Vaccines and immunisation

Subterms

    More stories

    • 175 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Fears as more children falling ill in latest US Covid surge and school approaches

      by

      CoronavirusFears as more children falling ill in latest US Covid surge and school approachesNational Institutes of Health director says 1,450 kids in hospital Teachers union shifts, calls for vaccine mandates for teachers Edward HelmoreSun 8 Aug 2021 13.54 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 13.56 EDTAmid increased fears that children are now both victims and vectors of the latest Covid-19 variant surge, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins signaled on Sunday that increasing numbers of children are falling ill in the US.His comments also came as one of America’s largest teachers unions appeared to shift its position on mandatory vaccinations for teachers.With around 90 million adult Americans remaining unvaccinated, and vaccines remaining unauthorized for 12 years and under, Collins told ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos that “the largest number of children so far in the whole pandemic right now are in the hospital, 1,450 kids in the hospital from Covid-19.”Collins acknowledged that data on pediatric infections was incomplete but he said that he was “hearing from pediatricians that they’re concerned that, this time, the kids who are in the hospital are both more numerous and more seriously ill”.Collins’s comments came as new Covid-19 cases in the US have rebounded to more than 100,000 a day on average, returning to the levels of the winter surge six months ago. But health officials focus on children adds urgency to the situation as the US education system approaches the start of the school year.Collins said his advice to parents of school-age children is to “think about masks in the way that they ought to be thought about”.He added: “This is not a political statement or an invasion of your liberties. This is a life-saving medical device. And asking kids to wear a mask is uncomfortable, but, you know, kids are pretty resilient. We know that kids under 12 are likely to get infected and if we don’t have masks in schools, this virus will spread more widely.”The alternative, he said, “will probably result in outbreaks in schools and kids will have to go back to remote learning which is the one thing we really want to prevent”.Warning that virtual learning that kids have experienced for more than a year is “really bad for their development”, Collins urged that “we ought to be making every effort to make sure they can be back in the classroom. And the best way to do that is to be sure that masks are worn by the students, by the staff, by everybody.”The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, went further, calling for vaccine mandates for teachers. “As a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates,” she told NBC’s Meet The Press.Weingarten’s comments are an advance on the union’s earlier position in which it maintained teachers should be prioritized for the vaccines but stopped short of supporting a mandate. That shift was previewed last week when Weingarten said she would consider supporting vaccine mandates to keep students and staff safe and schools open.Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, also echoed Weingarten’s comments Sunday, saying the best way to protect children from the virus is to “surround them with those who can be vaccinated, whoever they are. Teachers, personnel in the school, anyone, get them vaccinated.”Dr Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, also weighed in on the concerns, saying that schools are not “inherently safe” from the Delta variant and that society “can’t expect the same outcome that we saw earlier with respect to the schools where we were largely able to control large outbreaks in the schools with a different set of behaviors.”“The challenge right now is that the infection is going to start to collide with the opening of school. And we have seen that the schools can become sources of community transmission when you’re dealing with more transmissible strains,” Gottleib told CBS’s Face the Nation.TopicsCoronavirusUS politicsSchoolsInfectious diseasesVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of Covid

      by

      US newsRightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of CovidDick Farrel was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and urged people not to get vaccinated Edward HelmoreSun 8 Aug 2021 11.09 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 14.35 EDTA rightwing TV and radio host who was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and who urged his listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has died after contracting the virus.Dick Farrel, who had described Fauci as a “power-tripping lying freak” who conspired with “power trip libb loons”, had urged people not to get vaccinated as recently as June.He reportedly changed his opinion about vaccines after falling ill and later being admitted to hospital before passing away on 4 August aged 65. “He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me this virus is no joke and he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine]!” close friend Amy Leigh Hair wrote on Facebook.Farrel, a native of Queens, New York, anchored radio shows in Florida and also acted as a stand-in anchor for the rightwing news outlet Newsmax, was described as a pioneer “shock talk” host.His partner, Kit Farley, said: “He was known as the other Rush Limbaugh. With a heavy heart, I can only say this was so unexpected. He will be missed.”Described as an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, Farrel went all-in on unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories about election fraud and questioned the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines.Hair told WPTV: “I was one of one the people like him who didn’t trust the vaccine. I trusted my immune system. I just became more afraid of getting Covid-19 than I was of any possible side effects of the vaccine. I’m glad I got vaccinated.”TopicsUS newsUS politicsThe far rightCoronavirusVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      The Republicans confusing the vaccine effort: Politics Weekly Extra

