I have done a couple posts on my take on Anti-Vaxx politics. In my prior post, Death to the Heroes, I opined that first responders were the most important group that MUST vaccinate against Covid – for the protection of the population in general, and their patients in particular. In my Anti-Vaxx II post, I warned against generalizing the reasons for not vaccinating. There are people who feel it’s an abundance of caution – or fear of negative reactions – or fear of needles – that keeps them from getting vaccinations.
But the data is clear. Ninety-five percent of those refusing vaccines are not cautious. They are politically aligned with a ‘personal right of refusal’. It’s their constitutional right to refuse. It’s as simple as that.
These people are predominately Republican, white, and biased. They are over 80% Trump supporters and avid followers of Fox News and similar biased right wing news sources. They hold a palpable hate for liberals and progressives – and the scientific institutions or policies they support.
It’s not important that they can never cite any progressive program, decision, law, or regulation that has affected them personally. It’s not about actual facts, experiences or outcomes. It’s about politics.
I saw this graphic (scientifically developed and peer reviewed) from the CDC. Digest it.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7105e1.htm
The CDC is a civilian body. It is NOT a government agency and cannot be controlled by the President or Congress (Trump had many frustrations with the CDC but was powerless to control it). The right-wing media – and even some left-leaning media – get this wrong. They think the CDC and the FDA are controlled in the same way. Nothing could be further from the truth. The CDC was intentionality made to be independent from governmental and political pressure. It’s pure science. Pure medicine. Pure research.
The illustrations show – beyond any doubt – that the Omicron strain of Covid was an unvaccinated pandemic. It took a highly contagious variant to illustrate the truth. The first illustration above is based on positive tests; and the second on hospitalizations.
What these illustrations DO NOT show is how many of the vaccinated or vulnerable were infected by the unvaccinated. The contagion level of an unvaccinated person is many times that of a vaccinated person. Enough to break-through the fragile immune barrier older, or immunocompromised, individuals have - even with a vaccine. Nor does it show how many hospital beds were occupied by the unvaccinated that were desperately needed by the ill or injured.
How many deaths, I wonder, due to these people’s need to practice a political ‘right of refusal’ account for?
We will never know.
JB
