It may be small, but I was supposed to do some actual travel this weekend. Not "visit relatives" travel (I love my relatives, particularly the ones who might be reading this article, but there's a difference between spending the weekend at someone's house & getting to spend the weekend sightseeing, and I think we'd all admit that you need both), but actual "bucket list" style travel, getting to road trip to a few presidential libraries that I have been daydreaming about for over a year. It was the first time I'd get to have a head-clearing, genuine vacation since September of 2019 (which, while fun, was a bit of a bummer of a vacation since I ended up getting pneumonia by the end of it that I fought for like six weeks in the remainder of the fall).
That, unfortunately, is not happening now, and I can tell you exactly why-the Truman Library had to close not for renovations or because I didn't buy tickets far enough in advance, but because of Covid-19 rates. Missouri has become one of the epicenters of the Covid-19 Delta Variant breakouts that have been popping up around the United States in the past few weeks as we start to see a similar song and dance (i.e. Baton Rouge saying in the past 24 hours that their hospital beds are at capacity), and because of the low vaccination rates in the state, I wasn't able to see the museum. As I was only budgeted to do this trip if I see both of the museums (I can't just go and do something else, since the primary point was seeing the Truman Library), I had to cancel the trip, with my much-needed break delayed another month (and with nervous eyes on the two trips I have scheduled later this year, and whether they too will be dashed by Covid-19).
In the grand scope of things, this is not the end of the world. I have (knock on wood) been quite lucky during the Covid-19 pandemic, all things considered. I have not, to date, gotten Covid-19, and while one loved one got Covid during the pandemic, for him it was nothing more than a mild flu (and no one else close to me suffered from it, though obviously I knew more people than that who got the illness). I have not suffered economic unemployment or underemployment during the pandemic, and I don't work in a job where I was forced to go out in the public on a regular basis. I was not an essential worker, I am not a medical provider, and I'm not a postal worker-I didn't have the year some people did.
But...this is a personal blog so I do bring here my own perspective, and I am genuinely, horrendously mad at this point...I really, really needed this vacation in a way I have struggled to put into words, which is odd for me as I write daily. I'm shallow enough to admit that while I was mad before, my vacation getting cancelled was, in fact, the straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back. I have spent most of the past few months flabbergasted at the sheer lunacy of people not getting vaccinated in the United States, and how disproportionately large the number of people who saw a clear lifeboat off of this sinking ship we call Covid-19, and they were like, "I'd prefer to take my chance in the water, and maybe try to tip over your boat while I'm at it." There are lots of excuses, and some people will admit that empathy or understanding might be the best conversation starter with vaccine lenient people, but I am not a medical provider and I am not a politician and I am not a public health official-it is not my job to get some random stranger vaccinated, or to hold them accountable if they don't. I am VERY proud (and relieved) that every person I interact with in my personal life has gotten the vaccine. Some excitedly, some nervously, some even reluctantly, but they all saw the situation and said "it is better for me to be part of this solution than to put my family & community at risk by not getting vaccinated," and so they got their shot. So I am kind of at my wit's end about how to support this cataclysm, and which is why I am very excited to see vaccine mandates becoming a thing.
The other aspect is-it puts the onus on the non-vaccinated population, rather than the vaccinated population, to take care of the problem. This has not been the case for most of the pandemic. Those who were more cautious about Covid were the ones being asked to carry much of the load-by socially distancing or wearing masks, they were limiting the spread while others (the eventual antivaxxers) were more likely to ignore the rules of the pandemic & spread the disease. By bringing back mask mandates & closing down establishments, the onus remains on these people-but they already did the solution. They already did their part to solve the pandemic. It should now be up to the people who didn't get vaccines to feel the pain of this pandemic, and the only way to do that is by requiring the vaccine to do extemporaneous activities.
No one should be forced to get a vaccine, but there's a big difference between being "forced" to do something and being deprived of special rights as a result of not getting the vaccine. I am fully supportive, for example, of Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to ban non-vaccinated people from bars & entertainment venues in New York City. It seems logical to extend this, in my opinion, to airports, museums, amusement parks, concert venues, & basically anything that isn't something that they are legally required access to (like a voting place or a government building) or something that is a common good that you genuinely can't live without (essentially, pharmacies, grocery stores, or medical facilities). Those who protest should remember that vaccines are regularly required for international travel or to enter most colleges-why should this be different? Freedom of speech means you can't be legally prosecuted for anything you say-it doesn't mean that you aren't responsible for what you say. The same needs to start applying to the antivaxxer movement.
I also don't have a problem with employers requiring this. Again, this is not new-I had to submit to a drug test for my last two jobs. I have to take a vision test when I go to the DMV. The logic behind both these decisions is the same-it's definitely an employer or organization demanding I submit to a medically-vetted process in order to gain access to a voluntary public good. If you don't want to get vaccinated, you can find another job in the same way if you don't pass your drug test you have to find another job or if you can't pass your vision test you need to wear prescriptive lenses to drive. That you don't like this choice doesn't mean that you don't have a choice-your constitutional or legal rights have not been violated here.
Exemptions should be made, but only for people who are immunocompromised or people under 12 who can't legally get the shot. I doubt you can claim a "religious exemption" at the DMV if you don't want to take an eye exam or don't want to wear a seatbelt while you drive-the same logic should be in play here. Some will claim "slippery slope" but generally "slippery slope" arguments are from people who want an excuse to not do the right thing. The logic is there-the vaccine is the solve to a pandemic, one that our economy & our collective humanity cannot sustain. The economic fallout from the pandemic continuing another year (which is what will happen if we don't solve this via a vaccine) is mind-blowing (mass unemployment, entire sectors of economies totally bereft & potentially gone forever, life savings destroyed), and the human toil is excruciating (obviously more death & hospitalization, but also potentially breaking an already strapped medical industry that has been asked to put up with a lot more than they ever should've been expected to in the past year, and certainly they shouldn't be demanded to put up with more if there's an obvious solution).
There are no other answers here-any answer other than vaccine is either wishful thinking or foolishness brought on by trying to cater to people who simply don't want a solution. We have had enough of that in the last year-it is time for the people who are causing the pandemic to own the responsibility for it continuing, and as rewards aren't enough (once Americans start to turn down a free donut, it's hard to imagine anything else to entice them...and I say that as an American who loves a donut), it's time for punishments, ones that are within the legal authority of the government to implement. If Americans aren't willing to get a shot to save their lives or the lives of their fellow countrymen, we can't force them to end the pandemic. But they shouldn't get to party at Disneyland while the rest of us suffer.
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