You Don’t Need to Be Mad at the Unvaccinated Anymore

You can call them dumb, though.

Almost one year ago, I wrote something on this site that, I must say, I did not imagine would be particularly controversial. “Stop Sneering At the Unvaccinated Sick,” the headline read, and it was about something strange I’d seen happening among my fellow vaccinated Americans: People were not openly mocking unvaccinated people who were sick and dying in hospitals but even arguing that hospitals should refuse to treat them. Basically: We were standing over dying people screaming at them that this was their own damned fault. A key quote:

The refusal of the unvaccinated to realize that We Are All In This Together is making the pandemic worse, and longer, than it has to be. But believing that We Are All In This Together does not stop when you get you the vaccine. We cannot lose our souls in the constant battle. If you find some sort of nasty justice in seeing a fellow citizen dying of a terrible disease, you’re not helping. You’re dead center as part of the problem.

Looking back, it still seems absurd that would actually have to say out loud, “please do not mock people who are dying.” (But seriously: A lot of folks were really mad that I wrote this!) I would hope that today, 11 months later, there are fewer people actively laughing at their fellow citizens…