![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
m_d_hAlthough most people in the US are still not allowed to sign up for a COVID vaccine shot yet, we're already flooded with think pieces trying to explain why some folks don't want to get the vaccine.
A lot of these think pieces are trying to explain why one particular subculture is supposedly more resistant to uptake than the rest of us. I've seen think pieces saying that LGBTs are more resistant, that Blacks are more resistant, that Hispanics are more resistant, that White Evangelicals are more resistant, that young people are more resistant, that old people are more resistant. I'm not sure there's anybody left who isn't more resistant!
Bottom line is that perhaps a third of adults don't want the vaccine, for a large variety of reasons, no matter their racial, sexual, religious, etc., identities. But nowadays we're so stuck on viewing people through their subculture identities that we can't see the forest for the trees. A third of adults don't want the vaccine!
And I'm going to ask -- so what?
One proffered reason for caring is that to achieve "herd immunity" so we can all go back to normal, we need some high percentage of the population to be immune to the virus. Nobody knows the exact high percentage, because no country has achieved herd immunity from COVID yet. This assumes herd immunity is possible for COVID! It might not be. If immunity wears off quickly after a few months, if the virus keeps mutating to escape our immunity, if the virus continues to spread & mutate in poor countries unabated -- COVID could be like influenza, with no such thing as herd immunity. Not every disease can be wiped out via vaccination.
There's also the idea that for purposes of equity and non-discrimination we should reach out to various subcultures to make sure they are protected by the vaccine; we're supposed to help them overcome their resistance to the shots so we can save their lives for them (against their will). Not by forcing them to get the shots, but by changing their minds against their will. Via Public Education Campaigns, Outreach, Role Models, etc. OK ... but these campaigns don't actually change many minds. People can sniff when the government is trying to convince them to do something they don't want to do.
Also, businesses want to offer safe spaces for customers to spend money, so they'll want to ensure their staff and customers have been vaccinated. I'm sure there are plenty of stores and resorts that can't wait to advertise that their staffs are fully vaccinated. So businesses will want to force people to get their shots, and they'll lobby governments to back them up on this.
But we don't require adults to get any sort of shots in the US! Medical care for adults is voluntary, if you can afford it at all. And these shots have only been around for months, or weeks, and were approved on an emergency basis. There is no such thing as a fully-approved COVID vaccine in the US, and won't be, for years. People are right to be skeptical of new technologies that haven't been used in humans before.
I've been studying these vaccines so I can make an informed decision of my own, but that doesn't mean everybody should have to get a shot.
And most people do not really want to wait until we reach "herd immunity" before we return to normal. A lot of us want to return to normal as soon as we get our own shots. A lot of us want to return to normal NOW, shots be damned. There will be a solid supermajority of people wanting to return to normal as soon as all of the adults who want their shots have received their shots, which Biden said would happen by the end of May.
So, I counsel tolerance and patience with regard to the people who don't want their shots. Let them make up their own minds. Let them see whether the shots work on us guinea pigs. Let them sign up at their own pace. Let's not turn getting shots or not into another goddess damned culture war, we have enough of those in the US already.
A lot of these think pieces are trying to explain why one particular subculture is supposedly more resistant to uptake than the rest of us. I've seen think pieces saying that LGBTs are more resistant, that Blacks are more resistant, that Hispanics are more resistant, that White Evangelicals are more resistant, that young people are more resistant, that old people are more resistant. I'm not sure there's anybody left who isn't more resistant!
Bottom line is that perhaps a third of adults don't want the vaccine, for a large variety of reasons, no matter their racial, sexual, religious, etc., identities. But nowadays we're so stuck on viewing people through their subculture identities that we can't see the forest for the trees. A third of adults don't want the vaccine!
And I'm going to ask -- so what?
One proffered reason for caring is that to achieve "herd immunity" so we can all go back to normal, we need some high percentage of the population to be immune to the virus. Nobody knows the exact high percentage, because no country has achieved herd immunity from COVID yet. This assumes herd immunity is possible for COVID! It might not be. If immunity wears off quickly after a few months, if the virus keeps mutating to escape our immunity, if the virus continues to spread & mutate in poor countries unabated -- COVID could be like influenza, with no such thing as herd immunity. Not every disease can be wiped out via vaccination.
There's also the idea that for purposes of equity and non-discrimination we should reach out to various subcultures to make sure they are protected by the vaccine; we're supposed to help them overcome their resistance to the shots so we can save their lives for them (against their will). Not by forcing them to get the shots, but by changing their minds against their will. Via Public Education Campaigns, Outreach, Role Models, etc. OK ... but these campaigns don't actually change many minds. People can sniff when the government is trying to convince them to do something they don't want to do.
Also, businesses want to offer safe spaces for customers to spend money, so they'll want to ensure their staff and customers have been vaccinated. I'm sure there are plenty of stores and resorts that can't wait to advertise that their staffs are fully vaccinated. So businesses will want to force people to get their shots, and they'll lobby governments to back them up on this.
But we don't require adults to get any sort of shots in the US! Medical care for adults is voluntary, if you can afford it at all. And these shots have only been around for months, or weeks, and were approved on an emergency basis. There is no such thing as a fully-approved COVID vaccine in the US, and won't be, for years. People are right to be skeptical of new technologies that haven't been used in humans before.
I've been studying these vaccines so I can make an informed decision of my own, but that doesn't mean everybody should have to get a shot.
And most people do not really want to wait until we reach "herd immunity" before we return to normal. A lot of us want to return to normal as soon as we get our own shots. A lot of us want to return to normal NOW, shots be damned. There will be a solid supermajority of people wanting to return to normal as soon as all of the adults who want their shots have received their shots, which Biden said would happen by the end of May.
So, I counsel tolerance and patience with regard to the people who don't want their shots. Let them make up their own minds. Let them see whether the shots work on us guinea pigs. Let them sign up at their own pace. Let's not turn getting shots or not into another goddess damned culture war, we have enough of those in the US already.