Angry About COVID Noncompliance?

You're not alone.

There has been remarkably little polling on how Americans who are acting responsibly view those who aren’t — the posturing and occasional violence of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers get all the headlines — but the available surveys suggest that during the Delta wave a majority of vaccinated Americans were frustrated or angry with the unvaccinated. I wouldn’t be surprised if those numbers grew under Omicron, so that Americans fed up with their compatriots who won’t do the right thing are now a silent majority.

think about the burden of proof here. You don’t have to have 100 percent faith in the experts to accept that flying without a mask or dining indoors while unvaccinated might well endanger other people — and for what? I know that some people in red America imagine that blue cities have become places of joyless tyranny, but the truth is that at this point New Yorkers with vaccine cards in their wallets and masks in their pockets can do pretty much whatever they want, at the cost of only slight inconvenience.

those who refuse to take basic Covid precautions are, at best, being selfish — ignoring the welfare and comfort of their fellow citizens. At worst, they’re engaged in deliberate aggression — putting others at risk to make a point. And the fact that some of the people around us are deliberately putting others at risk takes its own psychological toll. Tell me that it doesn’t bother you when the person sitting across the aisle or standing behind you in the checkout line ostentatiously goes maskless or keeps his or her mask pulled down.

America’s bad pandemic largely reflects a bet on the part of right-wing politicians and opinion leaders that they can reap benefits by making basic public health precautions part of the culture war.

I can’t see any reason not to go after politicians who encourage irresponsible behavior. Early indications are that Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s new governor, is already paying a price for his Covid policies relaxing past restrictions. Let’s hope we see more of that.