Do We Need to Listen to the Unvaccinated?

Pro-Vax? Anti-Vax? Unvaccinated? Confusion? Conflict? Crisis of Values?

Militants in any set of views form a small minority – mercifully. We witness three kinds of militancy in influential sections of pro-vaxxers in the West. Militancy reveals an aggressive viewpoint demanding a particular way of viewing or responding to a situation lacking a capacity to see outside the viewpoint.

The first kind of militancy comes from pro-vaxxers who want the government to bring in laws to vaccinate all men, women and children.

Austrian government plans compulsory vaccination starting from 1 February 2022. This is an expression of militancy.

Germany government plans compulsory vaccination in 2022 with lawmakers free to vote according to conscience.

British Prime Minister calls for a national debate on compulsory vaccination.

The second kind of militancy exists among pro-vaxxers who express a range of judgemental views on the unvaccinated regarding most unvaccinated as naïve or irresponsible. Such militants perceive the unvaccinated as the super spreaders of Covid.

Insistent daily pressure from scientists and politicians gets directed at the unvaccinated to get the jab without reference to changes in lifestyle to develop resistance to covid to reduce its impact.

The third kind of militancy among the pro-vaccinated demand their government pass laws that citizens must have a Covid passport to enter various venues.

Tension increases as governments move towards Covid authoritarianism in a Western culture conditioned to the other extreme standpoint of freedom of choice.

• If you are against compulsory vaccinations, what ways are you willing support the unvaccinated?
• If you are against compulsory covid passports, what ways are you willing support the unvaccinated?
• Do those who have the double jab, triple jab or booster jab support the unvaccinated who wish to enter such venues?
• Do those who have had the jab stay silent and ignore the wishes of the unvaccinated?

We need to remember medical science has not found a cure for any Covid variant but has provided a vaccine addressing the major symptoms of Covid-19 which blocks Covid infecting the lungs. This is welcome. The vaccine has saved many lives. Yet, we can still catch the virus and transmit the virus whether we have had one, two or three jabs. The vaccinated and unvaccinated can go to a venue and spread the jab or become infected.

The Militancy of Anti-Vaxxers 

Conspiracy theorists claim to know the reasons for the global pandemic. They argue amongst themselves their views and dismiss other militant views. It is hard to find any evidence for any of these views. Many militant views have anger as a foundation for their views or the foundation for the view shows an unwillingness to acknowledge other perceptions about the pandemic.  Conspiracy theorists, like others, seem angry or in denial obscuring an expansive exploration and response to health and mental suffering.

Conspiracy Theories include:

• A method to reduce overpopulation
• A plot of the elite to take away freedom of the employed and then cut their wages in the competition to get a job after recovery from Covid
• Exercise total control over daily lives of people
• An opportunity for big pharma to make $billions annually year after year
• A self-pointed world leader, Bill Gates buys influence in global health and global agriculture
• Fakes news
• Inflated death rates
• No worse than the flu
• New world order

The Struggle of the Unvaccinated

I get the sense from contact with the unvaccinated of the struggle to come to a decision. Many seem to have lower levels of trust in politicians who make announcements about policy. Millions hear politicians propounding a range of views due to adherence to the rigidity of their position. We witness the deep inequity between the powerful/privileged and the rest of society with most of the unvaccinated in the pecking order along with the homeless, the unwanted and the unloved.

People have taken several issues into consideration and declined the vaccination. They have listened, viewed and read comments on Covid.  They have then made the decision to stay away from the jab. Confusion and fear also appear as a major influence for the unvaccinated rather than the narrow dogma of the angry pro and angry anti vaxxers. The British government has made no effort to find out why 10% of the population, aged 12 or over, has refused the jab. Other countries experience a much higher percentage of citizens who refuse the jab.

The government and their experts often give the impression that 100% vaccination of men, women and children would stop the pandemic. 90% of the UK population has had one-to-three jabs. mostly two jabs and a booster jab. We still face the potential for another explosion of infections in 2020 and early 2021.

Six million people in the UK wait for an operation. The vaccination has saved many lives. How many people with other life-threatening illnesses have suffered and died because they had to take second place to Covid patients?

Typical Voices of the Unvaccinated who remain unsure about a Vaccination

Some of the views expressed below express fears and confusion about the pandemic, efficacy of vaccinations and motivations of governments, medical industry and  science. Fears may have much, little or no relationship to facts. Blaming people with fear and confusion leads nowhere.

We need to listen to the unvaccinated rather than dismiss them or heap blame on them. Mutual trust and confidence develop through mutual listening not through blame.

Here are some of the fears or deep concerns. What is your response when you experience or hear such fears or concerns?