      by

      Jessica Glenza and Jonathan Freedland discuss how party politics is playing a role in helping – and hindering – public health messaging

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

      This week the US reached the milestone of having at least 70% of adults receive at least one Covid-19 vaccination shot. Joe Biden had hoped to achieve this by 4 July, but the vaccine programme has stalled over the summer. The resurgence of the pandemic, owing to the much more transmissible Delta variant, has convinced many people who were once hesitant to get the jab. However, some are blaming mixed messages from Republican lawmakers for causing confusion and apathy. So what should local and state politicians be doing? Jessica Glenza talks to Jonathan Freedland. For the other big news of the week, make sure to listen back to our episode about the Andrew Cuomo scandal and why the New York State governor is facing calls to resign. Archive: ABC News, CNN, LiveNOW Watch This Body – a Guardian documentary Send us your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Biden calls on Cuomo to resign after report corroborates harassment allegations – live

      by

      Key events

      Show

      5.36pm EDT
      17:36

      ‘No one’s invincible’: fresh mask mandates and rising Delta cases hit California

      5.01pm EDT
      17:01

      Today so far

      4.53pm EDT
      16:53

      Biden calls on Cuomo to resign after investigation corroborates harassment allegations

      4.36pm EDT
      16:36

      Biden: Delta has created ‘a largely preventable tragedy that will get worse before it gets better’

      4.29pm EDT
      16:29

      Pelosi joins other prominent Democrats calling for Cuomo’s resignation

      4.10pm EDT
      16:10

      Biden expected to announce new federal eviction moratorium – reports

      3.53pm EDT
      15:53

      Albany county DA is conducting an ‘ongoing criminal investigation’ into Cuomo

      Live feed

      Show

      5.53pm EDT
      17:53

      An officer has died after being stabbed today at a transit station outside the Pentagon, the AP reports:

      The Pentagon, the headquarters of the US military, was temporarily placed on lockdown after gunshots were fired Tuesday morning near the entrance of the building.
      A Pentagon police officer who was stabbed later died, according to officials who were not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
      More details about the violence were expected at a Pentagon news conference. The connection between the shooting and the stabbing of the officer was not immediately clear. The authorities did not immediately provide details or the sequence of events.
      The incident occurred on a Metro bus platform that is part of the Pentagon transit center, according to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. The facility is just steps from the distinctive Pentagon building, which is in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the US capital.
      An Associated Press reporter near the building heard multiple gunshots, then a pause, then at least one additional shot. Another AP journalist heard police yelling “shooter”.
      A Pentagon announcement said the facility was on lockdown due to “police activity”. The agency responsible for security at the building, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, tweeted shortly before noon that the scene of the incident was secure. The lockdown was lifted except for the area around the crime scene.

