San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Protests on vaccine rules loud, but are losing ground
With all the hooting and hollering — and some Biblethumping invective — you’d think opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates was a surging swell of popular opinion.
You’d be wrong.
The increasing noise and the spectacle of protests against the mandates, or even the suggestion of them, can’t obscure the reality that the majority of the public wants them — even more so than before.
Nationwide, 55 percent of employed Americans said they’d support their employer requiring all workers be vaccinated, according to an Axios/ipsos poll released last week. Forty-four percent were opposed.
A Gallup survey showed backing for workplace vaccine mandates increased 6 percentage points from May to July.
Among California residents, vaccine mandates for employees were backed by 67 percent and opposed by 33 percent, according to a CBS/YOUGOV poll.
In San Diego County, 53 percent of respondents to a Surveyusa poll in late July said employers should have the legal right to require vaccinations, while 33 percent disagreed.
Mandate protesters spent a lot of time Tuesday beseeching the county Board of Supervisors over vaccine and mask mandates. The board, however, has not established widespread requirements, though it has urged businesses to require their employees be vaccinated or regularly tested.
Increasingly, businesses are insisting their workers and would-be customers show proof of vaccination.
The state has vaccination requirements for health care workers, universities and K-12 teachers. California also has mandates for masks in certain locations such as health care, public transit and schools, and for all unvaccinated individuals. Both the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health recommend face coverings indoors for all, even those who are fully vaccinated.
But the county has not yet followed Los Angeles and San Francisco in requiring universal indoor masking. Local pandemic response from the county health department, supported by the board, has focused on vaccination advocacy.
The screeching and wackiness witnessed at Tuesday’s board meeting aside, there does need to be understanding for people truly concerned and uncertain about what the vaccines do or don’t do. As the coronavirus has morphed into variants, so has the information from officials about the effectiveness of vaccines and whether or not masks should be worn.
This comes at a time when distrust in civic institutions has been growing, and people need to be comfortable that their health and privacy concerns are being addressed.
But that only goes so far if the skeptics turn from legitimate sources of information because they don’t like what they are being told and rely on Internet charlatans willfully peddling dangerous misinformation. A lot of people spew misbegotten notions of personal freedom while paying little or no heed to the severe illnesses and deaths around them.
The unfortunate people who have been so stricken of late have almost uniformly been unvaccinated. When Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, pointed out that truth at the board meeting, she was booed by many in the audience.
Vaccinated people who have been infected rarely show serious symptoms.
Even in this world of alternative facts and realities, it’s still stunning how wrong some people are about this. They demand to be heard, but they don’t seem to want to listen to reason.
All that was obvious, painfully so, at the County Administration Center over the course of nearly six hours — six hours! — as more than 100 people spoke, according to a report by The San Diego Union-tribune. Most were railing against county mandates that don’t exist.
There was some heartfelt, respectful testimony expressing concern about mandates, but it was overshadowed by often abusive, incongruous comments that at times bordered on malevolent. Misinformation was rife.
Some of the comments were so detached from reality that, naturally, they became fodder for latenight comedian Stephen Colbert — not exactly a shining moment for San Diego on national television.
“Before we roll this footage, buckle your brain,” he said.
The hearing was streamed live online but for those who couldn’t watch, Phillip Molnar of the Union-tribune and others gave frequent updates on Twitter.
One person who prayed while addressing the board told God that public officials are “best friends with Satan” over vaccine recommendations.
“This is not Nazi Germany and that’s where you are heading,” another said.
One speaker compared San Diego County efforts to limit the spread of the virus with Soviet gulags and the killing of Jews by Nazis in World War II.
Another said the supervisors should stop watching CNN. “The ‘C’ stands for communism,” she said.
One woman accused the supervisors of “crimes against humanity.” She brought a Bible with her and said they would burn if they touched it. “We’re coming for every single (expletive) one of you,” she said.
Whatever you think of the supervisors individually or collectively, give them credit for having the patience to sit through this.
There are legitimate discussions over the effectiveness of vaccines and masks, and whether mandates are needed. Much of what was said Tuesday wasn’t part of that.
It’s hard to single out the greatest outrage from the meeting, but the Nazi comparisons are particularly galling. That’s a regular theme among some mask, vaccine and mandate opponents around the country.
It’s morally perverse and historically twisted to compare Hitler’s regime to the public officials and health experts working to end the coronavirus pandemic. The former instituted one of the most evil systems known to humankind that annihilated millions of people; the latter are trying to save millions of lives — including unrepentant anti-vaxxers.
The public is getting tired of this nonsense. According to the CBS/YOUGOV poll, 59 percent of fully vaccinated Californians believe the unvaccinated are putting them at risk; 57 percent say the unvaccinated are misled by misinformation.
Forty-seven percent are “upset or angry” at the unvaccinated. Only 27 percent respect the decision of people not to get the shot.
More government COVID-19 restrictions may be on the way. But right now in San Diego, numerous businesses have taken their own initiative to establish vaccine mandates to protect their workers and customers.
For one thing, polls show that’s popular. For another, they believe it’s good for business.
That’s not government fascism, that’s capitalism.
Tweet of the Week
Goes to Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) of the Los Angeles Times.
“‘hot vax summer’ has turned out more like ‘explaining the recall to acquaintances who didn’t know the recall system was designed like THAT.’”