The CDC data on those who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccination are clear. They were 97 times more likely to get COVID-19 as compared to the fully vaccinated. Of those who got COVID (about 103 million in the US) and were admitted to hospitals, an estimated quarter of them ended up in the hospital ICU, the place for the sickest patients.
Now making one’s own decisions in life is a mark of pride for almost every adult. The fewer your choices, the less free you are. Having almost no choice as when one is confined in prison seems like the ultimate loss of freedom.
Or is it?
I would argue that being confined to a hospital bed for days or weeks, having one’s adult diapers changed or using a bedpan or catheter, being in pain and in respiratory distress (unable to breathe), being hooked up to tubes and machines, and being completely dependent on caregivers (almost like an infant) are far more confining and humbling than being in prison.
The vast majority of those who proudly claimed their independence by doubting the wisdom of medical authorities and avoiding vaccines were the ones that wound up in the ICU. Of the over one million people who died of COVID-19 in the US, the lucky ones had access to an ICU which improved their chances at survival. But “lucky” is a relative term here.
Those claiming to be most conservative who valued pride, independence, and freedom wound up experiencing the very opposite of what they valued in the ICU? And those who developed long COVID continue to be physically limited in many ways with fewer freedoms.
But some burning questions remain.
- Have these intentionally unvaccinated COVID ICU patients learned anything from their humbling and painful experience?
- Have they noted that the right-wing promised them one thing (freedom) and what they got was its very opposite (misery, confinement)?
- Have they gone back to their MAGA groups and told them they were deceived by right-wing media and their supposed friends and allies?
- Have they challenged those “authorities” who said the COVID vaccine was dangerous or did not work?
- Did they object to FOX news commentators telling them to “do their own research” on COVID when most people lacked scientific or biological training or even the most basic skills to do such research?
- Have they regained their confidence in medical science after seeing it attacked relentlessly by right-wing “influencers?”
- And finally, if those who got COVID and were intentionally unvaccinated have done none of these things, could their more rational family members step in and shout from the rooftops that their relative was a victim of right-wing misinformation about COVID and warn others to avoid these nakedly partisan right-wing political news sources in the future
Unfortunately, many intentionally unvaccinated COVID victims seem to have doubled down on medical disinformation and deception.
It’s like a major cultural learning event has been missed. Children learn not to play with matches, but spreading COVID misinformation was more like tinkering with an atomic bomb.
1500 people died on the Titanic, and we remember. 3000 died on 9/11 and we remember. 1,000,000 people (333 9/11 events) died of COVID, and no one seems to want to do a postmortem to assign blame and determine where it belongs even though a significant number of these deaths were preventable.
Perhaps, the jury is still out but so far there is not much evidence that any of the things on the above list have taken place. Some groups seem to be incapable of learning anything from their experience no matter how intense, painful, or even fatal. The lure of conspiracy theories and the desire to belong to a cohesive and loyal tribe is just too powerful and addictive.
Given the results of the recent election, and the changes in media sources such as X, the Washington Post, and Facebook, lies like the ones that targeted vaccines will become more prevalent. And so, the denial becomes fiercer, the disinformation spreads faster, the darkness draws closer, and unbiased sources of information become fewer as time passes.
We can only mourn the tsunami of unnecessary pain and death caused by misinformation and fear of vaccines and hope that the phrase “it is always darkest just before the dawn” applies in our contemporary confused world.
