In the face of the latest round of blaming the vaccine-free, as an accelerationist and all round awkward bastard, it is perhaps tempting to say “go on then, lock down the unvaxxed – it won’t make any difference to me at this point.”
But we know exactly what would happen. The same as happened with lockdowns and masks: the numbers will already be trending downwards by the time we lockdown the unjabbed, the numbers will continue to decline after this, and it will be taken as proof positive that it’s the unvaxxed are indeed the problem, and assertions will be widely made that things would have been a great deal worse if the government hadn’t taken this decisive action.
Never mind that Austria already tried that and still felt the need to subsequently lock everyone down. Never mind that thanks to vaccine passports, other places (Germany, Netherlands, New York etc) already have a de facto lockdown of the vaccine-free, so there are already case studies showing that it has not been effective.
Never mind that Israel (who were first to talk of a 3rd ‘booster’ shot, and were followed dutifully by every other country) is now talking of a 4th shot. Which speaks really well of the efficacy of the vaccines, does it not? The US CDC is now selectively rolling out 4th shots and the big man at Pfizer has said Omicron ‘may’ mean people need a fourth shot sooner than expected.
People who took the jab are now heavily invested in believing that the vaccines work, for various psychological reasons that have been discussed at length. So, even this news of a 4th jab will not persuade them that the vaccines are ineffective, and news of ‘rare’ side effects is just not cutting through. Nor is any analysis that gives the lie to claims that the vaccine-free are swamping the NHS.
Therefore, against my every instinct, the very last thing I would think of doing at the moment is giving it the big “COME ON THEN”.
AJ
Update: Germany is going ahead with fourth jab.
Update 2: UK considering same.
Al Jahom's Final Word 