As
coronavirus cases resurge across the country, many inoculated Americans
are losing patience with vaccine holdouts who, they say, are neglecting
a civic duty or clinging to conspiracy theories and misinformation even
as new patients arrive in emergency rooms and the nation renews mask
advisories.
The country seemed to be
exiting the pandemic; barely a month ago, a sense of celebration was
palpable. Now many of the vaccinated fear for their unvaccinated
children and worry that they are at risk themselves for breakthrough
infections. Rising case rates are upending plans for school and
workplace reopenings, and threatening another wave of infections that
may overwhelm hospitals in many communities.
“It’s
like the sun has come up in the morning and everyone is arguing about
it,” said Jim Taylor, 66, a retired civil servant in Baton Rouge, La., a
state in which fewer than half of adults are fully vaccinated.
“The virus is here and it’s killing people, and we have a time-tested way to stop it — and we won’t do it. It’s an outrage.”
The
rising sentiment is contributing to support for more coercive measures.
Scientists, business leaders and government officials are calling for
vaccine mandates — if not by the federal government, then by local
jurisdictions, schools, employers and businesses.
“I’ve
become angrier as time has gone on,” said Doug Robertson, 39, a teacher
who lives outside Portland, Ore., and has three children too young to
be vaccinated, including a toddler with a serious health condition.
“Now
there is a vaccine and a light at the end of the tunnel, and some
people are choosing not to walk toward it,” he said. “You are making it
darker for my family and others like mine by making that choice.”
The
Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday required that 115,000 on-site
health care workers be vaccinated in the next two months, the first
federal agency to order a mandate. Nearly 60 major medical
organizations, including the American Medical Association and the
American Nurses Association, on Monday called for mandatory vaccination of all health care workers.
“It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks,” a frustrated Gov. Kay Ivey, Republican of Alabama, told reporters last week. “It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”
There is little
doubt that the United States has reached an inflection point. According
to a database maintained by The New York Times, 57 percent of Americans
ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated. Eligible Americans are receiving
537,000 doses per day on average, an 84 percent decrease from the peak
of 3.38 million in early April.
As a
result of lagging vaccination and lifted restrictions, infections are
rising. As of Sunday, the country was seeing 52,000 new cases daily, on
average, a 170 percent increase over the previous two weeks.
Hospitalization and death rates are increasing, too, although not as
quickly.
Image
“We’re
not out of the woods completely,” said Pastor Shon Neyland of Portland,
Ore. Some vaccinated congregants are frustrated with those who refuse
to get the vaccine, he added.Credit...Tojo Andrianarivo for The New York Times
Communities
from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, are recommending that vaccinated
people wear masks again in public indoor settings. Citing the spread of
the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, the counties of Los
Angeles and St. Louis, Mo., have ordered indoor mask mandates.
For
many Americans who were vaccinated months ago, the future is beginning
to look grim. Frustration is straining relations even within closely
knit families.
Josh Perldeiner, 36, a
public defender in Connecticut who has a 2-year-old son, was fully
vaccinated by mid-May. But a close relative, who visits frequently, has
refused to get the shots, although he and other family members have
urged her to do so.
She
recently tested positive for the virus after traveling to Florida,
where hospitals are filling with Covid-19 patients. Now Mr. Perldeiner
worries that his son, too young for a vaccine, may have been exposed.
“It
goes beyond just putting us at risk,” he said. “People with privilege
are refusing the vaccine, and it’s affecting our economy and
perpetuating the cycle.” As infections rise, he added, “I feel like
we’re at that same precipice as just a year ago, where people don’t care
if more people die.”
Hospitals have
become a particular flash point. Vaccination remains voluntary in most
settings, and it is not required for caregivers at most hospitals and
nursing homes. Many large hospital chains are just beginning to require
that employees be vaccinated.
Even
though she is fully vaccinated, Aimee McLean, a nurse case manager at
University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, worries about contracting
the virus from a patient and inadvertently passing it to her father,
who has a serious chronic lung disease. Less than half of Utah’s
population is fully vaccinated.
“The
longer that we’re not getting toward that number, the more it feels like
there’s a decent percentage of the population that honestly doesn’t
care about us as health care workers,” Ms. McLean, 46, said.
She
suggested health insurers link coverage of hospital bills to
immunization. “If you choose not to be part of the solution, then you
should be accountable for the consequences,” she said.
Image
Mr.