      Read more:

      5.36pm EDT
      17:36

      ‘No one’s invincible’: fresh mask mandates and rising Delta cases hit California

      Erin McCormick in San Francisco reports:
      A surge in Covid-19 infections, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, has prompted San Francisco and six other counties in California’s Bay Area to reimpose mask mandates for indoor spaces, less than two months after experts in the highly vaccinated region celebrated what they hoped would be a return to normal.
      In recent days, San Francisco’s infection rates have surged to nearly 20 times what they were at their lowest point in June and two of the city’s hospitals have reported that more than 200 of their own workers have tested positive for the virus.
      “It teaches us that no one is invincible,” said Dr Peter Chin-Hong, an associate dean at UCSF who specializes in infectious diseases.
      The surge in cases comes as California and the nation have seen continued increases in infections, with federal officials acknowledging that “the war has changed” and the new Delta variant is as contagious as chicken pox.
      The return to mask wearing sees the San Francisco Bay Area join other parts of the state, including Los Angeles and Sacramento, that have already reimposed mandates as cases climb across the state.
      New California cases have jumped from fewer than 900 a day at the end of May to more than 9,000 a day now, according to state data. Nationally, new cases hit a low point in late June of about 12,000 per day, but they have now shot up to more than 78,000 a day, according to data from the New York Times.
      Read more:

      5.01pm EDT
      17:01

      Today so far

      That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
      Here’s where the day stands so far:

      New York governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women and violated state and federal law, an independent investigation found. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, announced the investigation’s findings at a press conference today. Based off contemporaneous notes and interviews with 179 people, the investigators’ report details how Cuomo inappropriately touched several state employees and made sexually suggestive comments to them.
      Cuomo denied the allegations, saying he “never touched anyone inappropriately”. “That is just not who I am, and that’s not who I have ever been,” Cuomo said, claiming that the independent investigation was flawed and politically motivated. James has strongly denied those claims.
      Joe Biden said he believes Cuomo should resign in response to the investigation’s findings. The president said back in March that Cuomo should resign and might be prosecuted if the investigation substantiated the allegations against him. When asked today if he still believes that, Biden said, “I stand by the statement.” When pressed on whether Cuomo should resign, Biden replied, “Yes.”
      Coronavirus hospitalizations in the US have reached the levels of last summer, with more than 50,000 Americans hospitalized as the Delta variant continues to spread. Almost all hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, and in a speech this afternoon, Biden again urged eligible Americans to get their shot as quickly as possible. Biden described the spread of the Delta variant as “a largely preventable tragedy that will get worse before it gets better”.
      New York will now require proof of vaccination to enter indoor restaurants and gyms, mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press conference. The new policy will be phased in over the coming weeks and will take full effect starting the week of September 13. “It’s time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life,” de Blasio said.

      Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      4.53pm EDT
      16:53

      Biden calls on Cuomo to resign after investigation corroborates harassment allegations

      After concluding his prepared remarks, Joe Biden took several questions from reporters, and – no surprise – the first question was about New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
      A CNN reporter asked the president whether he stood by his comments from March, when he said Cuomo should resign and might be prosecuted if an investigation substantiated the sexual harassment allegations against him.
      “I stand by the statement,” Biden said. When pressed on whether Cuomo should resign, Biden replied, “Yes.”
      Asked about Cuomo potentially being impeached, Biden said he was taking things one step at a time to see how the situation would unfold, although the governor has given no indication he intends to resign.
      Biden also told reporters that he has not spoken to Cuomo since the New York attorney general announced the investigation had found that the governor sexually harassed at least 11 women.

      Updated
      at 4.59pm EDT

      4.45pm EDT
      16:45

      Joe Biden criticized the Republican governors who have banned local leaders from implementing mask requirements, even as coronavirus case numbers rise due to the spread of the Delta variant.
      “What are we doing?” Biden said, adding that the pandemic is a “national challenge” that requires the whole country to come together to address it.
      The president noted that two states with relatively low vaccination rates, Florida and Texas, now account for one-third of all Covid cases in the country.
      “I say to these governors: please help,” Biden said. “But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives.”