In Alphabetical order:

• Covid-19 and the variants make a mockery of all predictions.
• Covid-19 and its variants are highly contagious. There is no escape. We must get used to it.
• Global vaccine inequity gives priority to the wealthy nations.
• Herd immunity is a scam.
• How can we trust our politicians? They ignore lockdown, hold parties and award their business friends huge contracts to produce stuff for hospitals and patients.
• I am concerned about the long-term impact of jabs. In two years, we are told to have two jabs and booster jab. Will more jabs weaken our resistance to infections?
• I don’t believe there are no long-term side effects from these jabs.
• I don’t want my children having a jab.
• I don’t want to go to the clinic or hospital. These are the most likely places to catch the variant.
• I feel confused about having the jab. I hear terrible stories of people who suffered after the vaccination.
• I have a serious health condition. I don’t think my body can handle one Covid vaccination after another.
• I have high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems. I am not going to risk a vaccination.
• I just want to get on with my life. I don’t read the news or get involved in arguments about Covid.
• I know people who refuse the vaccination. I trust them more than the authorities and our institutions.
• I refuse the jab. That doesn’t make me a conspiracy theorist, a demagogue, deluded or anti-vax.
• I’m pregnant. I do not want to risk losing my baby.
• I’m scared of needles. I am not the only one. I read up to 16% of adults avoid vaccinations due to fear of needles.
• I know a person who became infected with Covid despite having the double jab.
• I’ve lost trust in my government. They only want to be seen to be doing something.
• If I must have a vaccination every few months, what will be the long-term impact on my health?
• Jab or no jab, every person can spread Covid-19.
• Karma.
• My body is fighting cancer. A vaccination could be the last straw.
• After the jabs, my parents paid for an antibody test after three months. My father had a high number while my mother had a small number of antibodies.
• More research is needed.
• Omicron or a subsequent variant will render all vaccines irrelevant. We become more vulnerable with every new variant.
• Our immune system will eventually be defenceless as we contract more variants.
• The booster jab can only offer up to 75% protection against Omicron and it gets less as time goes by.  
• The government limits numbers in indoor venues while permitting football matches with tens of thousands pressed together shouting and yelling. 
• The government tells us to work at home and go to Christmas parties. It doesn’t make sense. I am going to make my own decisions.
• The vaccination industry does not want Covid to end. It is making a fortune. I don’t want to have anything to do with this corrupt business.
• Travel restrictions only slow down the spread of the virus. People like to travel or need to travel. The virus is unstoppable.
• We are told ventilation minimises transmission of Covid. We are also told to stay indoors. Many of us live in small spaces. Scientists can’t have it both ways.
• We can’t trust doctors. They do as they are told by the drug industry.
• We hear data, data, data. Look at the scientific data. What data? Data keeps changing.
• We hear we do not have enough data. We need more data. Who can you believe?
• We, non-white people, have been cheated, manipulated and lied to for centuries. 95% of the non-white people in poor countries have no access to a vaccination. 
• Western countries prefer stockpiling of vaccines to sharing, self-interest to the collective interest.
• What’s the point of a vaccination? The anti-bodies rapidly fade within a few months. How will I know when the anti-bodies cease to protect me or barely work?
• Why should I believe in herd immunity? Where is the evidence? 

Conflict of Views

Militant pro-vaxxers have a dogmatic faith in medical science (“accept the science, accept the science”) as if science will eventually find a complete cure for the current variants of Covid-19 and for all ongoing variants. Others have different views about the jabs and health and safety issues.

Pro-vaxxers, unvaccinated and anti-vaxxers experience a conflict of between and among each of these major groups. This conflict provides a recipe for fear, intolerance and aggression in society. The unvaccinated find themselves lumped together with militant anti-vaxxers.

Meanwhile the vaccination industry makes a fortune. Pfizer has earned an estimate $35 billion dollars in a year and still refuses to share its knowledge of production of the vaccine to enables billions of citizens in poor countries to have access to a vaccination. The wanton greed of many vaccine companies reduces the opportunity for people worldwide to save them from terrible suffering, dying and death.

The vaccine industry takes no responsibility for the global dying and death rate secure in the knowledge that scientists and governments will do little and say little about the selfish behaviour of the vaccine industry like Pfizer, Moderna and other big drug industries.

The unvaccinated slowly become the untouchables – excluded and unworthy to belong to the caste system in the private sector, public sector, NHS, education, workers and more. We move towards a global and national Covid apartheid.

The unvaccinated face the wrath of governments and medical industry for overcrowded hospitals and deaths from Covid. The unvaccinated have become the scapegoats.

Covid, Food and Death

At time of writing, 824, 520 US citizens have died from Covid-19 according to Worldometer.info.

