Anti-vaxxers are irresponsible with their own lives and thus with lives of others.
I’m way past having any patience with the now-too-wearisome anti-vax crowd and their nonsense arguments against what epidemiologists the world over are calling a miracle gift that has and can save literally millions of lives. The value and indeed the necessity of mandating these vaccines was well described in Linda Blackford’s recent editorial and she rightly attributed much if not most of the resistance to the politics of the MAGA crowd as they try to score points with those who are irresponsible with their own lives and thus so with the lives of others.
Predictably, two local follow-ups appeared in this week’s opeds, both celebrating their anti-vax ignorance. Writer #1 tells us how offended she is by Blackford’s “put down” of those who question the vaccine’s safety. She goes on to say there are “volumes of information showing the side effects, including death, of these shots”, “highly credentialed scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, and lawyers who advise caution…” and then she rails against the “vaccine cult” that seeks to force the unwilling to submit to a “vaccine which neither stops people from getting, spreading, or dying of the virus.”
OK, enough nonsense, reality check here: Everything she argues is false. Reality: There are not volumes of negative information, nor are there highly credentialed scientists, doctors, etc who advise caution. The reality is exactly the reverse for anyone who appreciates actual truth. Only in the world of QAnon, anti-vax quacks, and Putin/Xi disinformation does any of her argument resonate. She goes on to tell us how healthy she is and that she will never submit to a vaccine, which so perfectly validates Ms. Blackford’s editorial point that more, not less, mandates are needed to protect others from such irresponsible people. This individual assures us she is not MAGA and I will take her at her word. Obviously she is a member of the other set of letters, SSSS, Stupid, Selfish, Sanctimonious, Stubborn.
Writer #2 is simpler in that he does not offer false evidence, but instead stakes his reliance on God to keep him and others safe. Never mind that God has presided over many millions of human history’s dead as this pandemic continues to take the lives of those who submit themselves to it. For this writer I would offer one thought: Perhaps God will allow you to die earlier rather than later in order to spare the lives of others you would infect if allowed to live.
Refocusing to the legal aspect, this issue was actually decided much earlier in a U.S. Supreme Court case going back more than 100 years. In Jacobson v. Massachusetts, decided in 1905, the Court determined that mandatory vaccinations, in this case against a smallpox epidemic, did not violate anyone’s Constitutional rights, but instead protected society from a dangerous virus.
As I write this, Europe is experiencing another Covid surge and epidemiologists in the U.S. are bracing for our own, which is now projected for this year’s winter months. Many more will die in this upcoming period. These two writers and the U.S. Supreme Court give us all the evidence we need to validate Ms. Blackford’s recommendation for more mandates.
Brian Engle is a retiree of the United States Air Force and of the federal government, now living in Lexington. He is originally from Harlan.