      4.36pm EDT
      16:36

      Biden: Delta has created ‘a largely preventable tragedy that will get worse before it gets better’

      Joe Biden is now delivering remarks on his administration’s vaccination efforts, as hospitalizations rise in the US due to the spread of the Delta variant.
      The president described the spread of the Delta in the US as “a largely preventable tragedy that will get worse before it gets better”.
      Biden argued that this latest surge in cases is different from past surges because the US now has the tools to limit the spread of the virus, in the form of vaccines.
      Underscoring the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccines, the president noted that the recent rise in cases has not sparked a comparable rise in hospitalizations and deaths, even though hospitalizations have increased.
      Data shows most of the Americans now being hospitalized and dying of coronavirus have not been vaccinated. The disparity has created what Biden called “a pandemic of the unvaccinated”.

      4.29pm EDT
      16:29

      Pelosi joins other prominent Democrats calling for Cuomo’s resignation

      House speaker Nancy Pelosi is the latest prominent Democrat to call for New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation after an independent investigation found he had sexually harassed at least 11 women.
      “Under Attorney General Letitia James, a comprehensive and independent investigation into the allegations against Governor Cuomo has been completed,” the Democratic speaker said in her short statement.
      “As always, I commend the women who came forward to speak their truth. Recognizing his love of New York and the respect for the office he holds, I call upon the Governor to resign.”
      Both of New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have already called for Cuomo’s resignation, along with many other New York officials.
      Joe Biden is expected to soon deliver remarks on his administration’s vaccination efforts and will then take questions from reporters, who will almost certainly press him on whether he believes Cuomo should resign. Stay tuned.

      4.10pm EDT
      16:10

      Biden expected to announce new federal eviction moratorium – reports

      Joe Biden plans to announce a new federal moratorium on evictions for regions that have been hard hit by the Delta variant of coronavirus, according to multiple reports.
      The New York Times reports:

      White House aides and officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were working out details of a potential deal on Tuesday that could include a new freeze that would remain in place for up to 60 days, but officials involved in the process warned that the situation was in flux and no final decisions had been made.
      The new ban would cover about 90 percent of renters in the country, according to a Democratic leadership aide briefed on the proposal.
      Creating a new moratorium to deal with the recent spike in coronavirus rates is an attempt to deal with concerns that extending the previous moratorium without congressional approval would run afoul of the Supreme Court, the officials said.

      The last moratorium, which had been repeatedly extended to protect renters who were financially impacted by the pandemic, expired on Saturday with no replacement in effect.
      It’s still possible that the new moratorium could run into legal issues, as the supreme court ruled last month that an extension of the current moratorium beyond July 31 would require congressional authorization.
      The news comes after a group of progressive lawmakers, led by congresswoman Cori Bush, spent days staying overnight on the Capitol steps to protest the expiration of the moratorium.

      3.53pm EDT
      15:53

      Albany county DA is conducting an ‘ongoing criminal investigation’ into Cuomo

      The Albany county district attorney’s office confirmed it is conducting a criminal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against governor Andrew Cuomo.
      “Along with the public, today we have been made aware of the final independent report from AG Letitia James’ office regarding Governor Cuomo’s conduct as they relate to violations of civil harassment statutes,” Albany county district attorney David Soares said in a statement.
      “We will be formally requesting investigative materials obtained by the AG’s Office, and we welcome any victim to contact our office with additional information.”

      Albany County District Attorney’s Office
      (@AlbanyCountyDA)
      Comment from Albany County District Attorney David Soares Regarding NYS Attorney General Final Report on Governor Cuomo ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/aSVBNzhebf

      August 3, 2021

      Soares added that his office will “refrain from any additional public comment at this time regarding the status of the ongoing criminal investigation”.
      Speaking at a press conference this morning, James deflected questions about whether Cuomo should be prosecuted over the allegations detailed in the report, saying that was a decision for law enforcement officials.
      “Our work has concluded, and the document is now public,” James said.

      3.31pm EDT
      15:31

      De Blasio says Cuomo should resign and be impeached if necessary

      New York mayor Bill de Blasio has added his name to the increasingly long list of politicians who are calling on governor Andrew Cuomo to resign after an investigation concluded he had sexually harassed at least 11 women.
      “My first thoughts are with the women who were subject to this abhorrent behavior, and their bravery in stepping forward to share their stories,” the Democratic mayor said in a new statement.

