"The chasm between the vaxxed and non-vaxxed populace of the country is increasing at an alarming rate. The very concept of carrying a vaccination passport in order to enter certain places is cataclysmically divisive and hostile".
Yes, she is one of those who are becoming skeptical of the entire pandemic scenario, and daring to question. Yet her and the few like her are not only being marginalized and excommunicated by family and friends, but also being termed as conspiracy theorists, thus making it almost impossible to have a reasonable and respectful dialogue. "Maybe the cradle of material comfort in the west has been sleep-inducing. People are more eager to return to a veiled notion of normalcy than to understand the bigger picture", she concludes.
Another friend from one of the southern states of America confides, "Many people are pushing their opinions vis-a-vis to vax or not to, but I feel it is a personal decision and one cannot simply adopt a 'my way or the high way' kind of attitude."
Agrees Jacques Vincent from France, a business consultant, "they cannot force it on people. Everyone should be permitted to call the shots (no pun intended) on whether they want the jab or not".
But, Ruth Marcus, senior editor, Washington Post is furious over the way the country is coddling the non-vaxxed populace, "How galling is it that some labor unions are resisting the vaccine mandate? The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the American Postal Workers Union and the American Federation of Teachers are insisting that any mandate be the subject of bargaining. No. Show some leadership. Just tell your members to get the damned shot — for the sake of their colleagues if not themselves."
Writer Marissa Lati toes the line, summing up her opinion with,
"Why are so many people acting like this is some kind of affront to our liberties? It’s routine to get vaccines for all sorts of things... We have a silver bullet that can end this crisis. Why are we afraid to pull the trigger?"
Just throwing a cursory glance at 7,000 some responses as a reaction to Marcus's article is enough to get the feel of the pulse of the nation. Severin Schruger however dares to differ:
"In Massachusetts, 75% of the people being treated for the Delta variant had been vaccinated, what kind of protection is that? I go to great lengths to maintain a healthy immune system, that's my protection. For me, I feel that the vaccine would lower my immune system rather than improve it. And the vaccine was never fully tested, the FDA approved it hurriedly as an emergency act. What are the long term effects of the vaccine? An unknown. I don't object to people getting the vaccine, if you want it, go for it. But I shouldn't be forced to have an injection that I don't want, and don't feel I need."
Even though Schruger puts forth his point in a rational straightforward manner, the amount of hate mails he is pounded with is astronomical. Right from being called a 'bio terrorist' to a 'walking bomb', someone under the pseudonym Chumbo sums up the dominant mood of the nation:
"Gawd are you stupid or what? It is unvaccinated people like you that are spreading the delta variant which is infecting even vaccinated people. Get vaccinated, or stay home. You are a superspreader."
Another one is even more vociferous:
It should be morally mandatory to banish people like Schruger from normal society until they show they are worthy of participation by getting vaccinated".
And yet another respondent takes it to a new intolerant high, writing, "The willfully unvaccinated are slow-motion, four-dimensional suicide bombers".
An L.A. restauranteur however took it upon himself to counter the growing momentum of the 'get vaxxed' movement. The sign taped to the window at his Basilico’s Pasta e Vino reads, “PROOF OF BEING UNVACCINATED REQUIRED.”
While owner Tony Roman's stand might sound like an extreme, it does illustrate the extent of the backlash against the vaccine in parts of America. But, to Roman, it's merely a way to pledge his restaurant as a Constitutional battleground, "I feel blessed to be on the front lines of this battle in defense of Liberty and Freedom".
Coming back to Schruger, his rationale is based on the global statistics according to which America leads the world in the number of Covid cases and deaths in terms of the percentage of its population. "Maybe", he opines, "exercise programs should be made mandatory for Federal employees and presented as a model".
All said and done, there's no gainsaying the fact that the global vaccination drive is set to split people further in more than one way. I remember concluding one of my posts titled 'Poised for Change' written in March 2020, at the wee beginnings of the pandemic, with: We have no criterion whereby to assess the challenges of such a pandemic, but we do know that our best response would depend on global empathy, cooperation, and community building.
Hopes and aspirations were rife that we would emerge from the pandemic, a better people, kinder and more tolerant, more understanding of the challenges that lie ahead in terms of our very survival intricately linked with that of the planet Earth. Naively I had anticipated a new direction for our world, not just in terms of working online from home, but compelling changes in the the very fabric of the human consciousness:
We can no longer sustain a lifestyle which cruises on a conveyor belt regularity, and a system which doesn’t give time to pause, to question, to re-orient, re-think, re-direct...for, it wants coerced stability, not revolutions. Its goal is economic prosperity, not the freedom of the human spirit.
Unfortunately, a year and a half later, we seem to be back to square one, determined to get right back on the same track on which we were. The only difference being now we are masked, sanitized, huffing and puffing to return to the rat-race. And we stand more asunder than ever, between being vaxxed and not vaxxed. A vexing situation indeed!
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