Conservative: How To Reach the Un-Vaxxed

Data show that the nearly 80 million unvaccinated Americans have “complex and heterogeneous” motivations, The New York Times’ Ross Douthat observes, contra beliefs that they’re mainly Fox News-deluded anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. So “heavy-handed” censorship and mandates won’t work. “Censoring the Internet will have little effect if many of the vaccine-hesitant are disconnected rather than very online, or drawing on personal experience rather than anti-vaxxer memes.” And mandates “might alienate not just Fox viewers, but also part of the political middle.” The “civically healthy” way: “a more patient approach” combining “local outreach, public-health guidance that consistently promises normalcy as a benefit of vaccination (and doesn’t withdraw it arbitrarily) and actually arguing with skeptics.”