I’m tired again. I had a bit of a reprieve for a few weeks, but the exhaustion has settled back in and the world’s ills have taken hold, so here I am writing on my couch sinking into myself, heavy with the weight of how things never seem to change enough. Depleted. Annoyed. Disappointed.
The hustle and bustle of work life has me thinking about all of the things I’ve been reading and talking about when it comes to capitalism and people being trapped in an unhealthy cycle of production <—>exhaustion. How capitalism has taken a hold of us all in ways that are damaging and deep.
I was just chatting with a friend last night and as we both lamented the human race and how naive we felt for believing things would drastically change, I began to feel silly about the hopefulness I once felt. The new presidency hasn’t yielded the types of changes and actions that would give me any inclination that new management truly cares about the people in this country. Why? Because there is still no national lockdown though numbers are skyrocketing and the variant is spreading. I haven’t heard any mention about pandemic payments to offset the financial instability countless people are facing. There is still no national mask mandate, and it took a small handful of congresspeople sleeping outside of the Capital to extend the eviction moratorium. Covid is till being woefully mishandled and there is still zero accountability.
This brings me to the way the conversation around the vaccine has been framed. It’s completely devoid of nuance. Dumb vs. Smart. Informed vs. Clueless. These types of dichotomies that reduce people to names without thought. As if there are no subtleties whatsoever in the population of people who don’t want to get vaccinated.
So yeah, it’s not super productive to lump everyone into one category and not try and understand what some of the reasons are behind vaccine hesitancy. Let’s also examine the uncomfortable reality that these mandates are disproportionately affecting black and brown folks. It’s not this weird monolith of white Republicans in the south/midwest who are refusing the jab, which is also a strange, insulting narrative, but a multitude of different types of people from all walks of life for myriad reasons.
Instead of demonizing people who are not taking the vaccine, I believe we should try and understand where some of this refusal is stemming from. I’m going to list some of the reasons I’ve heard/seen below. I’ll split them into two categories:
Reasons that kinda make sense….
It Hasn’t Been FDA Approved
I Don’t Trust The Government/I Don’t Know What’s In It
I Don’t Feel Comfortable That I’m Being Forced To Take It
Reasons that are off the rails bonkers bananas…
It’s Really Just An Excuse for Microchipping
I Was Fed Too Much Disinformation (and Now I Can’t Turn Back)
Political Reasons - I’m Selfish and Don’t Care About Anyone Else
Most of those reasons in the first bunch are understandable. However, all of them are preventing people from taking vaccines, so instead of ascribing a “type” of person who is not taking the vaccine, I think it’s more important to tackle the above with a combination of facts, constructive conversation, and serious consequences. Some states are doing very well at the latter but not really having these important conversations, so it’s reinforcing the hesitations outlined above in one way or another. Convincing people to do something isn’t easy and the government knew before the vaccines were developed that there would be hesitancy. I remember hearing about it during you know who’s press conferences.
The pandemic has affected us all in so many different ways, but there are still many of us who have not seen this virus up close and how devastating it can be. I think it’s that severe lack of empathy, understanding, and direct connection to the way this illness ravages the body and rips people away from their families that is truly contributing to why a lot of people are clinging to conspiracy theories and refuting science. However, it’s also people not trusting a government that has proven numerous times before that it doesn’t care about low-income households, black and brown communities, anyone who isn’t a straight, rich cis man really. It’s this mistrust that fuels the resistance of a vaccine that seemingly “came out of nowhere” though it’s been in development for years BUT is still not FDA approved. Oh yes and people are clinging to the fact the vaccine hasn’t been officially approved and though I don’t believe the government is out to kill us all with a death serum disguised as a vaccine, I can understand how a number of these questionable factors (like calling the program to develop the vaccine operation warp speed) can contribute to crippling doubt.
What we need to extinguish this GLOBAL pandemic is to focus more pointedly on correcting misinformation, giving people money to stay home and closing up shop again until the numbers go down, and having an honest conversation about why people are not taking the vaccine. There needs to be a national plan and directives coming from the US Government to give states guidance and funds to inform and get people vaccinated. It seems so simple, but our government has failed yet again to put people living in America above capitalism and the economy.
My tiny sliver of hope is diminishing each day we continue on with these piecemeal solutions and with every mask-less moron in an indoor public place acting a fool. I’m clinging onto hope, but I could feel it steadily slipping away and my faith in humanity diminishing.
I also thought I would be okay working again, but that new job exuberance is wearing off and the world-on-fire reality is settling in. I need a break. We all do. We all also have to face that the way the workforce operates is no longer sustainable, but that’s a whole other conversation…
If you can and you’re ready, please get vaccinated and for the love of christ, wear a gd mask. This pandemic has the potential to go on for so much longer than necessary and has been going on so much longer than necessary. Hearing the sirens again. We can’t lose more people knowing there’s a way to stop it.