One picture is worth a thousand words. Christopher Weyant’s cartoon in a recent newspaper bears this out exceptionally well.
Two men are in free fall from an airplane, skydiving. One man has a parachute on his back which carries the words: COVID Vax. He appears flummoxed as he looks at his fellow skydiver with no parachute. Hat flying, big belly hanging out and mouth wide open, the chute-less man is saying “…Ain’t gonna catch me wearing one of those (COVID 19 Vax)! Who knows what’s in it? Government’s not taking away my freedom.”
It would be hilarious except that it graphically illustrates the kind of mentality that is driving the anti-vaccine movement in our country today. As the skydiver plunges toward a certain death, he is oblivious to the irrationality of refusing the one thing that can save his life.
An actual case made the same point in a recent TV interview. A husband and father of four made a plea that others may not make the mistake that he and his wife had made. His whole family contracted coronavirus after deciding to forego vaccinations. They all became seriously ill and his wife died. They made their decision not to be vaccinated after watching cable news reports that cautioned them not to be vaccinated. They believed these talking heads and ignored the recommendations of their doctors. With tears in his eyes, this COVID-19 survivor, and now widower, hoped that others would learn from his unfortunate mistake.
There may very well be substantial reasons why certain people should not receive vaccinations. These folks, however, represent a miniscule number within the wider population. The fact is that vaccinations are saving lives and enabling our country, and eventually, our world to move beyond this terrible pandemic.
In order to defeat this dreadful scourge, it is beyond necessary that every person, who is able, should receive a vaccine.
The politicization of this issue is reflective of a deeper problem that has been growing slowly within our nation. It has many faces and takes shape in different forms. At the core, however, is a fundamental rejection of the notion of community.
Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century political philosopher, believed that the state of nature, into which we are all born, is bereft of natural goodness and that we are all condemned to kill each other or be killed.
A social contract, driven by fear, is the only reason that civil society is able to exist. In Hobbes’ view, it was every man for himself. Notions of community or the family of humankind are totally absent in the Hobbesian worldview.
This social-contract individualism is at odds with public responsibility and respect for the common good. Getting vaccinated is really a civic duty. It certainly protects the individual from serious infection but, more importantly, it protects health care workers and neighbors from being infected by unaware carriers of the virus.
We should all get vaccinated not simply for our own well-being and health. We should get vaccinated for the protection and well-being of everyone around us.
Respect for the truth is another casualty of the kind of individualism that is rampant in our day. Opinions are shared as facts irrespective of their veracity. Vaccines are not harmful. Vaccines are not unsafe. Vaccines are not immoral because of their development. Vaccines do not prevent pregnancies, nor do they make men sterile or cause life-threatening abnormalities.
People who spread these fictions are simply propagating myths that are not true. There is no such thing as “alternative facts.” People are welcome to think that the moon is made of green cheese. Thinking this does not make it so.
While the pandemic that shut down our lives for the better part of 15 months has been de-fanged in our state, it is still raging in other parts of our country.
In spite of the testimony of former anti-vaxers, the testimony of countless doctors, the clear guidance of epidemiologists and the lived experiences of the vaccinated, some media outlets continue to tout personal freedom as a justification for refusing to be vaccinated. Social media continues to amplify these voices and the bottom line is that people are continuing to die in a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
One antidote to all this is a renewed sense of personal responsibility that propels us to see ourselves in true Biblical terms as our “our brother’s (and sister’s) keepers.” This has truly become a life-and-death issue.
Self-centeredness and selflessness are polar opposites but describe the real challenge that the pandemic has cast into bold relief. Unless we collectively rise to this challenge and grow beyond the egocentrism that vaccine hesitancy has laid bare, the next pandemic may be worse than the one we are struggling mightily to overcome.
Msgr. Paul V. Garrity is the former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn and the current pastor of St. Brigid and Sacred Heart Parishes in Lexington.
