Any reason The New York Times had to publish not one but two lengthy stories today on heartlanders who refuse to get vaccinated? One is from Ohio, the other from Oklahoma. If the Times has ever devoted a story of similar length and prominence to people who feel trapped in their homes because they’re surrounded by unvaxxed COVID carriers, well, I don’t remember it.
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I can only cancel my subscription once, and I used up that one over 10 years ago. It’s a pity that the Times gets held up as the leader of “liberal media”. They’ve never been liberal.
Perhaps in the narrative of the virus ‘raging’, there needs to be a boogeyman that, if only he would behave (i.e. get vaccinated), the problem would go away and we would all be happy, safe, and rid of the virus.
Would it be impolite of me to wonder why the Delta variant spread among vaccinated party-goers in Provincetown, MA this summer, why Omicron took of among vaccinated visitors to NY City’s Anime festival and why in places with high vax rates, Omicron is spreading like crazy.
There is not a lot of overlap between Ohio/Oklahoma populations and either 1) Provincetown party-goers or 2) world travelers carrying Omicron from country to country. But un-vaccinated people in ‘red’ heartland states are so much easier to heap hate on by NY media elite and their readers.
What good will keeping the unvaccinated out of bars, clubs, shows do when new variants just spread anyway?
I think the message to the unvaxed should be that it will minimize their own personal risk, not that it will help stop the spread, because nothing can stop the spread.
(for the record, I’m fully vaccinated, but concerned about unvaccinated who foolishly and stubbornly decline to protect themselves).