视听｜美国人为什么不愿意打疫苗

New York Times Opinion: 

Dying in the Name of Vaccine Freedom

It’s hard to watch the pandemic drag on as Americans refuse the vaccine in the name of freedom.

“You’re talking about an unproven, untested vaccine that doesn’t even seem to really protect, because people who have gotten the vaccine are getting sick.”

I went to one of the places with the worst vaccination rate.

“I don’t want a poison forced into me.”

“I’m tired of you all trying to control us.”

“One of the best things we have is our own God-given natural antibodies.”

It also has one of the worst Covid case rates in the country.

The Ozarks (Kentucky )

“I don’t take the flu shot. I don’t take any of them.”

I wanted to find out why residents here aren’t getting vaccinated.

“You are trying to mask these kids up. It’s detrimental① to their health.”

① detrimental: /ˌdɛtrɪˈmɛntəl/ adj. Something that is detrimental to something else has a harmful or damaging effect on it. 有害的

And what if anything could convince them otherwise.

“Hey Mr. Green, it’s Dr. Martin here. How are you? I heard you had kind of a rough night last night.”

Christopher Green is 53 years old and fighting for his life. Like 90 percent of the patients in this packed hospital. He’s unvaccinated.

“He’s just walking a very thin tight rope right now to get out of this, and to be honest, I don’t expect him to get out of this without being on a ventilator. And if he has to be on a ventilator②, I don’t expect him to survive.”

② ventilator: /ˈvɛntɪˌleɪtə/ n. A ventilator is a machine that helps people breathe when they cannot breathe naturally, for example, because they are very ill or have been seriously injured. 人工呼吸器

I immediately asked Christopher, why hadn’t he gotten the vaccine?

“I’m more of a libertarian③ and I don’t like being told what I have to do. I’m still not completely, 100 percent, sold on the inoculation.”

③ libertarian: /ˌlɪbəˈtɛərɪən/ n. A libertarian is someone who with libertarian views. 自由论者

It was eerie④ to hear Christopher insist on his individual freedoms even as he struggled to breathe.

④ eerie: /ˈɪərɪ/ adj. If you describe something as eerie, you mean that it seems strange and frightening, and makes you feel nervous. 怪异的；可怕的

“Do you think other people should get it？”

“I mean, I think it’s every body’s individual right of choice to do what they want to. So I’m not one to dictate or make somebody feel guilty because they don’t.”

Christopher represents a genuine challenge. Do the American values of individual choice have to take priority over public health?

“By the time they’re here, what can you do, you know, when somebody is in a room—really sick and can’t breathe and suffering—I mean, it’s just not a good time for a lecture.”

But the result in a place like Mountain Home is a 36 percent vaccination rate and people are dying.

“Let everyone live their own life.”

I heard this over and over. Freedom. Choice.

“Don’t do it because somebody is pressuring you to do it.” 

“Everyone has the right to choose.”

Almost everyone I met in Mountain Home told me they knew someone who died from Covid. Most people are undoubtedly concerned about the pandemic here.

It didn’t feel to me like a QAnon convention. Misinformation certainly exists here, but a powerful force behind the hesitancy is this fundamental idea of personal freedom.

But in a community where individual rights are taking, precedence over everything else, you get endless individual reasons not to get vaccinated, like believing the vaccine doesn’t work.

“I have two parents in their 70s. Both had the vaccine and both got Covid.”

A preference for hearsay⑤.

⑤ hearsay: /ˈhɪəˌseɪ/ n. Hearsay is information which you have been told but do not know to be true. 传闻；谣言；道听途说

“He had heard that the people that were spreading the virus were people that had already had the vaccine and that they were carriers.”

Straight-up fear.

“How just people having reactions.”

Even among those who overcame their hesitancy, there is a lack of urgency.

“I don’t really have any reasons to be out in circulation with the rest of the public. I just enjoy my dogs and work out on the farm and raise my koi fish.”

With all these reasons not to get vaccinated floating around, it makes it hard for those who actually do want it.

“I have a parent who does not necessarily support vaccinations. It was hard because she asked me where I was going. I was like ‘Oh I’m going to get vaccinated.’ And she was not very happy with that.”

What struck me was that Mary Beth had the courage to go against the grain.

“People should be more concerned about the well-being of those around them. because I feel like not enough people are thinking about other people when they make the decision not to get.”

There’s an irony in someone rebelling against a culture of individualism for the good of their community. But voices like Mary Beth’s are drowned out by leaders who are contradicting public health officials.

(Asa Hutchinson, Governor Arkansas)

“No, the state is not going to be requiring and mandating⑥ vaccinations.”

⑥ mandate: /ˈmændeɪt/ v. To mandate something means to make it mandatory. 强制执行

(Ted Cruz, Senator Texas)

“I don’t believe anyone should be forced to take vaccine, it should be your personal choice.”

(Greg Abbott, Governor Texas)

“These vaccines are always voluntary and never forced.”

(Rand Paul, Senator Kentucky)

“We don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns and harmful policies and the petty tyrants and bureaucrats.”

(Ron DeSantis, Governor Florida)

“We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical⑦ security state.”

⑦ biomedical: /ˌbaɪəʊˈmɛdɪkəl/ adj. Biomedical research examines the effects of drugs and medical techniques on the biological systems of living creatures. 生物医学的

There’s no better place to see the impact of this political rhetoric⑧ than in the hospital. Only about 50 percent of the staff are vaccinated. None of the unvaccinated staffers were willing to talk.

⑧ rhetoric: /ˈrɛtərɪk/ n. If you refer to speech or writing as rhetoric, you disapprove of it because it is intended to convince and impress people but may not be sincere or honest. 虚华词藻

“There are just a lot of people that you cannot convince to get vaccinated—patients, employees. It’s very frustrating. It’s sad. It’s—I don’t know—it’s disappointing.”

Just a few months ago, the staff was planning a cook out to celebrate the end of Covid. But instead of barbecuing they’re now battling another surge.

“It’s exhausting. We’re all exhausted. We don’t have staff. We don’t have beds.”

One obvious way out is to mandate the vaccine. In April the governor signed a law, banning government mask mandates and vaccine passports. That shifts the responsibility mostly to private entities.

Vaccine requirements as part of employment, attending school or participating in sports are reluctantly motivating some to overcome their hesitancy. It seems to me that the only other thing, that actually sways⑨ people here is being in the hospital.

⑨ sway: /sweɪ/ v. If you are swayed by someone or something, you are influenced by them. 影响

“I really am upset at myself because I did not get vaccinated. I just—I’ve never hurt like I’ve hurt. It’s made a believer out of me.”

This is what freedom looks like in America today. It’s always been complicated. But political leaders should remember that this country was also founded on the idea, that government should protect us. After all, in a pandemic one person’s freedom can be another person’s death.

“I probably should have had a little healthier fear. It needs to be taken more seriously. I mean, I don’t know how close I am to being a lot worse. I really don’t know.”

Christopher Green died nine days after this interview. He was 53 years old.

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