      Mayor Bill de Blasio
      (@NYCMayor)
      My statement on the Attorney General’s report today: pic.twitter.com/mhn87JoOli

      August 3, 2021

      “The Attorney General’s detailed and thorough report substantiates many disturbing instances of severe misconduct. Andrew Cuomo committed sexual assault and sexual harassment, and intimidated a whistleblower. It is disqualifying,” de Blasio added.
      “It is beyond clear that Andrew Cuomo is not fit to hold office and can no longer serve as Governor. He must resign, and if he continues to resist and attack the investigators who did their jobs, he should be impeached immediately.”
      So far, Cuomo has given no indication that he intends to resign, but the New York state assembly does have the option to impeach him if he refuses to step down.

      Updated
      at 3.32pm EDT

      3.15pm EDT
      15:15

      Asked about the pandemic-related eviction moratorium that expired over the weekend, Jen Psaki said the White House is continuing to look for ways to extend the moratorium and distribute more of the rent assistance from the American Rescue Plan.
      One reporter asked the White House press secretary if Joe Biden is considering bringing Congress back from its recess to address the eviction issue, as Harry Truman did in 1948.
      Psaki responded that Democrats would need the votes to pass a moratorium extension before that happened, and she referred questions about the vote count to House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
      The White House and congressional Democrats are currently in a bit of a standoff over extending the moratorium. Congress wants the Biden administration to extend the moratorium, but the White House says that’s not possible because of a supreme court ruling on the issue last month. Meanwhile, it seems unlikely that an extension could attract enough Republican support to pass the Senate.
      And as Democrats in Washington continue to play the blame game, millions of Americans are at risk of losing their homes unless the moratorium is extended.

      2.54pm EDT
      14:54

      The White House press secretary criticized Florida governor Ron DeSantis for pushing back against local ordinances aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus, including mask requirements.
      “Most Republican governors are doing exactly the right thing,” Jen Psaki said. “But if you aren’t going to help, if you aren’t going to abide by public health guidance, then get out of the way.”
      Psaki also noted that Florida accounts for nearly a quarter of all current coronavirus hospitalizations in the US, even though the state represents only about 6.5% of the country’s total population.

      2.36pm EDT
      14:36

      The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, deflected questions about whether Joe Biden believes New York governor Andrew Cuomo should resign.
      “The president just said that he is going to speak to this later this afternoon and share his views, so I’m not going to get ahead of his comments,” Psaki said at her daily briefing.

      CSPAN
      (@cspan)
      Q: “Does the president believe Governor Cuomo should resign?.@PressSec: “The president just said that he is going to speak to this later this afternoon and share his views.” pic.twitter.com/Yk8GbCxA0V

      August 3, 2021

      The press secretary said there have not been any conversations between the White House and the governor’s office today.
      It’s worth noting Biden said back in March that Cuomo should resign and may face prosecution if the independent investigation corroborated the sexual harassment allegations against him.
      Psaki said she personally found the allegations laid out this morning — that Cuomo inappropriately touched several state employees and made sexually suggestive comments to them — to be “abhorrent”.

      2.17pm EDT
      14:17

      ‘We continue to believe that the governor should resign,’ New York senators say

      The two US senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have released a statement again calling on governor Andrew Cuomo to resign after an independent investigator concluded he sexually harassed at least 11 women.
      “As we have said before, the reported actions of the Governor were profoundly disturbing, inappropriate and completely unacceptable,” Schumer and Gillibrand said in a joint statement.
      “Today’s report from the New York State Attorney General substantiated and corroborated the allegations of the brave women who came forward to share their stories — and we commend the women for doing so.”
      The two Democratic senators described the investigation conducted into the sexual harassment allegations as “independent, thorough and professional”.
      “No elected official is above the law. The people of New York deserve better leadership in the governor’s office,” Schumer and Gillibrand said. “We continue to believe that the Governor should resign.”

