USA TODAY International Edition
Stop analyzing and start shunning the ‘ vaccine hesitant’
We should require proof to work, play and travel
Has- been rock star Ted Nugent told the world last month that he has COVID- 19. Nugent’s announcement was an oddity because he previously called the viral pandemic a “leftist scam to destroy” Donald Trump. As I watched Nugent’s Facebook Live post, in which he repeatedly hocked up wads of phlegm and spit them to the ground, I got emotional when he described being so sick he thought he “was dying.” But when he trashed the COVID- 19 vaccine and warned people against taking it, I realized that the emotion I was feeling was not empathy, it was anger.
For the better part of a year, as the coronavirus racked up hundreds of thousands of American deaths, the flickering light at the end of the tunnel was herd immunity — the antibody force shield that comes when enough people have survived the illness or have been vaccinated against it.
“Go get vaccinated, America,” President Joe Biden said in his speech to a joint session of Congress, referring to the shot as “a dose of hope.”
Herd immunity slipping away
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, suggested in December that if 75% to 80% of the population got vaccinated, we could reach herd immunity by the end of summer. And with herd immunity, we’d return to a measure of “normalcy,” meaning indoor dining, movie theaters and hugs.
But herd immunity is slipping away because a quarter of Americans are refusing to get the COVID- 19 vaccine.
“There is no eradication at this point, it’s off the table,” Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, recently said. “We as a society have rejected” herd immunity.
Hmm, no! “We” have not rejected anything. A quarter of the country is ruining it for all of us.
It’s not just wacky former rockers who have put herd immunity out of reach. It is white evangelicals ( 45% say they won't get vaccinated). And it is Republicans ( almost 50% are refusing the vaccine). In Texas, 61% of white Republicans say they are reluctant to get the vaccine or would refuse it. You can slap the euphemism “vaccine hesitancy” on the problem, but in the end the G. O. P., and the children of G. O. D., are perpetuating a virus that is sickening and killing people in droves.
A big part of the problem stems from the cultish relationship many evangelicals and Republicans have with the former president. They absorbed his endless efforts to downplay the danger of the virus and turn public health precautions into a political freedom movement. But the time for analyzing why these human petri dishes have chosen to ignore the medical science that could save them, and us, is over. We need a different strategy. I propose shunning.
Don’t let friends spread COVID- 19
Biden’s wildly successful vaccine rollout means that soon everyone who wants a vaccine will have one. When that happens, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, barbers, airlines and Ubers should require proof of vaccination before providing their services.
And it shouldn’t stop there. Businesses should make vaccination a requirement for employment. A COVID- 19 outbreak can shut down a business and be financially devastating. And failure to enforce basic health and safety measures is not fair to employees who have to work in offices, factories and stores where close contact is required.
Things should get personal, too: People should require friends to be vaccinated to attend their barbecues and birthday parties. Friends don’t let friends spread the coronavirus.
It’s no defense to say, “People like you can protect yourselves by getting a vaccine without making me do the same.” Nope. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are about 90% effective. That’s impressive, but if the roulette wheel makes you one of the unlucky 10%, it’s little consolation.
There have already been several thousand documented “breakthrough” cases of COVID- 19 infections in vaccinated people. Some have died. And with coronavirus variants popping up across the globe, for which the vaccines are less effective, we should expect to see more infections in vaccinated people.
Unwilling to miss an opportunity to flout common sense, Republican leaders from Arkansas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and others want to prevent businesses from requiring people to be vaccinated. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has already issued an executive order that “prohibited businesses from requiring patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID- 19 vaccination.”
Safety for larger public
There are decades of state laws that require vaccination before children can attend schools. There are seat belt and helmet laws, no- texting- whiledriving laws, and countless others that restrict individual freedoms to ensure safety for the public at large. And yet, vaccine requirements designed to curb a global pandemic that has cost nearly 575,000 American lives is the hill on which Republicans want to die.
When states pass these laws telling private companies how to run their business, there should be immediate legal challenges. If a bakery can refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple getting married, it can refuse to bake one for people who choose to put themselves, the bakery’s staff and its customers at risk of contracting a deadly illness.
America has become too tolerant of half- witted individual autonomy that ignores the existential needs of the vast majority of its citizens.
While writing this column, I caught a TV promo for a new documentary in which Cher helped save an elephant. It made me think of her performance in “Moonstruck.” Vaccine hesitancy? We need Cher to slap us in the face and tell us to “snap out of it.”
Michael J. Stern, a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, was a federal prosecutor for 25 years in Detroit and Los Angeles.
WANT TO COMMENT? Have Your Say at letters@ usatoday. com, @ usatodayopinion on Twitter and facebook. com/ usatodayopinion. Comments are edited for length and clarity. Content submitted to USA TODAY may appear in print, digital or other forms. For letters, include name, address and phone number. Letters may be mailed to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.