The Unwelcome Unvaxxed

Satire? You can't tell anymore these days.

No this isn’t from 2021 - it was published as an opinion piece, yesterday, in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Maybe it’s satire, maybe it’s not. Either way, it’s a strange piece to publish.

The unwelcome unvaxxed by Patricia Dawn Robertson

Whenever I leave the sanctuary of my home office and venture out to resupply, my keen ears listen for the worrisome sound of a chest-rattling indoor cough.

Every trip to the grocery store is an educational sound bite from Hinterland’s Who’s Who:

The unvaccinated citizen is a pesky creature, found in public landscapes, especially discount grocery outlets and anti-government rallies. If you hear the noxious spreaders’ distinctive lower respiratory rasping in the frozen foods section, head straight to the safety of the produce section or quit the store for the closest Liberal Party fundraiser.

If you asked me in March 2020 if I’d still be COVID-vigilant in January 2024, I’d have scoffed. By 2024, I imagined optimistically, the scientists would have an effective vaccine and we would have beat this thing — together — as a community of caring, concerned citizens.

Yet, in my age group, 59 to 69, only 27 per cent of Canadians have their booster shots up to date.

Didn’t nightly graphic images back in 2020 on CBC’s The National of unvaccinated people on respirators resonate?

What about crowded emergency rooms? Patients who waited hours to be seen then offered a hallway gurney?

After almost four years on the pandemic front lines, medical staff are burnt out. Yet many yahoos can’t be bothered to get a vaccine booster. Unboosted is unvaccinated.

Others reject the concept of vaccination entirely, and stoke fear via conspiracy theories, such as U.S. celebrity influencer Jenny McCarthy.

A belligerent branch of my extended family remains unvaccinated. The rationale? The concerned mother of three needs to know: What’s in the vaccines?

The thirty-something urbanite is a rebellious millennial who demands full disclosure. But this isn’t a cereal box on the breakfast table. It’s a vaccine. The ingredients are patented, tested and approved by Health Canada.

The choice to not vaccinate has consequences. Her mother, 62, who works in a home office, has suffered through three bouts of COVID, caught from group hugs with unvaccinated grandchildren.

Why did grandma catch COVID? She didn’t mask or keep up her boosters. COVID Grandma, a Hinterland Who’s Who subset, is just one of the 73 per cent in the 59-to-69 cohort that skipped the jab. “Isn’t that awful pandemic over? Two shots are enough, right?”

But it’s not just about you. The complete lack of concern for others is repugnant. We don’t just vaccinate for self-protection but to protect the vulnerable. The refusal to vax is selfish. It’s reckless. And it’s burdening our overtaxed health-care system.

How many Canadians were sick in the busy run-up to Christmas? Just ask Winnipeg emergency room staff about the flu season tsunami. Winnipeg has been hit especially hard hit, yet vaccine uptake rates continue to wane.

I’m here to call out the unvaccinated. It’s been four years. I’m tired of nodding my head patiently while they spout misinformation and ignorant rationales. The unvaxxed are about as welcome at my house as COVID or Pierre Poilievre. I now equate the two. Unvaccinated = COVID carrier.

Rude, inconsiderate spreaders aren’t worth the social capital so I’ll be screening my calls, shielding myself from your long-winded complaints about the harsh impact of flu season on you and your poor unvaxxed family.

When you elect to comply with health advice and vaccinate, it’s not a personal sacrifice like fighting overseas to protect democracy.

Vaccine aversion carries a shameful legacy. Let’s summarize the talking points of an antivaxxer’s forthcoming obituary:

— Ignored the desperate pleas of exhausted health professionals and dedicated scientists instead taking a Master Class online from vacuous celebrities.

— Recklessly infected others then minimized the impact of the illness. Went out in public while infectious and refused to mask. “It’s just COVID!”

— Ignored travel advisories then bragged about exotic trips via Facebook to the obedient housebound.

— Obnoxiously spread rumours and misinformation about vaccine safety.

— Gathered in Ottawa to intimidate public officials and demand freedom. Bank account frozen. Mandatory court appearance.

— Died of complications from COVID.

In our infantilized Skip the Dishes culture, we’ve lost sight of the big picture. Citizenship and democratic freedom carry responsibility. It’s not unencumbered. Vaccination is our moral imperative.

The ongoing hacking cough of the unvaxxed is our call to arms: COVID has tested us and we are failing. But 2024 can be our turnaround year.

In a world where so much is beyond our control, here’s something simple and free that those who feel powerless can do to make a huge difference: get vaccinated, get boosted, get healthy, carry on.

Freelance journalist Patricia Dawn Robertson thanks those of you who are vaccinated. She continues to hurl invective on outliers.