As virus cases rise, so does anger among the vaccinated
As coronavirus cases resurge across the country, many inoculated Americans are losing patience with vaccine holdouts who, they say, are neglecting a civic duty or clinging to conspiracy theories and misinformation even as new patients arrive in emergency rooms and the nation renews mask advisories.
The country seemed to be exiting the pandemic; barely a month ago, a sense of celebration was palpable. Now many of the vaccinated fear for their unvaccinated children and worry that they are at risk themselves for breakthrough infections. Rising case rates are upending plans for school and workplace reopenings, and threatening another wave of infections that may overwhelm hospitals in many communities.
“It’s like the sun has come up in the morning and everyone is arguing about it,” said Jim Taylor, 66, a retired civil servant in Baton Rouge, La., a state in which fewer than half of adults are fully vaccinated.
“The virus is here and it’s killing people, and we have a time-tested way to stop it — and we won’t do it. It’s an outrage.”
The rising sentiment is contributing to support for more coercive measures. Scientists, business leaders and government officials are calling for vaccine mandates — if not by the federal government, then by local jurisdictions, schools, employers and businesses.
“I’ve become angrier as time has gone on,” said Doug Robertson, 39, a teacher who lives outside Portland, Ore., and has three children too young to be vaccinated, including a toddler with a serious health condition.
“Now there is a vaccine and a light at the end of the tunnel, and some people are choosing not to walk toward it,” he said. “You are making it darker for my family and others like mine by making that choice.”
On Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered that all municipal workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the time schools reopen in midSeptember or face weekly testing. Officials in California followed suit hours later with a similar mandate covering all state employees and health care workers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday required that 115,000 on-site health care workers be vaccinated in the next two months, the first federal agency to order a mandate. Nearly 60 major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association, called for mandatory vaccination of all health care workers.
“It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks,” a frustrated Kay Ivey, the Republican governor of Alabama, told reporters recently. “It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”
There is little doubt that the United States has reached an inflection point. According to a database maintained by The New York Times, 57% of Americans ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated. Eligible Americans are receiving 537,000 doses a day on average, an 84% decrease from the peak of 3.38 million in early April.
As a result of lagging vaccination and lifted restrictions, infections are rising. As of last Sunday, the country was seeing 52,000 new cases daily, on average, a 170% increase over the previous two weeks. Hospitalization and death rates are increasing too.
Communities from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, are recommending that vaccinated people wear masks again in public indoor settings. Citing the spread of the more contagious delta variant of the virus, the counties of Los Angeles and St. Louis have ordered indoor mask mandates.
“It goes beyond just putting us at risk,” Josh Perldeiner, 36, a public defender in Connecticut, said. “People with privilege are refusing the vaccine, and it’s affecting our economy and perpetuating the cycle.” As infections rise, he added, “I feel like we’re at that same precipice as just a year ago, where people don’t care if more people die.”
Many schools and universities are set to resume inperson classes as early as next month. As the number of infections increases, these settings, too, have seen tension rise between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on K-12 school reopening are tied to rates of community virus transmission. In communities where vaccination lags, those rates are rising, and vaccinated parents must worry anew about outbreaks at schools. The vaccines are not yet authorized for children under 12.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised that children wear masks in class when schools reopen. On Friday, school districts from Chicago to Washington began putting mandates into effect.
Though often seen as a conservative phenomenon, vaccine hesitancy and refusal occur across the political and cultural spectrum in the United States, and for a variety of reasons. No single argument can address all of these concerns, and changing minds is often a slow, individualized process.
Rising resentment among the vaccinated may well lead to public support for more coercive requirements, but experts warn that punitive measures and social ostracism can backfire, shutting down dialogue and outreach efforts.
“Anything that reduces the opportunity for honest dialogue and an opportunity for persuasion is not a good thing,” said Stephen Thomas, a professor of health policy and management at University of Maryland School of Public Health. “We are already in isolated, siloed information systems, where people are in their own echo chambers.”