Post
by JimC » Sat Nov 13, 2021 3:45 am
So, I'm going to try a summary here. By all rational calculations, a community facing a dangerous pandemic where an effective vaccine has been developed will gain maximum protection by having the highest proportion of the population vaccinated. For a variety of reasons, ranging from mild anxiety about vaccination to crazed conspiracy theories, a certain proportion of the population is (at least) hesitant about being vaccinated. Solutions to maximise the percentage of the population getting vaccinated, and to reduce transmission before vaccine coverage arrives clearly include:
* the wide variety of lockdowns, mask wearing and social distancing measures that were in fact our only tools prior to vaccine development, but that still remain potential tools in outbreaks
* intensive government measures to make sure that getting vaccinated is easy, practical and available for all segments of the population
* education programs via mass media to inform the community about the benefits (both personal and community) of vaccination
* in the light of the above, special information programs for ethnic or religious groups with particular vaccine hesitancy, driven by community leaders in those groups
* once it is clear that people have had every chance to get vaccinated, particular steps to pressure the remaining refuseniks to get the jab. This can include removing employment opportunities, the ability to travel, to attend sporting or entertainment events, to go to pubs and restaurants etc. Anecdotal evidence suggests that such measures can effectively work on those whose refusal is not tied to a powerful ideologically based stance. A possible extra pressure in recent posts has been the ending of free health care for covid treatment for the wilfully unvaccinated, which I accept is controversial. After all that, one would hope that the remaining refuseniks are a tiny minority of crazies, whose elimination from the human gene pool via covid deaths I would count as a positive.
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!