Perldeiner with his son, Arlo. “I feel like we’re at that same
precipice as just a year ago, where people don’t care if more people
die,” he said.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
Many
schools and universities are set to resume in-person classes as early
as next month. As the number of infections increases, these settings,
too, have seen tension rise between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Recommendations
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on K-12 school
reopening are tied to rates of community virus transmission. In
communities where vaccination lags, those rates are rising, and
vaccinated parents must worry anew about outbreaks at schools. The
vaccines are not yet authorized for children under 12.
The
American Academy of Pediatrics has advised that children wear masks in
class when schools reopen. On Friday, school districts from Chicago to
Washington began putting mandates into effect.
Universities,
on the other hand, often can require vaccinations of students and staff
members. But many have not, frustrating the vaccinated.
“If
we’re respecting the rights and liberties of the unvaccinated, what’s
happening to the rights and liberties of the vaccinated?” said Elif
Akcali, 49, who teaches engineering at the University of Florida, in
Gainesville. The university is not requiring students to be vaccinated,
and with rates climbing in Florida, she is worried about exposure to the
virus.
Some are even wondering how
much sympathy they should have for fellow citizens who are not acting in
their own best interest. “I feel like if you chose not to get
vaccinated, and now you get sick, it’s kind of your bad,” said Lia
Hockett, 21, the manager of Thunderbolt Spiritual Books in Santa Monica,
Calif.
Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.
As
the virus begins to spread again, some vaccinated people believe the
federal government should start using sticks rather than carrots, like
lottery tickets.
Carol
Meyer, 65, of Ulster County, N.Y., suggested withholding stimulus
payments or tax credits from vaccine refusers. “I feel we have a social
contract in this country with our neighbors, and people who can get
vaccinated and choose not to get vaccinated are breaking it,” Ms. Meyer
said.
Bill Alstrom, 74, a retired
innkeeper in Acton, Mass., said he would not support measures that would
directly affect individual families and children, but asked whether
federal government funding should be withheld from states that don’t
meet vaccination targets.
Maybe the
federal government should require employees and contractors to be
vaccinated, he mused. Why shouldn’t federal funding be withheld from
states that don’t meet vaccination targets?
Image
Dorrett Denton eventually overcame hesitancy with advice from her doctor.Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times
Though
often seen as a conservative phenomenon, vaccine hesitancy and refusal
occur across the political and cultural spectrum in the United States,
and for a variety of reasons. No single argument can address all of
these concerns, and changing minds is often a slow, individualized
process.
Pastor Shon Neyland, who
regularly implores members of his church in Portland, Ore., to get the
Covid-19 vaccines, estimated that only about half of the members of the
Highland Christian Center church have gotten shots. There have been
tensions within the congregation over vaccination.
“It’s
disappointing, because I’ve tried to help them to see that their lives
are in jeopardy and this is a serious threat to humanity,” he said.
Shareese
Harris, 26, who works in the office of Grace Cathedral International in
Uniondale, N.Y., has not been vaccinated and is “taking my time with
it.” She worries that there may be long-term side effects from the
vaccines and that they were rushed to market.
“I shouldn’t be judged or forced to make a decision,” Ms. Harris said. “Society will just have to wait for us.”
Rising
resentment among the vaccinated may well lead to public support for
more coercive requirements, including mandates, but experts warn that
punitive measures and social ostracism can backfire, shutting down
dialogue and outreach efforts.
Elected
officials in several Los Angeles County communities, for example, are
already refusing to enforce the county’s new mask mandate.
“Anything
that reduces the opportunity for honest dialogue and an opportunity for
persuasion is not a good thing,” said Stephen Thomas, a professor of
health policy and management at University of Maryland School of Public
Health. “We are already in isolated, siloed information systems, where
people are in their own echo chambers.”
Gentle
persuasion and persistent prodding convinced Dorrett Denton, a
62-year-old home health aide in Queens, to be vaccinated in February.
Her employer urged Ms. Denton repeatedly to be immunized, but in the end
it was her doctor who persuaded her.
“She
says to me: ‘You’ve been coming to me from 1999. How many times did I
do surgery on you, and your life was in my hands? You trust me with your
life, don’t you?’” Ms. Denton recalled.
“I said, ‘Yes, doctor.’ She said, ‘Well, trust me on this one.’”
Giulia Heyward contributed reporting from Miami, Sophie Kasakove from New York and Livia Albeck-Ripka from Los Angeles.
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