The case against anti-vaxxer coddling

Liberals are right to be furious. And it's good politics too.

A protester.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

The coronavirus pandemic is back in the United States in a big way. Many had hoped that wide availability of vaccines would at least reduce the virus to a slow burn, but the combination of the ultra-contagious Delta variant and low vaccination rates in much of the country has caused a renewed surge of infection, hospitalization, and death. Across almost the whole Gulf Coast, cases are spiraling completely out of control, and states are running short of hospital ICU beds.

Vaccinated Americans are starting to seethe. In June and early July, it seemed like the U.S. nearly had this thing beaten. But now the stubborn entitlement of a reactionary minority is delaying the return of normal life indefinitely, and putting the lives of others — in particular, all the children under 12 and those with compromised immune systems who cannot get vaccinated — at risk. Surveys have repeatedly shown that vaccine refusal is largely a partisan phenomenon.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.