In 2021, National Library of Medicine, USA (National Centre for Biotechnology Information) engaged in extensive research of deaths from Covid-19 requiring use of ventilators.  Their research concluded that nearly half of patients with COVID-19 receiving IMV (Invasive Mechanical Ventilation) died based on the reported case fatality rates reaching up to 84.4% for patients aged over 80.

The House of Commons (UK) report states 28% of UK citizens are obese (BMI over 30) and another 36% are overweight. That is more than 35 million people of the population. 75% of citizens aged between 45-74 are obese or overweight. Covid-19 and existing major health issues continue to contribute to the high death rate. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure make people unprepared and unable to recover from Covid. A poor diet is one of the significant factors leading to death from Covid.

A healthy diet is one of the major factors in preventing death from Covid. Yet the government and scientists say and do little to bring in national legislation to order the food industry to provide healthy, nutritious food with a small section of a shop/supermarket confined to junk food.

We live in the delusion of freedom of personal choice enabling the food industry/supermarkets and more to continue its unethical practices to encourage addiction to harmful foods, drink and smoking. If scientists and politicians want to save lives, they would introduce laws for the growing and selling of healthy food.

Healthy food and healthy lifestyle increase dramatically the likelihood of a quick recovery from Covid.

A Blind Spot of the Government, Science and NHS around Diet

In the UK, the NHS knows next to nothing about the relationship of diet to health. Just look at the meals the NHS dishes out to patients in hospitals or the pointless advisory flyers on diet doctors give to their patients. The flyers end up in the patient’s dustbin at home or at best in the recycling bin.

Medical scientists and doctors have little idea of how hard it is to break free from unhealthy eating habits. Far too many experts, themselves, have major health issues. A doctor spends four or five years in medical training. She or he might receive an afternoon or a few days of lectures on food and health in that whole period.

There is no national debate on the relationship of Covid-19 to food saturated in sugar, salt, fat, addictive, chemicals and processed. Community, sharing of experiences and giving nourishment, via diet and kindness, support our collective well-being. Governments and science have little understanding of the painful issues around food. People turn to junk food when feeling lonely, needy or upset.

Doctors provide prescriptions for big pharma or send patients to the A and E to await specialised treatment. What we eat, drink and inhale keep us healthy or systematically destroys our health. Freedom of choice around food belongs to mythology, a bizarre belief system, a form of abuse of the collective, rich and poor alike.

Instead of a sense of community, we live in a culture of self-interest, self-help and self-blame.

Why don’t the unvaccinated get vaccinated?

It is easy to find out. You talk with people and exchange emails about Covid. You engage in online research to get a sense of the plight. Citizens have a genuine deep concern about the efficacy of vaccination. There is confusion among the pro-vaxxers, unvaccinated and anti-vaxxers. When people experience confusion and endure lots of arguments, the mind needs to find an outlet. The outlet expresses as fear and blame. The pro-vaxxers militants point the accusing finger at the minority while the anti-vaxxers point at the majority and powerful institutions. The unvaccinated often find the whole situation problematic leaving little confidence in themselves or others.

Governments keep changing their strategy in terms of handling Covid through variation in restrictions. This alone leaves people confused.

Why do people resist vaccination? I would surmise only a small percentage have a militant ideological standpoint in denial of Covid-19.

Even mass vaccination in a country would not put an end to Covid. Millions travel into the country by plane, ship and road. People travel out of the country and return to the UK. One infected person infects a few. The few infect more. Within weeks, numbers increase to tens of thousands and a million and more infected people every month in the UK.

Neither the self-interest of the nation state, nor millions of people with serious health conditions, have the capacity to stop the pandemic. Vaccinations, masks and lockdown reveal a simplistic response. It is hardly surprising that we witness conflict and divisions between pro-vaxxers, anti-vaxxers and the unvaccinated.

I would suggest militancy can have a positive aspect as well. For example, social critics, including myself, also express a militant voice but with the intention to expand the dialogue to establish a bigger vision.  There is no wish to show contempt for those with a different view. The application of a bigger vision increases the resources to resolve suffering in our world including addressing the global pandemic. Though well-intentioned, the current approach of governments, medical science and the vaccine industry reveals an increasing militancy in its ranks through its narrow prism.

Vaccinated or not, we need to listen to the voices of the unvaccinated and vaccinated. I have had two jabs. We can discuss our collective experience and concerns whether vaccinated or not. We can explore ways to inspire all of us to campaign for change for a healthy way of life. Fear and blame block our collective development.

Let us speak up for public health and public well-being through the expansive wisdom and compassion of numerous people. Together, we can reduce the negative impact of the global pandemic on our health and state of mind.