For every person currently adding the suffix “(vaxxed)” to their name on social media, and many are, there is another who has quietly refused the vaccine, exercising their right to choose in a free society, even if they are unwilling to accept that might come at a cost. Reports last week revealed a third of Londoners have not had even a single dose, and there’s even a curious shortfall among the double-vaccinated: polls have suggested five percent of people who’ve already received two doses don’t plan on getting a booster.
The rage is there, but people don’t tend to want to name and shame. Another person whose friend has revealed themselves as anti-vaccines this year thought he was “the last person” who’d turn one down.
“In our popular imagination, we believe anti-vaxxers are stupid or selfish people, and many of us think we all think the same: that vaccines are an unalloyed good,” she says. “He’s suspicious about vaccines, says ‘we don’t know enough yet’, and you can only talk about it so much with somebody, because people are so polarised now. He’s as entrenched in his views as I am in mine, and nothing I could say would make him move an inch.”
Her friend socially distances, uses lateral flow tests before meeting people, and generally follows Government guidelines. But despite us being repeatedly told, with overwhelming evidence, that we have a civic obligation to accept a vaccine in order to protect those who cannot, and that the side effects are miniscule in comparison to the risks of Covid, he cannot be moved.
“Outside of the lunatic people at demonstrations, I think the quiet ones like him are probably more common than we think. I can’t imagine falling out with him permanently, but people have tough decisions to make on friendships now.”
RSVPs can be changed; Christmas cards rescinded; but avoiding work colleagues whose attitude to the vaccine is different from your own might be trickier. Recently introduced rules allowing vaccinated workers to test themselves daily to avoid self-isolation after a close contact with a Covid case means employers could find out who among their staff is jabbed.
But it may not even get that far: job adverts requiring candidates to be jabbed increased by 189 per cent between August and October, and several employers – including G4S and Pimlico Plumbers – have started implementing a “no jab, no job” rule for some positions. The NHS brings in such a rule in April, but senior figures in the health service have warned that entire hospital units may have to close.
