Vax Vex 1
Vax Vex – Part 1
Operation Warp Speed may be the single most successful American public/private partnership since WW2. George Takei's amusing snark notwithstanding, OWS surpassed the hopes of even its staunchest advocates. As for its many detractors, Warp Speed forced them to pivot with the alacrity of a spinning figure skater; the critics suddenly proclaiming unfettered enthusiasm for a program they dismissed as impossible just a few months earlier.
OWS produced not one, not two, but three revolutionary COVID-19 vaccinations in 9 months. In terms of effectiveness, efficacy, and volume, Warp Speed has set a new medical standard, redefining the art of the possible. Prior to OWS, vaccine development was measured in terms of years, if not decades. Thanks to the Trump administration’s (yes, that Trump administration) commitment to absorbing risk and providing logistical support, Big Pharma delivered Big Time.
As we know, solving one problem often leads to a new one. With OWS inoculating most of the American public by this summer, the next challenge emerges: what to do about all those pesky anti-vaxxers? Even with the record low rates of side-effects arising from the COVID-19 vaccines, many people are still skeptical of the shots.
For now, the mystical state of COVID-19 herd immunity remains dependent upon Dr. Fauci’s magic 8-ball – but eventually, there will a consensus grounded in science. The percentage of the population that must be immunized (via natural or vaccinated means) will be X. Once X is reached, herd-immunity will be achieved – COVID outbreaks will become localized and containable, pending updates for variants.
However, there will be a percentage of the population that will not be immunized, again either by natural or vaccinated means. That percentage will be Y.
Will Y prevent us from getting to X? Will the anti-vaxxers keep us from herd immunity and the end of the pandemic?
Like most other topics in contemporary American society, COVID-19 is thoroughly politicized. The red/blue divide is framing the anti-vax dilemma as much the lockdowns and mask mandates before it. The narrative from the NYT to CNN to NPR is as consistent as ever: intelligent, educated, cosmopolitan blue-staters vs. ignorant, recalcitrant, rural red-staters.
But as the tag-line of my blog notes, there’s always another angle. I’ve noted before how political grouping can misinform even astute observers. The anti-vaxxers cannot be construed as a monolith – they are all over the map, including:
- Contrarian libertards like myself, who resist being told what to do by self-righteous bureaucrats with guns. We can be theologically or politically inspired - saying to the government: "get off my lawn!"
- Gaia groupies, who were the avant-garde of the anti-vaxxer movement years before COVID escaped from a Chinese lab…er, was inadvertently transmitted via a wet market in a country whose name is not to be spoken.
- People of color, already distanced from medical care, and who have long cultivated a mistrust of American health-care authorities – one sadly earned all the way back at Tuskegee.
Of these three categories, only the first is ripe for conventional political attack. Libertarians are more likely to locate in red states, and hence underwrite the narrative crafted by the Times, et al. They can be caricatured with confidence, shamed with surety.
The granola crowd, on the other hand, cluster at the coasts, and typically share the political proclivities of their pixel-driving neighbors in the media. While their role in the anti-vaxxer movement is somewhat exaggerated, their ideological adjacency to mainstream progressivism requires a deft touch nonetheless. Smug condescension will be less effective here.
And then there are America’s minorities: polling data suggests they are about 30% less likely than white people to voluntarily sign up for COVID vaccines. Using tactics of shaming and derision on people of color (the way we are with red-staters) would be the social equivalent of kryptonite; hence they will, as always, simply be ignored.
Ignored for now, that is – because the COVID vaccination debate is teeing up an epic civil rights battle. I’ll cover that in my next post.
PS: On a personal note, my libertarian leanings were not an issue when it came to getting inoculated. I required neither government sanction nor media humiliation – science sufficed for me to make my own decision.
I'll let Penn and Teller have the last word: