Overabundance of Caution

I've heard, and read, from a number of sources at this point, that there's a weird disconnect in the United States. Namely that taking precautions against SARS-CoV-2 seems to be something of an all-or-nothing phenomenon. It was an interesting point, and it seemed logical, but I really didn't think much about it.

But recently someone made a point that stuck with me, because it suddenly connected some dots: Why are people so excised about vaccine uptake, when so many people in the areas with the highest vaccination rates still don't feel that it's "safe" to go about their daily lives. The company I work for has a vaccine requirement to go into the office. And due to a state rule, if one is going to eat in a restaurant, proof of vaccination is required. But an in-person lunch was cancelled recently, due to concerns about the pandemic. As one person had put it, why do people complain about others saying that the vaccines aren't effective, when they themselves don't appear to believe that they're effective?

I think that it's just a quirk of Blue America, but one would think that there was an elderly or immune-system compromised person around every corner, helplessly waiting to be struck dead by the merest hint of a breakthrough case in their neighborhood. It's an interesting inversion of the idea that liberals are more willing to experiment and take risks that conservatives. Part of it is, I suspect, the nature of how the pandemic is seen. Blue America is sometimes hypersensitive to threats to "the most vulnerable among us." (As an aside, aren't all threats more dangerous to "the most vulnerable?" After all, if they weren't susceptible to so many things that other people didn't consider threats, they wouldn't be "the most vulnerable.") And, as I understand it, this drives a fear that any act of carelessness is abdication of a duty to look out for the disadvantaged.

The recurring anxiety about potential breakthrough cases, and their potential consequences, however, does look an awful lot like a lack of confidence in the efficacy of the vaccines. Which makes sense, if the goal is absolutely zero infections; but I was pretty sure that it's far too late to board that ship before it sails. It's long gone, and, having struck an iceberg, is now resting comfortably at the bottom of the Atlantic.

I'm not recommending that people "loosen up." The uptight "neurotic liberal" stereotype exists for a reason, and part of that reason is that people find it less stressful to live that way. But maybe it's worth having a more accurate idea of what the risks and threats actually are. Overestimating them doesn't really do much to help, and it sends the message that people don't really believe that the precautions they so publicly take are actually doing anything to help, either.

Postscript: There's a sense in which it feels that people don't take the vaccine because it will prevent illness. Rather, they take it because it will prevent them from being labelled as "irresponsible" if they do become ill. Another sign of the partisanship that crept into the whole endeavor, I suppose.