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<\/p>\nHas-been rock star Ted Nugent told the world last week that he has COVID-19.\u00a0 Nugent\u2019s announcement was an oddity because he previously called the viral pandemic a \u201cleftist scam to destroy\u201d former president Donald Trump.\u00a0As I watched Nugent\u2019s Facebook Live post, in which he repeatedly hocked up wads of phlegm and spit them to the ground, I got emotional when he described being so sick he thought he \u201cwas dying.\u201d But when he\u00a0trashed the COVID-19 vaccine and warned people against taking it, I realized that the emotion I was feeling was not empathy, it was anger.<\/p>\n
For the better part of a year, as the coronavirus racked up hundreds of thousands of American deaths, the flickering light at the end of the tunnel was herd immunity \u2014 the antibody force-shield that comes when enough people have survived the illness or have been vaccinated against it. “Go get vaccinated, America,” President Biden said in\u00a0his speech to Congress this week, referring to the shot as\u00a0“a dose of hope.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anthony Fauci, the nation\u2019s top infectious disease doctor, suggested in December that if 75% to 85% of the population got vaccinated, we could reach herd immunity by June. And with herd immunity, we\u2019d return to a measure of \u201cnormalcy,\u201d meaning indoor dining, movie theaters\u00a0and hugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But herd immunity is slipping away because a quarter of Americans are refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.\u00a0Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group recently said:\u00a0 \u201cThere is no eradication at this point, it\u2019s off the table.\u00a0 \u2026We as a society have rejected\u201d\u00a0herd immunity.\u00a0 Hmm, no!\u00a0 \u201cWe\u201d have not rejected anything. A quarter of\u00a0the country is ruining it for all of us.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just wacky former rockers who have put herd immunity out of reach. It is white evangelicals\u00a0(45% say they won’t\u00a0get vaccinated).\u00a0And it is Republicans (almost 50%\u00a0are refusing the vaccine). In Texas, 59% of white Republicans have said \u201cno\u201d to the vaccine.\u00a0You can slap the euphemism \u201cvaccine hesitancy\u201d on the problem, but in the end the G.O.P., and the children of G.O.D., are perpetuating a virus that is sickening and killing people in droves.<\/p>\n
A big part of the problem stems from the cultish relationship many evangelicals and Republicans have with former President Donald Trump.\u00a0They\u00a0absorbed his endless efforts to downplay\u00a0the danger of the virus and turn public health precautions into a political freedom movement. But the time for analyzing why these human petri dishes have chosen to ignore the medical science that could save them, and us, is over.\u00a0We need a different strategy.\u00a0I propose shunning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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COVID-19 vaccination site on April 27, 2021, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n Biden\u2019s wildly successful vaccine rollout means that soon everyone who wants a vaccine will have one.\u00a0When that happens, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, barbers, airlines\u00a0and Ubers should require proof of vaccination before providing their services.<\/p>\n And it shouldn\u2019t stop there.\u00a0Businesses should make vaccination a requirement for employment.\u00a0A COVID\u00a0outbreak can shut down a business and be financially devastating.\u00a0And failure to enforce basic health and safety measures is not fair to employees who have to work in offices, factories, and stores where close contact is required.\u00a0Things should get personal, too:\u00a0People should require friends to be vaccinated to attend the\u00a0barbeques and birthday parties they host.\u00a0Friends don\u2019t let friends spread COVID.<\/p>\n Pro-life party: <\/strong>Where are the Republican COVID-19 heroes willing to risk their careers to save lives?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n As I\u2019m writing this I can almost see the Twitter rebuttals:\u00a0\u201cIf people\u00a0want to risk being microchipped by the deep state, they can protect themselves by getting a vaccine without making me do the same.\u201d Nope.\u00a0In its real life application, the vaccine is about 90% effective.\u00a0Sure, that\u2019s impressive, but if the roulette wheels makes you one of the unlucky 10%, it\u2019s little consolation.\u00a0<\/p>\n There have already been several thousand documented \u201cbreakthrough\u201d cases of COVID-19 infections in people who have been vaccinated.\u00a0Some have died.\u00a0And with coronavirus variants popping up across the globe, for which the vaccine is less effective, we should expect to see more infections in vaccinated people.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unwilling to miss an opportunity to flout common sense, Republican leaders from Florida,\u00a0Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arkansas and other states want to\u00a0prevent businesses from requiring customers to be vaccinated.\u00a0Florida Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis has already issued an executive order \u201cprohibiting businesses from requiring patrons or customers to show vaccine documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n There are decades of state laws that require vaccination before children can attend schools.\u00a0There are seatbelt and helmet laws, no-texting-while-driving\u00a0laws, and countless other laws that restrict individual freedoms to ensure safety for the public at large.\u00a0Despite this, vaccine requirements designed to curb a global pandemic that has cost us more than 570,000 American lives is the hill on which Republicans want to die.\u00a0<\/p>\n Are we about to hit a vaccine wall?<\/strong>\u00a0If you have doubts about getting the COVID\u00a0shot, reconsider.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n When states pass these laws, designed to tell private companies how to run their businesses, there should be immediate legal challenges.\u00a0Surely, if a bakery can refuse to provide its services to a gay couple getting married, they can refuse to bake a cake for people who choose to place themselves, the bakery staff\u00a0and its customers at risk of contracting a deadly illness.<\/p>\n As a country, America has become too tolerant of half-witted individual autonomy that ignores the existential needs of the vast majority of its citizens.\u00a0While writing this column I caught a TV promo for a new documentary in which Cher saves an elephant.\u00a0It made me think of her performance in “Moonstruck.” Vaccine hesitancy? We need Cher to slap us in the face and tell us to \u201csnap out of it.\u201d<\/p>\nHalf-witted personal autonomy<\/h2>\n