I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, recently. Actually, I am pretty always thinking about everything all of the time.1 But, recently, I’ve been wondering where, how, and when all of this will end. Where is the point at which this all breaks?
COVID at My House
Twelve days ago, my daughter (16) tested positive for COVID. She started feeling sick on Saturday; we took her in to get tested on Sunday. The (positive) results came back by the late-morning on Monday. This was a surprise as all of us are fully vaccinated.2 Once she tested positive, the rest of us quickly got tested to see if we, too, were infected. Luckily, all of our tests came back negative. But, within a day or two, my wife started feeling sick, and decided to get tested again … positive this time.3 So, my wife moved into my daughter’s bedroom on Thursday of last week, and the two have been in there ever since. My daughter’s quarantine period ended yesterday. My wife is still locked away until Sunday.4
Shortly after finding out about my wife’s diagnosis, I went on to Facebook and threw a bit of a fit. I said something about how I felt this was entirely the refuse-to-be-vaccinated people’s fault, that I didn’t care about their reasons for being so insistent upon not getting vaccinated. Again, I don’t entirely regret what I said, though I could have been more artful in the way I framed it.5 A few people tried to call me out for casting such a wide aspersion, and some were right, but I was tired and frustrated and I feel like we’re all allowed to be pissed off and extra-salty from time to time.
What options do we have?
Also, I am not sure I was completely out of line, honestly. My delivery was certainly less than ideal, but the kernels behind what I was getting at are real.
Firstly, it’s important that we all understand how vaccines work, how all vaccines work. Vaccines don’t make it impossible to catch any given illness, but they do reduce the chances … usually by quite a lot. Even more importantly, vaccines are designed to be a communal solution; they are most effective when everyone has been inoculated against said illness. This is why it is recommended (even required) to be re-vaccinated against some diseases when you visit certain developing countries; in that part of the world, most people aren’t vaccinated against the disease, so your likelihood of contracting it—despite your vaccination—goes up quite a bit. So, for every unvaccinated person walking around amongst us, my inoculation against COVID-19 becomes less effective. This doesn’t mean the vaccine doesn’t work. This is how all vaccines work!
Secondly, there’s the “individual.” The more I have thought about this, the more I am convinced that the idea of an “individual” is a myth. I have a few reasons for this belief, but it mostly stems from the fact that none of us live isolated from those around us. Our actions affect others. Full stop.6 Thus, any discussion about “individual rights” might be shakier than we tend to think.
Thirdly, what are we supposed to do when a path forward is presented and a sizable enough chunk of the population refuses to follow it? According to most of the commentary I have seen, it crosses lines to require folks to get vaccinated through legislation and we can’t require it through commerce (some sort of vaccine “passport,” without which one couldn’t participate in much of society). I saw a video of Rand Paul (someone whose opinion I generally don’t care to hear, but for the sake of argument, I’ll tack it on, here) telling us all to try “persuasion” instead of “coercion,” but what are we left with after that fails (and we can’t “force” the issue, for a variety of reasons [see above])? All we are really left with, it seems, is public mockery and shaming of those that are obstinate in their refusal to be responsible. In fact, this is precisely what my Libertarian/anarcho-capitalist “friends” say is the answer to virtually every societal ills—through social pressure we can make life unbearably inconvenient for scofflaws … this will work more effectively than legislation, they say. But, when I do just this, try to publicly shame the anti-vaccine crowd, I am called to repentance for not showing empathy.
Fourthly, yes, we should all have more empathy. But, insisting that the rest of the world continue to wait for you to come around, is asking quite a lot. You can’t get all that upset when we all decide we’ve lost our patience and we’re “done” waiting. Life very much could go back to normal if enough people would get on board, yet, here we are, still struggling to keep our heads above water despite there being a perfectly good boat within sight.
A Breaking Point?
Growing up Mormon, I would hear lots of talk about a time when the US Constitution would “hang by a thread” and some Mormon guy would swoop in and save everything. I always found this folklore-doctrine to be kind of funny. I don’t think that particular scenario is likely, but, I am curious when, how, why this will all end. It all seems like everything is pretty rickety at the moment. Has this pandemic infected our brains as well?
The Greeks’ experiments with democracy only lasted about 200 years. Will the US’s “experiment” with democracy last any longer?7
Here, I’m alive! ↩︎
I know the vaccine is not a “guarantee” that you won’t get infected. But, I certainly didn’t think we would be one of the “breakthrough cases” we hear about. ↩︎
It is likely the first round of tests we all took was too soon. The CDC recommends waiting 5–7 after exposer to get tested. But when you live with the infected party, it’s hard to know exactly who you were “exposed.” ↩︎
After my wife’s positive test, my son and I tested again; still negative. ↩︎
The fact is, I was pissed, and I simply didn’t care around who I threw a net of “blame” in the process. ↩︎
This is the root of where most (all?) of my disagreements with “Libertarians,” “anarcho-capitalists,” and other much-futher-to-the-right-than-me political philosophies lies. So much of that worldview depends upon an insistence upon “individualism,” and I simply don’t think that exists. ↩︎
Cue the guy who will tell us something about how the US isn’t really a democracy, but a democratic republic. ↩︎