The American Medical Association (AMA) is calling on the “public and private sectors” to require people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, arguing making vaccination mandatory is “key to getting control of the pandemic,” The Hill reported on Tuesday, August 24, 2021 (read story here).
The organization’s leader called on the public to “listen to the science,” and warned the pandemic could drag out for “years” unless a “significant percentage” of Americans are vaccinated. Currently, about half the U.S. adult populated is, well below the threshold considered necessary for containing the virus’ spread.
The day before, Dr. Fauci told a TV reporter the U.S. could have the pandemic “under control” by next spring if the public was “overwhelmingly vaccinated.” (See that story here.)
President Biden has ordered federal employees and military personnel to get vaccinated. Many big companies and major universities also are mandating vaccinations. Customers of businesses also are facing mandates.
With the FDA’s approval of Pfizer’s vaccine on August 23, and similar approvals of other vaccines almost sure to follow, a pharmaceutical trade publication predicted (here) that vaccine mandates will expand.
Most of these mandates have loopholes, where people with religious or medical objections can substitute frequent testing and mask wearing for vaccination.
Crackdowns on resistance are accelerating, and making news. Last month, a New Jersey hospital fired 6 noncomplying supervisory employees (story here); and last week, the University of Virginia “disenrolled” 49 noncomplying students from fall classes (story here), a miniscule fraction of its 25,000+ student body.
Many vaccine refusers who say they don’t trust science or doctors readily buy into misinformation about the vaccines, and in some cases believe blatantly ridiculous conspiracy theories. In extreme cases, some individuals have resorted to dangerous self-remedies; for example, last week the FDA issued a warning against people taking drugs intended for livestock, saying, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” (See story here.)
Not surprisingly, they’re becoming butts of ridicule and jokes, and are being called stupid and ignorant. YouTube videos abound of vaccine resisters making absolute fools of themselves on camera. But vaccine resisters also include trained nurses and other obviously intelligent people. And while vaccines and vaccination mandates are a heated political issues, and many resisters are Trump supporters, this isn’t about loyalty to Trump, who was booed for urging a rally crowd to get vaccinated (see story here).
So clearly something beyond stupidity and ignorance is driving vaccine resistance.
In Montana, a Republican leader wrote in an op-ed (here) that “I’ve found very few people who are intentionally wrong. A majority of anti-vaxxers, I think, are resentful of all COVID-19 related requirements. Their concept of personal liberty is being threatened by the broader consideration of the public interest.” He also noted, “They frequently have deeply held religious beliefs.”
Psychology Today identified six motivations of vaccine resistance: (1) distrust of vaccines, (2) seeing getting vaccinated as riskier than taking their chances with the disease, (3) a strong desire for personal choice, (4) confirmation bias in believing information, (5) media coverage that magnifies vaccine risks, and (6) “causality illusions,” i.e., people linking unrelated occurrences (infertility, cancer, etc.) to the vaccines. (See article here.)
There’s no way on earth you can persuade people locked into false beliefs or overblown fears to change their minds; outreach has to be aimed at the persuadable. At the same time, you can’t force people at gunpoint to get vaccinated; that’s not an approach to be contemplated in our society and culture. What other options are there? Doing nothing is one, but that entails very high costs in lost lives and economic disruption; clearly, we’re better off to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
The federal government has provided incentives by making vaccinations free and readily available (now that the initial scramble for shots is over). At state levels, Republican governors have fought against Covid-19 safety measures throughout the pandemic, blunting the effectiveness of public policy, and nothing can be done about that.
Increasingly, the private sector is taking the lead in trying to defeat the virus, and things appear to be headed in a direction of keeping the unvaccinated away from the rest of us. This often involves barring them from workplaces, classrooms, and public facilities. At the end of the day, their motivations really don’t matter; they have no right to mingle with us, or put us at risk. If this is one-sided, they’re the ones who chose to be selfish.