Yesterday, news broke that several Phillies players were put on the COVID list, starting with Alec Bohm being on COVID protocol. Naturally, it didn't take long for people to jump on social media calling the players rednecks, MAGA supporters, selfish pieces of shit, and everything else. In a world currently dominated by tribalism, you are either on the side of the good guys or the bad guys. You're either someone who gets the vaccine or you're a "piece of shit southern redneck conservative." The world is not that simple, and if people aren't going to take the time to understand why so many Americans have decided not to get the vaccine, you are never going to be able to convince them to finally take the plunge.
There is the assumption that every single person who has decided against taking the vaccine are doing it for political reasons. A a recent survey has suggested that isn't the case and that many, if not most, Americans deciding against it have done so for apolitical reasons. That doesn't mean there aren't many Americans who have a hard line political stance on this issue. I'm sure there are. But maybe take the time to grasp why so many people may be vaccine hesitant.
Over the past year, much trust was lost in our nation's health experts, institutions, and political leaders. And for good reason. Many of them have lied on countless occasions to the American people on all issues involving COVID. First, Americans were told not to wear masks, and not only shouldn't they wear masks, but masks may increase your chances of getting COVID by giving you a false sense of security. I remember hearing that last year and wondering "What in the fucking hell am I listening to?" Of course masks work. They're worn in Southeast Asia regularly, even in non-pandemic times, and masks have existed since the 17th century to prevent the spread of disease. In fact, plague masks, with the long beaks, had those beaks as a built-in social distancing design to keep sick people out of your face. So people have been aware of masks and social distancing for literally hundreds of years. Yet, we have our nation's most prominent doctors and health experts telling people on national television not to wear masks, and then months later do a 180 and telling people not only to wear them, but it should be mandatory. Then later they all admitted they lied because they didn't want Americans hoarding masks and keeping them away from healthcare workers. Instead of being up front and honest with the public, and treating them like adults, they were deceitful and treated them like children.
Next, we had politicians putting strict lockdown measures in place, putting countless of Americans in dire financial straits, and putting untold restaurants and stores out of business. Yet, we have politicians across the country like Gavin Newsom, who had some of the nation's strictest lockdown policies, out partying and chumming it up at a 5 star Michelin restaurant with no mask, no social distancing. As well as many other politicians across the country caught doing the same. They can't even follow their own rules, yet they expect the American people not only to follow them, but not to lose trust in their guidance after having been lied to, as they're suffering financially.
It doesn't stop there. When people started protesting so they could go back to work and open up their businesses so they don't wind up homeless, they were ridiculed and demonized for being heartless monsters, that they're going to be responsible for killing someone's grandmother, and they need to go home and just obey orders. Meanwhile, people protesting social justice in the streets were lauded for doing the right thing with not an ounce of criticism. With inconsistent hypocritical messaging like that, it's not a good way to build trust with the people.
Even further, when official word finally came out from the CDC that outdoor spread was very low risk(after the data on this had been known for months), some politicians still refused to allow outdoor dining, something restaurants barely scraping buy could've used to boost their earnings rather than relying solely on takeout.
Lastly, for an entire year anyone who brought up the possibility that COVID could've leaked from the Wuhan lab was labeled a racist and a bigot, and those sentiments were censored and banned from most social media platforms, only for a year later for these same platforms to acknowledge what everyone else already knew it was entirely possible that COVID came from a lab.
We've had people in this country who have been lied to and misled over and over and over again, while struggling just to stay afloat, you should expect at least some of those people to say "You know, what? Screw it. I'm not listening to a word these people say anymore." Think about it this way. If you went to a doctor with a medical problem and they prescribed a certain medication, and then a month later they called you and said "Nevermind, don't take the medicine, it's not going to help you, I lied." Are you ever going to trust that doctor again? Would you ever even speak to that doctor again? I wouldn't.
I've been vaccinated. I'm as pro vaccine as it gets. Ever since I first found out about smallpox when I was in my early teens, I became fascinated with vaccines and the technology behind it, and learning about how they work. Having said that, I know not everyone is like me. Not everyone understands, and it's not always going to be political. Maybe someone knows an individual who got the vaccine and had a very bad reaction to it, but don't know anyone who had a bad COVID reaction and they're now scared to get the vaccine? Maybe after losing so much trust in our institutions, people believe that Big Pharma is using the pandemic to make their stocks go up and make billions of dollars. It's not like the American people had a lot of trust in Big Pharma before the pandemic started. Maybe after being told the vaccines were totally safe, cases of Myocarditis and Guillain Barre have scared people and are having them wonder what more issues could crop up down the road. My logic has always been that the risks of the vaccine are far smaller than COVID. That is why I chose to get the COVID vaccine. The severe reaction and mortality rate of COVID are much higher than that of the vaccine. However, do I know for certain that months or years down the road, health problems won't arise due to the vaccines? No, I don't. And I can sympathize with those who are worried about that even if logically I think it's the wrong decision.
Regardless, instead of shaming and insulting people, we need to start treating people like adults and being honest, and easing their fears. And leaders can't enact policy that they can't even follow themselves. You can't expect the people to trust and follow you if you can't even do what you ask of your own people. If you start leveling with people and start talking about the risks of the vaccine vs the risks of COVID, break down the data in a way that's understandable, and point out the rates in which there are bad reactions to one vs the other, I think more people would be taking the vaccine. The message isn't going to get across if the messenger sucks at their job, and boy have the messengers sucked at their jobs during the COVID pandemic. I can't think of a way we've butchered this crisis worse than from a PR perspective. You can ridicule individual vaccine-hesitant Americans all you want, but we have no one to blame but ourselves for causing this much distrust in the first place.
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