      2.01pm EDT
      14:01

      Joe Biden declined to say whether he believes Andrew Cuomo should resign, promising to take questions from reporters after his remarks on vaccination efforts this afternoon.
      Reporters were allowed to enter the room for the start of Biden and Kamala Harris’ meeting with Latino community leaders to discuss the economy, immigration reform and voting rights.
      Journalists quickly started throwing questions at Biden about investigators’ conclusion that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women, but the president said he would not address the matter until later today.
      “I’m going to be speaking on Covid at 4 o’clock and will take questions on Covid and other issues after that,” Biden said.

      Jenny Leonard
      (@jendeben)
      Asked if he thinks Gov. Cuomo should resign, President Biden tells reporters he will speak on Covid at 4pm and intends to take questions then. pic.twitter.com/kTBVuvC1Z8

      August 3, 2021

      Updated
      at 2.02pm EDT

      1.41pm EDT
      13:41

      Joanna Walters

      Cuomo can surely expect at the least to be showered with lawsuits in short order by some of his alleged victims.
      An interesting point, though, is that New York attorney general Letitia James chose not to refer her report directly to any criminal authorities, such as a district attorney.
      She said that her office’s work was done and effectively indicated that if there are to be any criminal charges, law enforcement will have to take the initiative.
      James referred to Cuomo violating federal and state laws, from her investigation’s point of view, and she means civil laws against harassment and retaliation.
      There is also a chance that if Cuomo doesn’t resign – as he shows no indication of doing at this point – that he could be impeached at the state level.

      1.24pm EDT
      13:24

      Joanna Walters

      Andrew Cuomo said in an address from the New York state capital of Albany that he has put out his own report on his website, countering allegations leveled at him a little earlier by state attorney general Letitia James that he has harassed multiple women.
      “Over the past several months you have heard a number of complaints brought against me….it has been a hard and painful period for me and my family, especially as others feed ugly stories to the press.”
      He continued: “But I cooperated with the review and I can now finally share the truth. My attorney, who is a non-political former federal prosecutor has done a response to each allegation and the facts are much different than what has been portrayed. That document is on my website.”
      Cuomo asked the public to look and decide for themselves.
      “I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances. I am 63-years-old, I have lived my entire adult life in public view. That is just not who I am and that is not who I have ever been.”

      Bloomberg Quicktake
      (@Quicktake)
      Cuomo: “I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances. That is just not who I am” https://t.co/5gMbotH34x pic.twitter.com/gkw1qd1loK

      August 3, 2021

      The contrast between Cuomo’s blanket denials and James’s toe-curling allegations is breathtaking.

      Updated
      at 1.25pm EDT More

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Contempt for the unvaccinated is a temptation to be resisted | Dan Brooks

