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Washington: Just when you’re feeling proud of America, she finds a way to break your heart.
At the end of June, it looked like the US was about to pass a remarkable milestone in its fight against the coronavirus.
After plummeting for months, the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases appeared poised to drop below 10,000 for the first time since March 2020.
That day never came. Instead, cases began rising and had been going up ever since.
New cases are now back to 118,000 a day – the highest since February when only a small proportion of the country was vaccinated against the virus.
Other countries such as Britain and Israel have experienced big increases in cases in recent months. But, thanks to their high vaccination rates, the surges did not lead to a big increase in deaths.
It’s a different story in the US. After falling as low as 180 in early July, the average number of daily deaths is back at more than 600 and climbing rapidly.
On Tuesday, US time, the country recorded 1049 COVID-19 deaths, the most since March.
The reason is simple, tragic and entirely preventable. Not enough Americans have been willing to get vaccinated, despite having access to an abundance of free and stunningly effective vaccines.
Americans have been offered all manner of incentives to get vaccinated from free beer to doughnuts and even guns.
Media outlets across the country are full of stories of Americans fighting for their lives in hospital and expressing regret at not getting vaccinated when they had the chance.
“I messed up big time, guys,” Virginia father, Travis Campbell, said through an oxygen mask in a video posted to Facebook last week. “I didn’t get the vaccine … I made a mistake, I admit it.”
Compare the US to Canada, which has no vaccine manufacturing capacity and had to beg to gain access to America’s stockpile of unused AstraZeneca vaccines.
At the end of May, just 6 per cent of Canadians had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to 41 per cent of Americans.
Just two months later, Canada had overtaken its neighbour: 63 per cent of Canadians are now fully vaccinated compared to 51 per cent of Americans.
Forget so-called vaccine hesitancy; America is now in the grip of outright vaccine refusal.
Americans have been offered all manner of incentives to get vaccinated, from free beer to doughnuts and even guns.
Yet 30 per cent of the adult population has declined – a far higher level of resistance than comparable countries such as Canada, Britain and, based on trends, Australia.
Communities with large numbers of white conservatives and African Americans stand out for their low vaccination rates.
Loopy conspiracies that the vaccines contain microchips or make you infertile get a lot of attention when explaining vaccine refusal.
What Americans all had in common was that they perceived getting vaccinated as an entirely personal decision about what they put into their bodies.
There was no sense that they had a role to play in a shared, nationwide effort to prevent the spread of the virus and prevent people from dying.
But something else was at play in late June when The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age visited Mississippi, the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the nation.
Some hold-outs were ideologically opposed conservatives; others were lazy, apathetic or worried about potential side effects. What they all had in common was that they perceived getting vaccinated as an entirely personal decision about what they put into their bodies.
There was no sense that they had a role to play in a shared, nationwide effort to prevent the spread of the virus and prevent people from dying.
The dark side of American individualism and liberty is selfishness and a lack of empathy.
As a result, vaccinated Americans feel increasingly angry at their fellow citizens for refusing to get the jab. The sense of bliss and relief of just a few months ago is quickly giving way to fear and frustration. Continue reading
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