Anti-Vax Americana

I haven't posted for some time.  What shall I address which helps describe our peculiarities (one of my favorite topics, endlessly interesting as we're endlessly peculiar)?  We continue to shoot one another; we seem to do so more and more, in fact.  But I've addressed that interesting quirk of our natures often enough.  What else do we do thoughtlessly, which may cause harm to ourselves and others?  The answer is clear.

Here in our Great Republic we have a history when it comes to vaccine avoidance.  We've struggled to avoid vaccines for many years, for the same reasons, if they may be referred to as such, we do so now (see above).

This isn't to say that we're alone in our fear of vaccinations, or at least that we were alone in that fear in the past.  Victorian England thought vaccination frightening as well.  But we may bring to this fear something unusual being, as we are, particularly fearful of the unknown, of the different.

As for myself, I'm old enough to recall the polio vaccination, distributed to youngsters like myself in school gyms, usually, where we waited in line to suck on a sugar cube.  Subsequently, we received vaccines of various kinds at school, e.g. for measles and, I think, possibly for chicken pox.  Perhaps not the latter, though; if so, I received that vaccination too late or it didn't result in protection enough, as I became sick with it.  I think there were other vaccines as well.  Being vaccinated was simply a part of my elementary school experience.  Being against vaccination is, for me, odd.

I think we have to admit that fear is the cause of the rejection of vaccinations.  It was in the past, when scientific and medical knowledge was limited, but is so now as well.  This reversion to ignorance does us very little credit.  I personally doubt that love for personal liberty or scientific/medical concerns motivate those of us who protest against it.  Fear alone can explain the scope of anti-vaccination frenzy and the dubious explanations given in its support.  Our capacity to justify what can only be called our fear of vaccination is seemingly unlimited.  There was a time when it was thought that vaccinations, especially those derived from animals, would cause us to look like animals ourselves--growing snouts and hooves and tails.  I haven't heard that justification in the case of the COVID vaccine, but there are various conspiracy theories which approach that degree of absurdity.  

Some, after all, think that the vaccine alters our DNA.  It's unclear why this is believed, but perhaps this theory of alteration suffices to include physical alteration.  Perhaps it turns us gay, or influences our gender perception.  Others think that a microchip is secretly being installed in us when we're vaccinated.  Less weird is the belief that the vaccine will kill us or make us dreadfully ill.  Sometimes, a vaccine will create serious health problems.  But it appears this happens very seldom; so seldom it is a vanishingly limited possibility.  Otherwise, rumors of death resulting from the vaccine seems to be greatly exaggerated, or premised on inference along the lines of post hoc ergo propter hoc.

If we assume that fear isn't a primary factor we're left with a concern that our bodies are our own, to do with as we wish, and that we should be allowed to determine what is or is not inserted in them.  This is the position of those concerned only with themselves.  It may be that they believe they have no duty or obligation to others, and that the risk of exposing others doesn't figure into their decision as a result.  Or it may be they believe there is no risk great enough to outweigh their self-concern.  In either case, it's an inherently selfish point of view which can only be described as crass.  Perhaps crassness is a virtue as much as selfishness is, to certain of us.  How could it not be?

As with so much else that passes for thought and judgment these days, the anti-vaccination frenzy has spread as much as the virus has, if not more, due to the ubiquity of misinformation that's available to those who seek reassurance that their fears are justified.  One need only click on a mouse or type a few words and the vast world of unintelligence is revealed.  There's room under the Great Tin Hat of the Internet for all.  We need only stick our heads into it, and the countless voices of the legions of the damned fools will speak to us.

We know already what those voices will say, but we want desperately to hear them speak nonetheless.  We're at risk, they say.  Those we love are at risk; our way of life is at risk; our country is at risk, due to the efforts of those who are unlike us, or control the government, or money, or the media.  It doesn't matter whose voices they are, as they say what is the truth as we feel it, and what we feel is the only real consideration.  That's why evidence that foreign interests or powers, or others who wish to take advantage of us, are the voices we hear, or make use of them, doesn't matter to so many.  What does matter is agreement.