I’ve had a couple ideas that I’ve tried not to indulge but they keep returning:

  1. American Anti-vaxxers should be branded as freeloaders to shame them, as they are benefiting from the (relative) viral stability provided by the vaccinated;
  2. American Anti-vaxxer sentiment could prove a correction to extreme Replublican gerrymandering across the USA. 

Any lessening of public health measures can only be justified by either high vaccination rates or by a privileged and deranged obsession with a quixotic notion of personal freedom. The former seems Duh, right? The latter is just so damn dumb. Assholes.

I’ve decided that Idea 1 is demonizing and probably unhelpful. And Idea 2 feels gloaty and perverse.

But there’s a third companion idea:

  1. Anti-vaxxers essentially are volunteering to be lab rats for this virus. Because they don’t believe it’s a serious threat. The more opportunity the COVID virus has to replicate, the higher likelihood we’ll be faced with an increasingly communicable and deadlier viral threat to our species. If it proves to be a test run for a bigger, badder virus, or some other equivalently scaled threat, we’ve already failed.

Fuck me, I can’t fight off the fourth idea:

  1. Our species sucks. A lot. Now, sure, there’s a lot that doesn’t suck, but damn, is that enough? 

What an unoriginal idea. We knew this.

Yet I love and live my life, do my work, walk our adorable dog and buy groceries. I’m the optimistic, hopeful sort. And I keep returning to this dilemma.

Image courtesy The People Speak!

About the Author

Derek Bridges

Derek Bridges lives in New Orleans, trading in words and pictures. A carpetbagger of long standing, he grew up in the top right corner of IL and later went to college in the middle cornfield part. He has also lived in MS and FL, for educational purposes only, and was diasporized for a time in TX.

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