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COVID is Over. Leave me Alone.11/1/2021 Ethan Folkman
The COVID-19 pandemic has been around for almost 20 months. Vaccines are readily available to any adult who wants them and will soon be open to children. Yet for some reason, 54% of Americans still believe that the pandemic is getting worse, according to recent Gallup polling. In a similar vein, 60% of Americans believe that the vaccine should be mandated by employers. This is an insane conjecture and one that runs in direct contrast to the fundamental values of liberty in the United States. It’s time to stop the mandates, stop the division, and return to the founding principle of individual rights that helped to make our country the greatest in the world. Before getting into the argument over individual rights, it’s worthwhile to state the facts on COVID. By polling data, concerns surrounding the delta variant are the most commonly cited reasons for supporting the mandates. People see the spike in case numbers and instantly want to return to masks, along with forcing everyone else to get vaccinated. But there’s a problem with that. Yes, case rates are higher. But death rates aren’t matching the infection rates. For example in Florida, a state that has remained largely open throughout the pandemic, the 7-day rolling average for deaths as of October 26th is 5. In Massachusetts, which has been far more strict, that number is 13. The science is clear. COVID simply isn’t the deadly pandemic that it was before. And yet, a sizable portion of the country is still holding on to the belief that there is a real danger, and that we need to sacrifice freedom in favor of safety. Americans also need to begin taking responsibility for their own safety. If someone is worried about catching the virus, there are multiple options available. Get the vaccine. Continue to wear a face mask or distance. That decision is yours. It’s a free country after all. But don’t go forcing that same decision on everybody else. This country was born on a system of individualism. Every adult in the country has the capacity to make a personal risk assessment and decide what is best for them. If someone chooses not to wear a mask anymore, then that is their decision. The problem arises when civility is thrown out the window. People who refused the shot have been treated horribly. These people are viciously attacked. Anybody who supports personal choice is castigated as a murderer and is viewed as subhuman. As one example, President Biden himself has called those who don’t support mask mandates Neanderthals. This behavior needs to change. If the government wants vaccine-hesitant people to get the shot, calling them stupid is not the way to do it. In contrast to this, President Trump has also been very outspoken about his support for the vaccine. But he takes a different approach to promote it. In his own words, “I believe totally in your freedoms. I do, you’re free, you got to do what you have to do. But I recommend taking the vaccines. I did it, it’s good, take the vaccines.” In my opinion, this is the right way to go about it. Acknowledge freedom of choice, then recommend that people take it. This makes people feel like their choices matter, and that they have a level of informed choice in what happens to them. It’s not just a small subset of the population that is in favor of these mandates. The federal government itself continues to force down vaccine mandates, citing safety concerns. For a group of people that ruthlessly criticized the Trump administration’s messaging during the pandemic, this administration continuously misleads and misdirects the public, falsely telling the American people that their unvaccinated neighbors are presenting a serious threat to them. Dr. Fauci continues to go on the news and tell people that they need to mask up, even after vaccination. This is just not true. If you are vaccinated, your chances of getting the virus are minuscule. Your chances of hospitalization and death are even lower. All this messaging does is deepen the political divide in our country, and it needs to stop. It’s time for the Biden administration and the media to follow the science and acknowledge the fact that this virus isn’t as dangerous as it was a year ago. At this point, the pandemic is nothing but a power grab for an administration that refuses to let a good crisis go to waste. We’ve been at this pandemic for a year and a half. We’ve had to sacrifice a lot, and now it’s time to move on and get back to our lives. The media preaches that we’ve entered a “new normal”, but I don’t think we have. COVID was a temporary setback, and now with the vaccine available, we can go back to normal. The government has fulfilled its role and should now take the back seat as states open up again. The stigma surrounding unvaccinated people needs to be broken. Most importantly, we need to make individual rights respected again. |