      by

      OpinionCoronavirusContempt for the unvaccinated is a temptation to be resistedDan BrooksThe narrative of a dangerously ignorant minority may appeal, but it is not good for democracy Mon 2 Aug 2021 11.50 EDTLast modified on Mon 2 Aug 2021 13.38 EDTThe Covid-19 pandemic was the perfect disaster for our cultural moment, because it made other people being wrong on the internet a matter of life and death.My use of the past tense here is aspirational. The emergence of the more contagious Delta variant threatens to undo a lot of progress – particularly here in the US, where active cases of coronavirus infection are up 149% from two weeks ago. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that fully vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in public spaces. The hope that this summer would mark our return to normal is curdling fast, and the enlightened majority – the fact-based, Facebook-sceptical, and fully vaccinated – are looking for someone to blame.A moralist might argue that the Delta variant is poetic justice in light of the US government’s reluctance to provide free vaccines to places such as India, where it first emerged. The notion that doses should be saved for Americans or exported at profit was selfish and shortsighted, and now the chickens (germs) have come home to roost (sickened millions). But this sort of pitiless self-recrimination is so old-fashioned. The modern person prefers to lay blame where it rests more comfortably: on other, dumber people. Take this tweet from a sportswriter, which implied that the people of Alabama – where the vaccination rate lingers at about 34% – would get the jab if the alternative meant no American football. Such remarks often play on the association between the American south and a certain type of person: culturally conservative, frequently undereducated, more interested in sports on TV than pandemics in the newspaper. This person, a kind of back-formation from various statistical trends, has become a familiar scapegoat during the coronavirus pandemic. They represent the obstinate minority – 30% of adults in the US – whose refusal to get vaccinated threatens to mess up the recovery for the rest of us.This narrative, which has become especially popular among American liberals, excoriates imaginary dummies instead of confronting the problems that have discouraged people from getting the jab. These problems include an employer-based healthcare system that favours professionals with permanent jobs and makes it difficult for many Americans to form trusting relationships with doctors. According to Kaiser Health News, the demographic with the lowest vaccination rate in the United States is uninsured people under the age of 65. The difficulty of reaching this group has been compounded by a world-historical explosion of misinformation and a political culture bent on pandering to it.The insistence, among the Republican leadership in the spring of 2020, that Covid-19 was a glorified version of the flu guaranteed that responses to the pandemic would shake out along political and, therefore, cultural lines. In places such as Alabama, not getting the vaccine has more to do with socio-economic identity than with scientific literacy. This is a fatal flaw in the reasoning of unvaccinated people, who are absolutely wrong in a way that endangers not only themselves but also others. But given the haughty reaction of many liberals, can you blame them? Even as the cost of their obstinacy has become grimly clear, the cost of admitting they were wrong has risen; to get the vaccine now would be to kowtow to a class that holds them in contempt. The notion that a vocal minority of our fellow citizens threaten to undo us with their ignorance has become something of a master narrative in anglophone democracies over the past five years. Trump did it for a lot of American Democrats in 2016, and Brexit – which, unlike Trump, won popular support at the polls but, like Trump, was overwhelmingly opposed by the urban and higher-educated – had a similar effect in the UK. The current Republican mania for making voting more difficult seems to be a product of Trump’s loss in November. Last week, a Pew Research Center poll found that 42% of respondents agreed with the statement: “Voting is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and can be limited.” This attitude is fundamentally incompatible with democracy.Don’t blame young people for vaccine hesitancy. The vast majority of us want to get jabbed | Lara SpiritRead moreThe belief that the masses are fundamentally decent and capable of governing themselves – or at least qualified to select leaders capable of governing for them – has been badly dented by social media, which confronts us with the ignorance of strangers at high volume every day. Basic forms of empathy, emerging from real-life communication, are fading from modern democracy, washed out of our assessment of the average stranger by a high-pressure spray of anonymous idiots on the internet.I think we should resist the urge to hold the unvaccinated in contempt. Their premises are wrong, but they are doing what we want citizens in a democracy to do: thinking for themselves, questioning authority, refusing to submit to a class they perceive as bent on ruling them by fiat. The fact that they are doing these things in the service of dangerous misinformation is a terrible irony, and it threatens the stability of 21st-century democracy.Covid-19 might be the most convincing counterargument to the western liberal tradition we see in our lifetimes. It offers a counterexample to two foundational ideas: that ordinary people can recognise their own best interests, and that the minority who do not can be afforded their freedom without endangering the rest of us. A plague is one of those classic exceptions that appears in the literature of political science again and again. I don’t know if existing systems can withstand it. I do know that, like a marriage, a democracy can survive anything but contempt.
      Dan Brooks writes essays, fiction and commentary from Missoula, Montana
      TopicsCoronavirusOpinionInfectious diseasesUS politicsVaccines and immunisationHealthcommentReuse this content More