Public opposition to Covid-19 vaccinations is now a major political issue. Vocal minorities in numerous countries have strongly questioned whether vaccines are either necessary or desirable, and their refusal to get vaccinated has had increasingly lethal consequences. The highly contagious Delta variant has spread rapidly amongst unvaccinated groups, creating major challenges for already exhausted and overtaxed medical staff. Governments have recognised that vaccine hesitancy is a major public health challenge, and have tried all kinds of things – from shotgun raffles in the United States to free herring in the Netherlands and a cow lottery in Thailand – to persuade more people to get vaccinated.
Anyone can see that there are two very different positions here. One side regards vaccines as essential to the fight against Covid-19. The other side regards the cure as worse than the disease.
Now imagine trying to fight Covid-19 without taking a clear position either one way or the other.
