What is wrong with those Americans? They don’t have the same respect for the pandemic and getting vaccinated as we Canadians do.
While much of the US tiptoes towards getting vaccination, many groups are protesting that safety procedures be loosened, while the dangerous Delta variant is dominating and filling the hospitals in those areas or states that have low vaccination rates (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc. are under 40%). Typically southern and rural Republican states, along with Florida with the most cases, the 4th wave with has officially arrived.
This Delta variant has highlighted a new divide in America, communities with high vaccination rates and those which are under vaccinated.
On the other hand, Canada notched a significant milestone when surpassing the US vaccination rate. 75% of Canadians have received at least one dose of the vaccine making a target of 80% within reach! However, Canada’s Dr. Theresa Tam has warned that vaccine hesitancy could keep Canada from achieving herd immunity. The 4th wave is beginning here ironically with provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan) irresponsibly loosening controls.
For the Americans herd immunity is a pipe dream. So many avoid getting vaccinated by listening to misinformation and conspiracy theories mostly repeated by the antivaxxers as “experimental gene therapy”.
Many Governors aren’t persuading citizens to get vaccinated and often do the opposite of the guidelines established by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC). Consequently, hospital beds are filling with those not vaccinated. President Biden said, “It is the virus of the unvaccinated.”
Dr. Joe Mercola asked, “Could the whole COVID-19 pandemic getting a global mass vaccination campaign be for population control purposes?” Peter McCullough for pushing a narrative of a COVID-19 as “the vaccine holocaust” also influences many; hype causing even more people to exhibit vaccine hesitancy.
Some of the myths are: Natural immunity is better than a vaccine, the vaccine was developed too quickly without proper research and is not safe, vaccines contain toxic ingredients that can harm you, Covid-19 vaccines can compromise your fertility, vaccines contain micro-chips to control you, the side effects of the vaccine are really bad, and so on. It is trickier to disprove this misinformation than it is to propagate it, especially on social media. Harder.
Distrust in public-health messaging is also sown when public-health messengers show themselves to be less than completely trustworthy. The CDC’s Dr. Fauci overstated the risks of outdoor spreading earlier and now he is suspected of dishonesty. That has probably done more to undermine public confidence in science than a Florida quack.
These same experts suggest the Pfizer shot loses much of its ability to protect after a few months. If a 3rd shot is required, the erosion of public trust could turn into a landslide.
I suspect a large portion of the public believes they are being pushed or lured into a specific way of thinking and they don’t like it.
The media does not objectively report facts but spins information to plant an engineered narrative in the minds of its viewers. The public is not stupid and so trust in the media has plunged by 46% in the past ten years, hitting an all-time low this year of 27%.
It is not so outlandish for millions of Americans to be skeptical of medical mandates and vaccination over covid.
Why should they worry about getting vaccinated over a virus that 99.7% of the population will survive without difficulty, or allow economic shutdowns, medical passports or invasive contact tracing at all? Why should Americans volunteer to be guinea pigs for a new vaccine technology without knowing the long-term consequences?
Those who stick with self-determination in these matters are the real threat; covid is not.
Basically the establishment narrative is this: “Covid is an existential threat to the public, therefore, we are justified in taking away people’s freedoms, their economy and their privacy. It is for the “greater good of the greater number. It’s not your body and not your choice. Your body is property of the government. We will continue to erode your freedoms until you submit. Then, your freedoms will still never be given back.”
Covid-19 is equally threatening to Canada and the US. Canadians have less hospitalizations because of more cooperation and trust of science. Americans, however, put more weight on individual decisions. Only time will reveal which means is the healthier one.
