OPINION:
Recently, some progressives — most notably New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo —suggested giving the COVID-19 vaccine to people of color first. The immediate response from many African-Americans was that this was a conspiracy to use them as guinea pigs to ensure that the vaccine is safe before giving it to White folks.
We immediately had a perfect storm between the well-meaning and the mean-spirited. The delicious irony is that almost everyone involved was a Democrat. We can stand by for much more infighting in the months ahead as the coalition the Democratic Party built for the 2020 election unravels. As it turns out, that incident was only the first shot in the “Vaccine Wars.” More volleys quickly followed.
Undeterred by his rejection of special consideration by one group of designated victims, New York’s Mr. Cuomo has proposed putting recovering drug addicts at the front of the line passing law-abiding seniors. While it may seem strange that Mr. Cuomo would try to alienate a large part of the older voting population, consider this; He has killed off a lot of them, and maybe he hopes the rest will move to Florida. I say that tongue in cheek, but New York has become so bizarre that I will not entirely rule it out.
Florida and Texas have the opposite controversy. Their governors have decided to buck federal guidelines, and let seniors over 65 get the vaccine before front line essential service workers. I will admit to being agnostic on this. I am over 65, in reasonably good health and am in Florida this winter. I have no problem standing in line behind essential workers who have been at risk for the better part of a year, but that is a state decision.
Americans recently found out that only half of the two-shot vaccines available were issued to the frontline medical personnel and nursing home residents. This left millions of the most vulnerable needlessly unprotected. The reason given for this decision was to ensure that the second dose will be available after the 28-day waiting period.
This classic piece of bureaucratic caution is symptomatic of the way we have handed much of our daily life over to unelected technocrats during the pandemic and turned people like Anthony Fauci into rock stars. Americans are beginning to forget what real leadership looks like. Real leaders would have issued all the available vaccine immediately and then kicked butt and taken names to ensure that the second dose is delivered on time. President Trump could reverse this in his remaining time in office. He is obviously obsessed with his various election challenges; but perhaps it is time to get off his butt, and kick somebody else’s.
The next big issue will be the question of “when do the masks come off?” I initially agreed with Joe Biden when he suggested a hundred-day waiting period in the assumption that the vaccine would be nationally available in that time although I thought he was being slightly optimistic about the timeframe. Now, he has changed his tune having recently declared that it could take years if the present Trump administration trajectory continues.
That is obviously politics. Mr. Biden wants to declare that he fixed things once he takes office, but that still leaves open the question of what happens after the vaccine is available to everyone who wants it. The percentage of people who will accept it has grown from 50 to 80; that is probably a function of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence not dropping dead after they got their first shots. Some people accuse them of cutting in line, but at least it showed some attempt at leadership by example.
The Faucis of the world will undoubtedly want us to stay masked indefinitely, and some people will remain COVID-19-phobic forever. Others will refuse to take the vaccine; and among those who take it, a small percentage will still get sick and die as happens with the flu. The best thing that the next administration can do is set an objective for end game.
That is what has been lacking in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The day that every person who wants it has received his second shot, the masks should come off. The vaccine deniers and those seeking herd immunity should be on their own. A byproduct of freedom is the right to take risks. As John Belushi put it in the movie “Animal House”: “It isn’t over till we say it’s over.”
• Gary Anderson lectures on Alternative Analysis at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
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