Variable Delta’s message to vaccination opponents: It’s your funeral

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demonstrator. illustrated | Getty Images, iStock

delta variable here. It is now responsible for the majority of COVID-19 infections in the United States and is leading to a rapid rise in cases, not just in red states like Arkansas but in the real blue city of New York.

But while the delta variant is much more contagious than the original strain or the alpha variant that first appeared in Britain, and has shown a greater ability to infect vaccinated individuals, all vaccines approved for use in the United States have so far proven highly effective in preventing severe illness and death. .

So it’s crazy that so much of the American right has decided this is the time to redouble opposition to vaccination as a central front in our endless culture war.

It’s crazy – but it’s essential not to take the bait. The fact that vaccines have ever become a focal point should be the ultimate evidence that culture war is a self-sustaining process largely unrelated to intrinsic grievances. The Republicans think that fighting a balanced one helps them politically, and I suspect they are right. But it is not a war that either side can actually win by fighting, although individual politicians and media stars can enhance their own fortunes. For the country as a whole, the only way to win is not to play.

With regard to the vaccination campaign, then, this means ignoring the vaccination campaigns, and focusing on actions that do not depend on persuading the skeptics.

One of the most important things the federal government can do to encourage more uptake of vaccines is for the US Food and Drug Administration to give them full approval. Not because it would convince the undecided—it is perfectly reasonable that they would see the approval as evidence that political interference has hastened the process—but because it would change the legal landscape for mandatory vaccination. In particular, it would allow the military to order that all those in uniform be vaccinated, as they would with a host of other vaccines.

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Enforcing vaccination for all employees who work in healthcare settings such as hospitals or nursing homes is also an obvious step with potential public health benefits given the staggering decline in uptake of vaccines in this sector and the need to protect at-risk patients – including those who are suppressed Immunocompromised and those who cannot adequately benefit from vaccinations. Such authorizations can be imposed even without FDA approval, as evidenced by the failure to file a lawsuit against Houston Methodist Hospital by employees who did not comply with the hospital’s authorization. Resistance evaporated and compliance rose right after the suit failed.

Businesses vulnerable to disruption due to the COVID outbreak also have reason to enforce vaccination, and the government is making it clear that they are free to do so. Broadway shows already impose a blanket immunization on the cast and crew; Film sets can be expected to follow. From car assembly lines to public schools to meatpacking plants, managers must see the risk the coronavirus outbreak could pose to their ability to operate effectively, and act accordingly—particularly if insurance companies start charging higher rates or refuse to provide certain types of insurance. Coverage for operations for which you do not have an authorization in place.

None of this requires agitation or even persuasion—which is a good thing, because these strategies have proven ineffective. In this regard, I think that the powers that be should take a good look in the mirror and realize that their power of persuasion is clearly limited. While they deserve some of the blame for their impotence — right-wing critics never tire of cursing — distrust of authority is also part of human nature, especially American nature. This is something we have to live with, not oppose.

So I think it is the duty of those same authorities to start taking a different path in their public statements, less advocacy and more realistic. Vaccines are safe and save lives, and so in areas where the government has direct and important authority dependent on health, they will enforce vaccination. Moreover, since there were still barriers to access, they would be removed or circled around, so that no one would get sick from the lack of a vaccine that was willing to take it. I think the Biden administration’s proposal to go door-to-door to give vaccines free to anyone who wants them is a great idea, and it’s long overdue.

But if certain states and localities want to decline this assistance, they should be free to do so — and Biden has to say so. The mere presence of vaccines in sufficient quantities to give everyone one chance alters the moral arithmetic, and makes it less plausible to claim that too many innocent people are at risk to allow others the freedom to be an idiot.

So if Tennessee wants to forego vaccination for minors for fear that some parents will get upset, it’s their prerogative — or it’s a problem that Tennessee citizens must solve by replacing their government. This is what it means to be a democracy. Public health is a matter of public responsibility, but certain communities and citizens certainly have the freedom to take their lives into their own hands. In fact, the freedom not to vaccinate is quite parallel to the freedom of the employer to authorize the vaccination of his employees: each makes the decision that reflects their own assessment of their own interests and values.

We do not have to respect the decisions that others make, but we do have to respect their right to make them. That’s why when someone does something we think is outrageously stupid, we say: It’s your funeral.

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