But This Is No Game
Despite the “United” States having a monumental vaccine readiness head start, we watched Canada surpass its neighbor in mid-July for percent of the population becoming fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As of the beginning of August, Canada became the leading nation in the world for share of the population fully vaccinated. As a U.S. citizen living in Canada, how could I not feel pride in my adopted nation (and further justification at having forsaken my land of birth)? Then it got even better: François Legault announced on August 5 that Quebec will implement a vaccine passport system of some kind.
Although Canada wins the gold on this front, gloating isn’t a useful response to the crisis down south. Trying to understand the cultural differences between the two nations that lead to this scenario is more functional for everyone. While there’s no single factor to blame when examining the unvaccinated population, we know a major contributor to Murica’s culture of failure. Pathological individualism (modeled best by Trumpists) is readily apparent as pivotal for one of these two neighboring nations doing better.
Canada opened the border on August 9
The COVID-19 / delta variant news from our southern neighbor reveals a worsening situation. Some Canadians are questioning why the border was opened up to Americans on August 9 when [1] Biden did not reciprocate, and [2] Canada continues to outpace the U.S. in % of population vaccinated. At least the barrier to entry is higher than pre-pandemic due to enhanced public health measures. Details about the requirements are of course available on the federal website.
If you are a fully vaccinated traveller, you are exempt from quarantine, hotel stopover (for air travellers), and a day-8 testing requirement. At the border you will need to show your proof of vaccination, your pre-entry COVID-19 test results, and your ArriveCAN receipt. What is ArriveCAN? It’s a free app available for iPhone and Android (or desktop) that you’ll need to submit your information into within 72 hours before your arrival to Canada. Forbes wrote a piece about ArriveCAN in June. Canada wins the gold for accountability too — leastways in the Western Hemisphere.
It’s better to regret what you have done than what you haven’t
A representative sample of quotes from summer news clippings:
I was told something that I should’ve listened to before: ‘Stop being selfish‘…”
— Payten McCall, who lost unvaccinated family members to the pandemic
My mom and fiancé, their last wish was for me to get vaccinated.”
I will always regret that I listened to the misinformation being put out there. They’re creating fear. I was part of a problem that I was trying to avoid.”
— Mindy Greene, whose husband is in the ICU of the Utah Valley Hospital
I should have gotten the damn vaccine.”
— deathbed text of Michael Freedy, 39, father of five
he would have made sure everyone knew how serious this disease is, and how important the vaccine is.”
—Christy Carpenter, mother of deceased 28-year-old
If I get the vaccine now, could I not go on the ventilator?”
— COVID-19 patients at Baptist Medical Center in Florida
Every day we see more stories of regret from the unvaccinated who have had a brush with death or who have succumbed to COVID-19. Other unvaccinated, however, are candidates for the Darwin Award. COVID-19 landed them in the hospital, yet they vow not to get vaccinated; some even refuse to believe that they were afflicted with the virus. Earlier this year we saw a period when tens of millions of vaccinated North Americans were trying to be understanding of their “vaccine hesitant” compatriots. But patience has its limits, especially when the malice behind some of the resistance becomes widely known.
Losing Patients and Losing Patience
Earlier this summer was a period when tens of millions of vaccinated North Americans were trying to be understanding of their “vaccine hesitant” compatriots. But patience has its limits, especially when the malice behind some of the resistance becomes widely known. Physicians and nurses, many of whom got into medicine because of their compassionate nature, witness far more COVID-19 suffering and death than the rest of us. At some point even healthcare workers lose compassion for North Americans who are eligible for the vaccines yet refuse to get them.
There are just hundreds of man-hours that will be spent on one individual who, if he’d made a different decision a couple of months ago, wouldn’t be in the hospital.”
— Meredith Duke, surgeon at Vanderbilt
What makes me the maddest is that these people will reject science right until the second they need everything I have to keep them alive.”
— stated a colleague of physician Chavi Karkowsky
To many medical providers working today, the rejection of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines feels like a giant “Fuck you” from 29 percent of American adults.”
— Chavi Karkowsky
Apologists for the unvaccinated
As we know, the mass media likes sensational stories, which often leads to stereotypes via unrepresentative samples of the population. Fanatical anti-vaccination contingents around the globe provide for provocative headlines, but these nutters don’t represent people who are simply “vaccine hesitant” (i.e., not adamantly in opposition).
In the spirit of fairness you may want to read an interview with pediatrician Rhea Boyd titled America Is Getting Unvaccinated People All Wrong. In an even more forceful defense, you could listen to (or read the transcript of) the Gaslit Nation podcast episode Hold Onto Your Humanity, reminding us that:
the category of “the unvaccinated” includes people who were hesitant to take the vaccine for a broad array of reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with who they vote for, or their political allegiances, or their interest in QAnon, or all of the very simplistic explanations that have been dominating social media and have led to people engaging in eugenecist rhetoric, secessionist rhetoric, “everyone in a red state needs to die” sort of rhetoric. The kind of thing that I think you wouldn’t abide if it was happening to you.”
— Sarah Kendzior of Gaslit Nation
Mary Mallon, the latest Republican heroine / martyr
“What in the hell is wrong with people down there?” is a question most Canadians have been asking for decades. Peak cringe was reached during the putrid tenure of the nation’s recent one-term POTUS, yet the most toxic and deadly of recent political dogma did not become full-throated until 2021. We’ve finally reached a critical mass where only the willfully ignorant can’t see how anti-vaccination campaigns have ravaged the countryside, destroying families and futures.
The virus is here to stay, and we will all be exposed to it. But the whole point of public health is to mitigate the havoc of a highly contagious virus. Some folks still haven’t gotten the memo: vaccination is a courtesy to your compatriot as much as it is a tool of self-preservation. We are seeing that in the “United” States, these days politics easily trumps both courtesy and self-preservation. Mary Mallon [Typhoid Mary] is presumably a cautionary tale, yet millions of Muricans seem to be interpreting her as a role model.