The unvaccinated: victims of prejudice
"He's going to get caught, just you wait and see.
'Why is everybody always picking on me?'"
The Coasters, "Charlie Brown," 1959
The unvaccinated feel picked on.
Vaccinations got defined as a matter of identity grievance, not a communicable disease.
They are victims, so they can't be dangerous. Right?
A lot of people feel they face prejudice: Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women, homosexuals, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, trans, seniors, the obese, and others.There is one new group: The unvaccinated.
Green Bay Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers is in the news this weekend. He is unvaccinated, having skirted NFL rules to protect the team and league by stating that he "was immunized." He said he didn't lie exactly; he just defined immunity in his own terms. He said his "immunity" consisted of following advice he got from Joe Rogan, which was to be in good shape, to take zinc and ivermectin, and to let your natural immune system protect you.
He tested positive for COVID. He is lashing back at the criticism he is getting for endangering his teammates and others. He said he is the victim of a "witch hunt," and is being put into a "cancel-culture casket."
Look, I'm not some sort of anti-vax, flat-earther. I am somebody who is a critical thinker, you guys know me. I march to my own drum. . ..
I realize I’m in the crosshairs of the woke mob right now. . .. I believe strongly in bodily autonomy and ability to make choices for your body: Not have to acquiesce to some woke culture or crazed group of individuals who say you have to do something.
I hear from readers of this blog who struggle to understand why people have dug in their heels on COVID vaccination. After all, those resisters have almost certainly been vaccinated against smallpox, polio, measles, chicken pox, rubella, hepatitis, and more. Why the resistance here?
Aaron Rodgers and the sign at the restaurant help explain it. The unvaccinated and their enablers are making a category error. Early messaging from Trump changed the category of COVID from one of the many communicable, infectious diseases, in which one's behavior is a matter of injury or death to others, into the category of identity and private choice, like race, religion, and sexual orientation. Trump's early messaging defined COVID as "just the flu" and warned not to let the cure be worse than the disease. Trump defined efforts to control spread as oppression from the dominant group--i.e. the government infectious disease worry-warts. American culture has an existing mental template this: Prejudice. People on both left and right are alert for discrimination, adverse profiling, aggressions and micro-aggressions. It is an idea out there in the zeitgeist. Victims of prejudice have a language of push-back: "pride," "identity," "autonomy," and "privacy."
A majority of White Americans, and White Evangelicals especially, tell pollsters they feel themselves to be victims of prejudice. They complain the whole culture defines them as racists, as superstitious, as homophobes, as deplorable. They entered the COVID era already unhappy about government affirmative action programs. COVID protocols fell into that frame, bossy government picking on "normal" people like them.
KDRV-TV-Medford protest supporting un-vaccinated nurses
Seen as victims, vaccination refusers get an excuse from the patriotic duty of care for fellow Americans. Victims are weak. Weak people aren't predators, selfishly endangering others. We do not see street protests on behalf of spouse batterers and kidnappers, people who are exercising their individual autonomy to endanger others. They are understood to be anti-social and strong, i.e. criminals. But we do see gatherings on behalf of nurses who wish to continue doing their hands-on work on fragile patients while being unvaccinated. They are a different mental category: The unvaccinated nurses are victims, victims of prejudice. How can they be dangerous?
In the song Charlie Brown, we know that the deep voice of "Charlie" is blind to his own guilt when he asks "Why is everybody always picking on me?"
Who's always writing on the wall who's always goofing in the hall?
Who's always throwing spit balls guess who (who me – yea you)?
Aaron Rodgers is blinded by his sense of victimhood: He's the good guy here. He was also exhaling up close to others in the huddle calling plays and breathing deep in the locker room. His teammates trusted him. COVID is a communicable disease.