The vaccine-hesitant could use some friendly shame (barf alert)

BWorld Online ^ | March 29, 2022 | Cathy O'Neil

[DoodleBob]

THE experience of the global COVID-19 pandemic raises a troubling question about the state of human society: Why would so many otherwise intelligent people refuse vaccines that can save their lives and help protect their friends and loved ones?

The answer lies to a large extent in shame, and in the ways government officials, scientists and community leaders should and shouldn’t deploy it.

No doubt, the products of science have brought great benefits to humankind. But in their pursuit of new achievements, its practitioners haven’t always comported themselves in ways that inspire universal trust...

...the drama around vaccines boils down as always to the reasoning of the scientific elite, who invoke the greater good and often shame the recalcitrant for not knowing better...If we look at the crisis as a matter of the community’s health and survival, the COVID vaccine seemed like an ideal opportunity to deploy healthy shame. Getting vaccinated kept people from dying. Refusing was a form of freeloading, leaving the work of building herd immunity to others. Those who didn’t take the trouble to get vaccinated, it could be argued, were lazy, selfish, and ignorant.

...Part of the problem comes from science itself...For many, science now represents only the values of the elite, who also benefit from turbocharged tech, pharma, and finance stocks. From the perspective of the aggrieved lower orders, the elite not only lay claim to the lion’s share of wealth but also see themselves as arbiters of truth.

...the vaccine push must come from people they trust, not distant authorities. Whether it’s African Americans in Detroit, Hasidic Jews in New York, or pandemic deniers at a California hot yoga studio, doubters are far more likely to heed those who can attest to their love and support for them — their families, friends, neighbors, congregations.

[AndyJackson]

Let me be clear. While scientific issue are often regarded as “settled” in the sense they are understood and explained and measured scientific debate is never closed. New measurements, new arguments, new explanations are always allowed. It is politicians or the pathological practitioners of science who try to close scientific debate because some personal advantage accrues to them if it is closed. But of course you can’t actually close debate.

[SamuraiScot]

Father Modernity sometimes cries during Mass.

Ouch. It sounds from your all-too-vivid story that he could have reason to do so hereafter. Oremus.

[JimRed]

A vaccine which neither prevents infection nor prevents spreading and can have serious side effects is useless. Masks short of full respirators are equally useless.