Almost 30 million Americans have contracted Covid-19. More than 540,000 have died. Yet still, a substantial number of folks doubt those numbers. They doubt that mask mandates, lockdowns, and school closings are necessary. They doubt that vaccines should be imposed on them, because they have a right…to their doubts.
Apparently, no one they care about has died. No one close to them is suffering from mysterious lingering symptoms. No one should be concerned that variants of the virus are causing surges in illness and death around the globe. Apparently, no one they don’t personally know matters. They believe they have a right to think and do as they choose.
I lean toward the feeling of a recent online correspondent: I’m glad I’m old. That is, I don’t have to look too far into the future and face up to the consequences of other people’s doubts and rights.
When I was a girl, I saw pictures in, say, LIFE Magazine, of children confined—perhaps for life?—in large steel tubes with only their heads exposed. These machines were called “iron lungs.” They enabled people afflicted with polio to breathe. Perhaps today’s version is a respirator: less bulky, but no less restrictive.
When I was a girl, scientists perfected a vaccine for polio. We lined up in school to take a sugar cube soaked with a pinkish liquid on our tongues. As far as I know, all children still receive this vaccine. Polio doesn’t happen to American children anymore, because, well, a vaccine. Similarly, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, and a handful of other diseases no longer kill, disable, and disfigure children. Will those folks claiming their right to avoid vaccination for Covid-19 extend their doubts and rights to these other immunizations as well?
Covid-19 and its variants will not go away. Many of us still welcome our annual “flu shot” which helps mitigate the possibility of serious illness from whatever variant of the “ordinary flu” happens to come along that year. The protection isn’t perfect. Mother Nature is clever at creating new attacks on human life. I’m not required to get that flu shot by the government; but organizations I volunteer with insist on it—not necessarily for my protection, but surely for the protection of those I help and serve. Doesn’t this seem like common sense, common decency, common human compassion? Whatever happened to those values in today’s America?
I’ve always claimed to believe in Human Rights. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and others more specific, are enshrined in the US Constitution with its Bill of Rights. Now it seems that “my” rights and “their” rights clash daily in the headlines, sometimes with violence, and sometimes via legislation or judicial decisions. Do human beings really have rights? Possibly not.
All ancient wisdom texts contain a variation on this saying: Do not do to someone else what you would not want them to do to you.
Now…imagine. (Human beings are the only animals, as far as we know, who have the power to imagine.)
Imagine that you personally know every victim, every refugee, every criminal, every corpse.
What are your rights?
The right to swing my virus ends well before your nose, to paraphrase a common saying.
Unfortunately, reason doesn’t seem to work with the anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, anti-just about-anything based on logic, research and definitely compassion for others. They bask in their defiance. Some people on their deathbeds from COVID are still convinced of the “hoax.” This is beyond baffling; it may be a kind of madness.
Thank you again, Barb, for this clear and cogent post. It often feels that millions of Americans have lost their minds, and as Tina posted, it is “beyond baffling.” The human brain is a fascinating thing – we make a(n uninformed) choice and then gather evidence to support that choice – sometimes violently defending it, against any rational or logical information. The rise in the Q-anon Moms, for example… our polarized media outlets feed it (bringing them great profit). The algorithms in social media are designed to divide us (outrage and anger fuels activity/hits, which also brings in profits). Sigh.
Mask-wearing, vaccinated reader here, but I must defend my right to doubt– to lack confidence in something that I may be being told. Using your example of COVID, how many different positions have the authorities like Dr. Fauci taken on masks? Masks aren’t necessary, wear a mask, wear three masks. After months of “six feet of separation,” we’re now hearing that a three foot distance is adequate. Social distancing deniers are outed while migrants at the border are hidden. All of the conflicting information we receive just fuels our doubts.
Even in the face of scientific certainty: water boils at 212 degrees Farenheit, we have to also know that it’s at sea level when water boils at that temperature. If we only know the first part (and are never exposed to the second part) and we live in Denver, we’re likely to doubt the “science” when our water is boiling at 202 degrees. So incomplete information can fuel our doubts.
I’ll leave the third kind of information– disinformation or misinformation– for another time. Rachel alludes to it in her post. Is there any media outlet that doesn’t tell you what to think about the “news” that’s being reported?
So should I give up my right to doubt? No way. Should we cease to doubt, we are likely to lose all of our rights. And, in the meantime, I will wear my mask and encourage others to do the same. Just because I may doubt what the COVID experts may be saying, I still maintain respect for others. And that is really Barbara’s point here.