Vaccine reluctance & General COVID Discussion

[JBStillFlying]

@shawbridge

More importantly, the fact that some states allow for religious exemptions to vaccinations does not take you off the hook for responding to the broader argument that the state does indeed limit what you can and can’t put in your body (alcohol, heroin, etc.). That is my point. Whatever the asserted right is, it is not absolute.

I’m not aware of any laws restricting alcohol intake unless under 21 or operating a vehicle, piece of equipment, etc. Not up on my heroin laws - the drug obviously is illegal but don’t the feds usually bust the dealers and not the users? Perhaps you can educate here. Not sure one needs to argue about “absolutes” - we generally respect someone’s right to decline medical treatment in this country. On the other hand, the public good must be considered due to the highly infectious nature of the virus, and employers have generally been able to mandate the flu vax (I believe there must be accommodations for religious and medical but not aware of the details there).

@shawbridge

Second, I agree that the hypocrisy goes both ways (that’s why I included the vice versa). You said, “That is a freedom that is quite respected in this country, as we all know.” It seems to me like neither the right nor the left respect that freedom when it applies to others doing something they don’t like. Hence, it is hard to agree with your statement that this as a well-respected freedom.

I tend to agree with most of this, but when it comes to autonomy over what is put in one’s body, the country has become increasingly libertarian, don’t you think? The recent trend to decriminalize marijuana or legalizing assisted suicide would just the latest example. So yes, I believe that the populace is increasingly recognizing this autonomy as a “right.” Certainly the arguments “pro” would claim that.

@shawbridge

Finally, it seems that you are making my point. The vast preponderance of people arguing against the vaccine are doing so for political/tribal reasons, not religious reasons or because of a fundamental concern from freedom. There is no doubt an extremely small number of people for whom a sincere religious conviction that actually is violated by vaccination or a medical condition that prevents vaccination, but my sense is that the folks who legitimately qualify under those two exemptions are a tiny fraction of those who object to mandates or even of those who will seek exemptions.

On another (but related) thread, I estimated that when it came to vaccine hesitancy, the percentage of those who are white evangelicals is approximately equal to the number of POC’s.

Colleges in the 2021-2022 Academic Year & Coronavirus (Part 2)

It’s so disheartening, especially reading about evangelicals leading the protest against vaccination/masking/etc. I grew up in an evangelical community (no longer involved but will occasionally attend mainstream (Protestant) church service) and while I now see that my church was a fair bit out of the mainstream, no one back then was peddling misinformation, conspiracy theories and taking a “do or die” stance on something as trivial (in the grand scheme of potential personal intrusions) as masking (particularly since many evangelical churches in my community were involved in relief efforts abroad and knew what constituted real hardship). Evangelicals of all races make up about 25% of the US population. Using a recent estimate of vaccine hesitancy for “white” Evangelicals, and making the sweeping assumption that the same would apply to Evangelicals of all races uniformly (which it does not), that translates into no more than 6% of the country. Should we really be hyper-focused on tha…

Most likely both groups have distinct reasons for their hesitancy one from another, but perhaps some overlapping concerns. My guess is that, similar to 2020, vaccine hesitancy has more to do with distrust of the people in charge than anything else. Also, our vaccines usually go through several years (not several months) of real-time observation before reaching the scale of the Covid-vaccinated today. That does seem a bit “rushed” to some people I know, but it also underscores the overwhelming demand for the vaccine in the first place. We have to keep this in mind. Many here are frustrated with the minority of the country that doesn’t see things their way, instead of marveling at the number of US citizens vaccinated right now.