For the last two weeks or so, I have been carrying around an anger bordering on rage regarding the chunk of Americans eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine who continue to refuse it.
I haven’t been able to articulate that anger well. Or at least not as well as Gov. Jim Justice, the Republican governor of West Virginia did in a press conference this week.
“For god’s sake’s a-livin’, how difficult is this to understand? Why in the world do we have to come up with these crazy ideas – and they’re crazy ideas – that the vaccine’s got something in it and its tracing people wherever they go. And the same very people who are saying that are carrying their cell phones around. I mean come on. Come on.”
Amen, Governor.
Justice’s frustration, his anger and his puzzlement – I share every single bit of it. Every. Single. Bit. (West Virginia currently ranks fifth nationwide in the numbers of cases per 100,000 residents, according to data maintained by The New York Times.)
Because this isn’t about what political party you belong to. Justice, it’s worth noting, was elected in 2016 as a Democrat but switched – to much national hoopla – to the Republican Party during the Trump presidency.
Getting a vaccine that is 90%+ effective in avoiding serious hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 has absolutely zero to do with how much you like or hate Donald Trump. Or Joe Biden. Or Jim Justice. Or any other politician in the country.
The idea that you can own the liberals or show the media or prove Dr. Anthony Fauci wrong by not taking the vaccine is a gamble – one in which the stakes are your life. And not just your life; there are lots and lots of immunocompromised adults who can’t be vaccinated. There are millions of kids under 12 – including one in my house – who can’t be vaccinated yet.
If you don’t want to do it for you, then do it for them.
Again, Justice: “The only weapon we have to fight back with is the vaccinations.” Yes. Yes. Yes.
The Point: Listen to Justice. Please.