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Anti-vaccine numbers are dying from COVID and their deaths are taken lightly.
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This is a distraction and represents an acceptance of the death toll from COVID.
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We don’t need to be nice to anti-vaccines, but we need to counter them to control infections.
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Abdullah Shihipar is an opinion writer for Insider.
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This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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See more stories on the Insider business page.
It has become a familiar tale during this pandemic: An anti-mask and vaccine vocal advocate ends up dying in hospital with COVID-19. Most recently, Calleb Wallace, 30, of Texas, died after a month-long battle with the disease. Wallace, who organized anti-mask protests and founded the San Angelo Freedom Defenders, has died after being placed on a ventilator. He leaves behind a pregnant woman and two children.
Other times, it’s the anti-vaccine social media posts that make the headlines. Stephen Harmon, a man from Los Angeles, has repeatedly mocked the vaccine, tweeting “I have 99 problems but a vax isn’t one” in June only to die of the virus in July.
This trend, increasingly common as the Delta variant spreads rapidly across the country, has inspired a slew of jokes and memes on social media. I myself participated in a few “how it started, how is it going” jokes. But ultimately, no matter how vile the target of the memes is and no matter how tempting it is to participate in the schadenfreude, it’s an unnecessary distraction that represents a grim reality: we agree with the number of people dying from COVID-19.
Shine light in the dark
Before I go any further, let me say that this is not an argument in favor of empathy for those who are fiercely anti-vaccine or an attempt to try to understand their point of view. Nor is it an argument to persuade anti-vaccine advocates. Some of them have unfortunately descended into a destructive rabbit hole from which even their loved ones find it difficult to get them out quickly. Being nicer won’t necessarily change that, but neither will making fun of them after they die.
Eighteen months ago, when the virus first hit the coast of the United States, we were all terrified. People shopped at grocery stores as hospitals filled with the dead, people spent time at home to “stop the spread” and flatten the curve. Each death was seen as a tragedy, a death we could avoid through collective action. After a few months, right-wing governors and talking heads began to promote the idea that protecting oneself from a pandemic was an individual responsibility. Whether people wanted to go without a mask, attend rallies, or skip the vaccine – that’s up to them, they thought, ignoring the fact that the virus spreads from person to person. Of course, one person’s behavior during a pandemic affects the health of others.
A year later, the abundant vaccines, some on the left adopted the framing of the right. It is now accepted that deaths from COVID, mainly among the unvaccinated, are a matter of individual fate. You could have chosen to get the vaccine, but you didn’t, and that’s not my problem, they suggest.
This framing effectively prevents us from taking broader measures to control the spread of the virus through mask warrants, restrictions and testing. The abandonment of a collective framework around COVID-19 endangers unvaccinated children and the immunocompromised. It is also easy to forget that despite everything, there are still unvaccinated people who must be reached; there are still people who need help getting vaccinated, still people who are terrified of side effects, and still those who cannot make the time to get the vaccine.
The lines between the anti-vaccine crowd and the unvaccinated in general have become blurred, and we’ve seen this in the headlines that highlight unvaccinated people who have died from the virus. Average people who were too busy and couldn’t put up with it, were afraid of side effects, or wanted to wait and see its effects.
If we are to fight anti-vaccine sentiment, rather than embrace the individualistic framing Republicans originally proposed, we need to counter them in their lifetime. We should come forward to outnumber them and declare that we are in favor of mask mandates at school board and city council meetings. We should pressure and boycott advertisers who advertise programs that promote disinformation. We should demand accountability measures for Facebook, which has long tolerated anti-vaccine misinformation on its platforms.
And of course, we need to push for measures that will stop the spread of the virus, including, but not limited to: mask warrants, vaccine warrants, vaccine sick leave, reduction in prison populations and arrests (including immigration-related arrests), stopping deportations, and securing real protections for OSHA workers. Instead, tangible actions have been ditched to be ridiculed.
I have spoken to people who have lost family members to vaccine conspiracy theories. These people are increasingly isolated and are shells of themselves, often hostile and aggressive towards their own parents. Families feel like they are forever torn apart.
We must remember that there are family members who experience two waves of pain when a loved one dies: physical loss and knowing that their death could have been easily avoided.
It’s not easy to hear, but making fun of these deaths does mean that we have stopped resisting mass death and have accepted its reality. It’s tempting to think that there is some cosmic justice when an anti-vaccine dies, but that’s just the reality of the spread of a virus. Yes, anti-vaccines are dying, but dozens of other people are too. I’m not writing this just to lecture others, but rather to hold myself accountable. Using humor like this is an easy distraction and a facade of the shame we should feel that this is where our country is at such an advanced stage in the pandemic.
There will be more anti-vaccines dying from this disease in the months to come, and I will try to resist the urge to take it lightly. The real joke is on all of us.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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