oppose them.

The opposition, estimated at 20 percent of Americans in a recent USA Today poll, also includes people fearful of personal information finding its way to databases.

In Connecticut, the vaccine will be administered, and the name of the recipient will be added to a database, along with the identity of the manufacturer. Cynics need to remember it is vital to maintain records to ensure the second dosage is properly administered, and to monitor side effects that might occur. They might also note that records regarding measles and chicken pox have been common for generations.

And yes, it’s important to be able to keep a lookout for hot spots of resistance. Those striving to avoid COVID deserve to know which communities have low turnout for the vaccine.

Wearing badges of support for the vaccine should be recognized as a medal of honor, a COVID version of the Purple Heart. They should be at the very top of the time capsule, a symbol of what brought this war to an end.