… and count to 10. We’re just going to have to live with the fact that a whole bunch of our fellow Americans require excessive coddling and attention and there’s nothing we can do about it. They can’t even save their own lives, even though they have an easy, free, effective way to do it, so we are now having to to it for them.
A return to their carefree, pre-pandemic visits appeared within reach, tantalizing Stacey Graves and her boyfriend with promises of coffee in the cafe and sunshine on the patio.
After getting her second dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Graves felt ready to brave the long bus ride to the rehabilitation facility where he lives. They could meet only masked and outdoors for 45 minutes, per the hospital’s policy. But as infections plunged in the spring, the rules seemed destined to loosen.
A feeling of perilous instability now pervades the couple’s time together. As the hyper-contagious delta variant threatens her modicum of comfort, Graves is reevaluating whether the trips are safe. And she misses the simplicity of their restriction-less visits.
“I don’t have that now. And I don’t know when I’m going to,” said Graves, 64. “And I’m very angry.”
Specifically, she’s furious at those eligible to get vaccinated who refuse, citing misinformation or a desire to make a political statement. Graves, who lives in New York City, said she’s more understanding of those who worry the vaccines were rushed to market or people of color whose communities have been historically mistreated by medical professionals. But Graves said she worries about getting long-term symptoms if she contracts a rare breakthrough infection of covid-19.
An unwelcome resurgence of the coronavirus has caused a groundswell of impatience, frustration and even rage from Americans who got their shots months ago toward those whose resistance won’t budge. States are reimplementing mask requirements, corporations are delaying their returns to the office and support is building for more coercive ways to tamp down the virus’s spread, including vaccine mandates.
Watching it all, the vaccinated are emphasizing that it didn’t have to be this way. Some officials are sending a similar message.
“It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said this month. “It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”
The ranks of the immunized include about half of the country’s population, with children younger than 12 still ineligible. Administered doses have climbed in the past week as daily infections hit roughly 70,000 to match the peak of the spring surge. The country still has not met President Biden’s goal of getting at least one dose into 70 percent of adults by July 4.
Resistance to vaccination appears to have solidified. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found 29 percent of Americans say they are unlikely to get the shots — an increase from April, when 24 percent said the same. In some corners, hesitancy to get inoculated has transformed into outright hostility.
I feel it. I’m trying to get past it and just deal. But it’s hard. A large minority of us (kids don’t count, of course) are simply irrational. We see this in many aspects of life, politics above all. But this situation puts it into stark relief. I don’t know what to do about it.
Steven Moore, who lives in a suburb of Philadelphia, said he long has been in favor of vaccine mandates. While he’s sympathetic to the legal and ethical questions around immunization requirements, he said he thinks more people would roll up their sleeves for the shots if their access to restaurants, concerts or air travel were otherwise limited.
After his own vaccination, Moore spent a fairly normal spring and summer visiting stores and eating at restaurants with his family. In June, he and his wife vacationed with six friends sharing a condo in Key West, Fla.
Moore, 38, said he’s not sure he would do that now as hospitalizations and deaths rise. His 7- and 9-year-old kids are supposed to go to Disney World in the fall, but he said he may rethink that trip if the virus is still surging.
“The thought that that stuff could all disappear again is really maddening,” he said.
Moore feels confident that he or his wife would be fine if they got a breakthrough infection, and he has been going mask-less in stores when not with his kids. But he worries about the long-term effects on his unvaccinated children. That concern fuels his anger at the unvaccinated, particularly those who are avoiding the shots to make a political statement or attempt to demonstrate toughness.
“To be selfish about it like that,” Moore said, “is hindering the rest of us from going back to living normal lives.”
Thanks a lot.
Meanwhile: