Maine Writer: Anti-vaxxers are "knuckleheads!" Get Vaccinated!

Stop begging the COVID bullies. We can’t "nice" people into doing the right thing - echo opinion by Helen Ubiñas* published in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

If people who are eligible and able to get the vaccine haven’t been moved by the more than 3 million people worldwide who have been killed by the virus, no amount of pleases and "thank yous" will do it.

I'm not an especially nice person (more on that later), so this admittedly comes much more natural to me. But, listen up (!), I'm not about to talk nice to anti-COVID vaxxers and maskers- and, what's more, I'd suggest we all stop begging and pleading with these folks to walk toward the light.

Bullies cannot be "niced" into doing the right thing. That's like Grade School 101.

And, by this point, that is exactly what many of these COVID deniers are. Bullies! Plain and simple!

Just look at how anti-vaxx parents recently threatened doctors and nurses at a Tennessee school board meeting all while the the numbers of COVID cases rise in the district and the state.

"We will find you!", one of the especially deranged dads yelled, while he and others screamed at the medical professionals, blocking their cars and berating them as they tried to drive away.

Yo, tough guy, that would sound a lot more ominous if we didn't already know where to find most doctors and nurses these days- that is, at a hospital, probably near you, trying to save the lives of the unvaccinated.

"If you don't trust the medical field to prevent you from getting COVID, then why do you trust them to cure you from it?"

That "drop all the mic" question came from a viral Tik Tok video posted a couple of weeks ago by Jason Arena after his wife with stage 4 breast cancer was discharged from a North Carolina hospital early because it was overwhelmed with COVID19 patients.

"Stick to your (bleeping) guns collections, and keep your (bleeping bleeps) - Maine Writer, I suppose the bleeps ID the ani-vaxxer as an "ass"), at home", he said. "Stop running to the hospital putting everybody else at (bleeping) risk. People like my wife who actually needs medical (bleeping) help but get kicked out of the hospital because your (bleeping bleep- aka "ass") is too stupid to go get a (bleeping) vaccine shot."

Even for an expletive enthusiast like myself, that's using a lot of "bleeps". But then, who can blame anyone for loosing their faith and their tempers, these days.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy righteously, if a little too politely, lost his cool with a bunch of anti-vaxx demonstrators, calling them “ultimate knuckleheads.”

Moreover, while announcing Philadelphia's latest mask mandates, Mayor Jim Kenney grew frustrated when asked if even more restrictive policies could be put into place in the future.

“Not if everyone acts like a mature adult,” he sniffed.

But he also did that thing that too many people do when trying to soft-walk folks to the right side. “Please,” he said, “just get the vaccine!”

Stop. Just stop. This isn’t 2020. It’s damn near 2022. We’re nearing two years of living in this hellscape, and if people who are eligible and able to get the (free!) vaccine haven’t been moved by the more than 3 million people worldwide (636,369 and counting in the U.S. alone) killed by the virus — no amount of pleases and "thank yous" are going to convince them to side with science, common sense and decency.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the virus and the variants. But we do know how to keep ourselves relatively safe: Keep our distance, wear a mask, get a [bleeping] vaccine!

And I’ll add one more: Stop coddling and catering to the anti-vaxxers and maskers.

You don’t want to believe? Wearing a "wittle mask" makes you cry? Convinced the vaccine is the mark of the beast or something? Cool, you have an inalienable right to do you — God Bless ‘Murica and all that.

But the rest of us also have a right and a responsibility to do whatever we need to protect ourselves, mostly from you "knuckleheads!"

That means you shouldn’t get to inconvenience or endanger our lives any more. You shouldn’t get to misplace other patients because of your selfish idiocy. You shouldn’t get to go to school or work or your favorite restaurant or gym if you don’t do the literal least to save lives. Take those squats outdoors, Joey. No, Aunt Fran, you don’t get to come to come to Thanksgiving or Christmas. Kevin, you’ve been uninvited to the company conference.

But hey, just feel free to join that COVID Deniers Clubhouse (COVIDiots); I hear they always have room.

And this, my fellow vaccinated, is where we come in. If an institution, organization or establishment has the guts to do the right thing, at the risk of threats, harassment and their bottom lines, it’s on us to support them.

If given the choice, support the school, the grocery store, the restaurant, the hotel, the hair dresser, the corner bodega, the public officials who require masks and vaccinations. As much as you can, boycott those who don’t.

Bullies thrive on fear, and acquiescence, and when we talk nice and act nice in the face of dangerous disinformation and defiance, that niceness is read as weakness. Fear.

Which brings me back to my admittedly lack of niceness, of which I have no regrets or apologies.

Niceness is more about appearances, about keeping things civil, polite — superficially comfortable. And there’s nothing wrong with that, until it endangers truth, and accountability and, these days, our lives.

What this very uncomfortable time in history calls for is less niceness and more kindness, which means we care enough about one another to do, and say, and, yes, mandate, what needs to be done.

And right now, the kindest thing we can do is stand against the bullies and say no more.