Posted on 06/23/2021 7:40:48 PM PDT by DoodleBob
"I want to wait and watch."
This is a peculiar response I receive from my friends and some family members in the United States when I ask them about their thoughts on COVID-19 vaccination. This is a peculiar response for a couple of reasons: COVID-19 vaccines are exceptionally effective, are now readily available and are the best way to end the pandemic and return to normalcy.
This skeptical response is reflective of broader trends in the United States: An NPR/Marist poll this spring revealed that up to one-fourth of the national population would decline to get vaccinated even when offered.
This is also a very American response in a country where the proportion of fully vaccinated people is now roughly 45%.
Two vastly different vaccine rollouts
The vaccine rollout at the global level has markedly different dynamics. As of June 16, almost 80% of the global population has not received a COVID-19 vaccine. In low-resource countries, the vaccination rate is less than 1%. These statistics match with the lived experiences of my family and friends in India and other countries where coronavirus infection continues to cause immense suffering.
The response in these places is more somber.
"I just want a chance at vaccination." That's what I'm hearing from my friends and family in countries where vaccines are not readily available.
In these countries, older people long to spend time with their grandkids, college students want to go back to school and those who earn their living on a daily-wage basis want to support their families without the risk of infection or hospitalization. None of them can safely engage in these activities.
These trends reveal two distinct patterns, and one is happening at the expense of the other. The trends of vaccine hesitancy and refusal in the U.S. are a sign of extreme privilege. This privilege is exhibited by those who continue to reject vaccinations even though COVID-19 vaccines — and the support, such as free child care for parents and caregivers to get vaccinated — are now readily available.
Hoarding resources and expertise
There's another trend at play, one that I find equally disturbing: vaccine nationalism. Rich countries are hoarding vaccines and unwilling to share the resources and the technological expertise needed for other countries to manufacture vaccines.
From a global health perspective, I fully endorse initiatives to encourage vaccination in the United States. But I believe it is a cause of deep moral concern that rich countries are giving priority to vaccinating low-risk populations in their own countries, such as teenagers, rather than sharing the excess supply with countries battling the infection surge. It's simply not fair.
For example, Africa is home to more than 1 billion people, and yet is one of the regions where fewer than 1% have been fully vaccinated. High-risk groups, including front-line health care workers, often do not have an option to get vaccinated. And several nations in the continent have not received any supplies at all.
These actions have long-term health policy implications as COVID-19 vaccines are also necessary to preserve the health of the limited number of care providers who are risking their lives to treat patients in these countries. In India, more than 500 doctors have already lost their lives and thousands have been infected while battling COVID-19. In the last two to three months, every time I called Kashmir — the place where I grew up — I was either speaking with someone who was infected or had a family member who was sick.
An immigrant's perspective
As an immigrant in the U.S., I am in the uniquely painful position of witnessing two sides of this story: friends and family here who are unwilling to get vaccines and loved ones in other countries who are unable to get vaccines. Whenever I discuss the refusal of getting vaccinated in the U.S. with people in other countries, they are often baffled that American policymakers need to provide monetary incentives to convince people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, while in their countries, people are desperately seeking any way to get out of this pandemic.
Besides, access to vaccines is not the only issue internationally. Conflict-afflicted areas, including the Palestinian territories, Kashmir and Somalia, have fragile sociopolitical environments where vaccine delivery strategies are further strained as a result of security restrictions. And vaccine misinformation is ubiquitous.
This month, President Biden has announced the donation of hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to low-resource countries. While this move is a step in the right direction, it's nowhere close to enough. Analysts estimate that it would take more than 10 billion doses to enable return to normalcy at the global level. Vaccine manufacturing capacity has been limited to 1.73 billion doses until now.
What the lofty announcements often miss is that without boosting local manufacturing of vaccines through sharing of raw materials and enabling technology transfer, such donations will continue to be inadequate. With the delta variant now observed in 74 countries, and no consensus on how to vaccinate a majority of the global population, vaccine unavailability could lead to increased spread of the virus that could lead to more mutations in the virus.
Rich — and oblivious — countries
This ongoing COVID-19 vaccine distribution crisis has revealed the core drivers of inequity in global health: People in rich countries do not recognize the universality of health care problems and often see infectious disease outbreaks as problems for "other people in other countries." The major lesson of the pandemic — that infections do not respect national boundaries — is yet to be heeded.
So for the people who say, "I want to watch and wait," I would like to remind them that their vacillations are reckless and cruel. They upend the sacrifices we have all made together to end the pandemic. By not doing your part to reduce the risks, you increase the risks for all of us. And that's a very peculiar response to this catastrophic pandemic.
This NPR boob seems to forget or dismissed the freedoms we have.
Oh, well...it’s NPR after all.
ALL of their audience suffers the effects of Kool-Aid toxicity.
But it must be contagious: Some FReepers exhibit the symptoms, too. (is it because they also do NPR???) /s
NPR can FOAD. The drug pushers,propagandists,media manipulators and shamers can take their jabs and stick them where the sun don’t shine.
This writer is a racist, anti-American prick. The US is sharing tens of millions of doses of the anti-Covid vaccines with many countries around the world.
What the hell is “extreme privilege” (all Americans have the “privilege” of getting a vaccine. Just look up vaccination sites in one’s local area. I have about 5 within spitting distance of my house and a choice of vaccines. I have no “extreme privilege”. I’m just one of the “people” who pays attention to health issues and read notices from my local government (which has done a pretty good job of making vaccinations/sites available for everyone).
In my case, the reasons I haven’t got my shot yet is complicated by having died once from Cardiac Arrest, compounded by Pneumonia abd brain seizures. In the last two years I’ve had major pancreatic cancer surgery/chemo/radiation therapy, Cellulitist infection in my legs, and a blood clot in my upper leg, one right after the other. Throw in normal allergies, and as of yesterday, serious anemia and low blood cell counts.
I’ve been cleared to get a vaccination but due to my medical record, I’m hesitant re lung/chest problems and esp. blood clots. I’ll probably get one when I get a little bit stronger but my doctors have warned me that the old FLU is more deadly to me right now/this Fall, than the chances of getting the COVID virus.
That is why a FLU shot is an immediate concern, as another FR article posted before this addresses. The same for SHINGLES and PNEUMONIA shots.
Younger people are suffering from side-effects so that is one concern they have.
It’s all a personal choice/issue now, plus some common sense, but there is no “special privilege” involved.
WELL SAID!!!
Exactly right.
Yeah, tell that to the children of Thalidomide.
Then: “Clean your plate! There are starving children in (insert the country of your choice)!”
Now: “Get the jab! There are people in (insert the country of your choice) who can’t!”
It makes as much sense now as it did then...
More muslim propaganda.
The ideology of envy and covetousness.
It’s selfish to be prudent. I like it. Say it in a pandemic, food shortage, investments, or any other topic. It’s another way of saying you have what I want or your not doing what I want.
I love how they use the word “offer” the cv19vx, like they are offering a cake sample. As though they intend it to be voluntary.
I have an alternate path to normalcy: how about every cv19 vax pusher, cv19 vax nutcase, Pharma troll and idiot conventional MD just drop dead now? We won’t miss you. And less people will die from medical neglect and the cv19vx poison, without you people pushing your victims off a cliff.
Nothing in the article suggesting any accountability to China for efficiency in virus distribution.
a frightening thought is that we are already seeing narrative setup for mandatory vaccination, well before any widespread side effects are too prevalent for even our media to ignore. once everyone is dosed, it won’t matter.
this is straight out of a nightmare geopolitical doomsday thriller novel.
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