America has failed to deal with unvaccinated persons
and the damage they cause. The rest of the world
hasn't.
<
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-much-of-the-west-the-walls-are-c
losing-in-on-anti-vaxxers/ar-AASBLqy?ocid=msedgntp>
<
https://tinyurl.com/2p8mxn4b>
In much of the West, the walls are closing in on anti-vaxxers.
Anthony Faiola - Yesterday 11:01 PM.
You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter. Sign up
to get the rest, including news from around the globe, interesting ideas
and opinions to know sent to your inbox every weekday.
Republican governors in the United States may be championing the cause
of the vaccine resistant and suing to stop mandates imposed by the Biden
administration. But elsewhere in the West, the jab-less are increasingly
becoming personae non gratae.
The omicron variant is exacting some of the highest infection rates of
the pandemic, and the growing frustration of the vaccinated majority in
the West against its unvaccinated minority is reaching a crescendo in
some countries. Studies suggest omicron causes milder symptoms. Even so,
the unvaccinated — at least those without valid medical reasons — are
being blamed for overburdening hospitals by putting themselves, and
society, at risk.
In Florida, for instance, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a law that barred
companies and schools from insisting all their employees be vaccinated.
Within the week, Disney halted its vaccine requirement for Walt Disney
World workers.
Compare that to the stance of French President Emmanuel Macron, who
vowed in less-than-tactful language last week to make the life of the
unvaccinated a living hell.
Pushback from his political foes wasn’t enough to derail Macron’s plan
to shrink the world of the unvaccinated. By an overwhelming 214-to-93
vote, the French parliament approved his bid to remove a loophole that
had allowed the unvaccinated to get around French health restrictions on
dining at cafes, riding trains and going to the movies by providing a
negative coronavirus test.
Now, it’s take the jab, or sip your champagne at home.
At the same time, the world grew for the vaccinated in France.
Self-isolation times for those with full vaccine doses who test
positive, Macron’s government said, would drop from 10 days to seven on
Monday, and five days with a negative test result.
Macron’s explosive remarks — made ahead of an expected reelection bid in
April — assumed a certain calculus: That a national tipping point had
been reached against the perceived selfishness of the unvaccinated.
After critics derided the crude language he deployed as unpresidential,
Macron remained unbowed: “When some make from their freedom … a motto,
not only do they put others’ lives at risk, but they are also curtailing
others’ freedom. That I cannot accept,” he told reporters in Paris on
Friday. “When you are a citizen, you must agree to do your civic duty.”
Video: Londoners line up for Christmas vaccines (Reuters).
BBC Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield reasoned that Macron was issuing
a challenge to political rivals. “Are they with him, doing everything
possible to boost the number of vaccinated?” Schofield wrote. “Or are
they siding with the minority, the five million instead of the 50
million, and the anti-vaxxers?”
Getting less media play was a similar if more discerningly worded
reprimand last week from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He
spoke as the province of Quebec moved to bar the unvaccinated from
government-run stores selling alcohol or cannabis.
“People are seeing cancer treatments and elective surgeries put off
because beds are filled with people who chose not to get vaccinated;
they’re frustrated. When people see that we’re in lockdowns, or serious
public health restrictions right now because [of] the risk posed to all
of us by unvaccinated people, people get angry,” he told reporters.
On the other side of the world, Australia’s prime minister appeared to
make the same political determination as Macron — that it pays to
ostracize the unvaccinated.
Australian Open defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic, who is
unvaccinated, saw his visa canceled by federal authorities after a
dispute over whether he truly qualified for a medical exemption from
Australian rules that require vaccinations for visitors. The kerfuffle
left the wealthy athlete stuck in a dingy “detention hotel” as he took
his case to court.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, my colleagues reported, had
initially distanced himself from the dispute over Djokovic’s visa. But
with his conservative coalition facing a tougher than expected election
— and growing public outrage over what Australians saw as a priority
pass for an influential athlete — Morrison stepped in.
Despite outrage from Djokovic supporters — led by his father, who
likened his son’s persecution to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ — and a
back and forth over whether Australian officials and local tennis
authorities shared some of the blame, a public sense remained that
Djokovic was most guilty.
“In a Twitter poll conducted by your humble correspondent, out of about
5000 respondents, only 5 per cent or so think he should be let out of
the hotel and allowed to play after all — coincidentally, about the same
number of people in this country who are anti-vax nutters,” columnist
Peter FitzSimons wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Want to be unvaccinated in Austria? After a February mandate takes
effect, that will cost you thousands of dollars in running quarterly
fines. As cases spike in Italy — a country with tragic memories of the
toll of covid-19 — everyone over 50 must be vaccinated, officials
announced last week. If workers over 50 fail to prove they have either
been vaccinated or recently recovered from the virus, they face
suspension from work starting Feb. 15, Politico reported. This on top of
Italy’s strict Green Pass program that already makes life far more
complicated for the unvaccinated.
Increasingly, the West is rewarding the vaccinated, while maintaining
pandemic-related burdens on the unvaccinated. Belgium last week opted to
drop its requirement for fully vaccinated people to self-isolate if they
come into contact with an infected person — but the unvaccinated must
still isolate for 10 days.
In Germany, lawmakers say a proposed vaccine mandate may take months to
pass. In the meantime, the Germans have sharply rolled back access to
public spaces for the unvaccinated. Across Europe, the unvaccinated have
pushed back against mandates and lockdowns, sometimes violently, and
arguing government overreach. Last week, the Independent reported,
German police were “attacked with bottles, fireworks and one was even
bitten” during anti-vaccine mandate protests numbering 35,000 people in
cities across the country.
“It is clear that through these measures, they want to exclude us,” one
unvaccinated woman who did not give her name told Al Jazeera. “We can
sit outside certain places, but it always feels like you don’t have the
permission to exist in the same way that those who are vaccinated do.”
Read more:
<
https://www.sorryantivaxxer.com/>