It’s hard to watch the
pandemic drag on as Americans refuse the vaccine in
the name of freedom. “You’re talking
about an unproven, untested vaccine that doesn’t
even seem to really protect people, because people
who’ve gotten the vaccine are getting sick.” I went to one of the places
with the worst vaccination rate. “I don’t want a poison
forced into me.” “I’m tired of you all
trying to control us.” “One of the best things we
have is our own God-given natural antibodies.” It also has one of
the worst Covid case rates in the country. The Ozarks. “I don’t take the flu shot. I don’t take the
pneumonia shot. I don’t take any of them.” I wanted to find out why
residents here aren’t getting vaccinated. “You’re trying to
mask these kids up. It’s detrimental
to their health.” And what, if anything, could
convince them otherwise. “Hey, Mr. Green, it’s Dr. Martin here. How are you? I heard you had kind of a
rough night last night.” Christopher Green
is 53 years old and fighting for his life. Like 90 percent of the patients
in this packed hospital, he’s unvaccinated. “He’s just walking a very
thin tightrope right now. And to be honest, I don’t
expect him to get out of this without being on a ventilator. And if he has to
be on a ventilator, I don’t expect
him to survive.” I immediately asked
Christopher, why hadn’t he gotten the vaccine? It was eerie to hear
Christopher insist on his individual
freedoms, even as he struggled to breathe. Do you think other
people should get it? Christopher represents
a genuine challenge. Do the American values
of individual choice have to take priority
over public health? “By the time they’re here,
what can you do, you know? And when somebody
is in a room — really, really sick and can’t breathe
and suffering — I mean, it’s just not a good
time for a lecture.” But the result in a
place like Mountain Home is a 36 percent vaccination rate. And people are dying. “Let everyone live
their own life.” I heard this over and over. Freedom. Choice. “Don’t do it because
somebody’s pressuring you to do it.” “Everyone has the
right to choose.” Almost everyone I
met in Mountain Home told me they knew someone
who died from Covid. Most people are undoubtedly
concerned about the pandemic here. It didn’t feel to me
like a QAnon convention. Misinformation
certainly exists here. But a powerful force
behind the hesitancy is this fundamental idea
of personal freedom. But in a community where
individual rights are taking precedence over
everything else, you get endless individual
reasons not to get vaccinated, like believing
the vaccine doesn’t work. A preference for hearsay. “He had heard that the people
that were spreading the virus were people that had already
had the vaccine and that they were carriers.” Straight-up fear. “How just people
having reactions.” Even among those who
overcame their hesitancy, there’s a lack of urgency. “I don’t really have
any reasons to be out in circulation with
the rest of the public. I just enjoy my dogs and work
out on the farm and raise my koi fish.” With all these reasons not
to get vaccinated floating around, it makes
it hard for those who actually do want it. “I have a parent who does
not necessarily support vaccinations. It was hard because she
asked me where I was going. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m
going to get vaccinated.’ And she was not very
happy with that.” What struck me was that
Mary Beth had the courage to go against the grain. “People should be
more concerned about the well-being of
those around them, because I feel like not enough
people are thinking about other people when they make
the decision not to get the vaccine.” There’s an irony in someone
rebelling against a culture of individualism for the
good of their community. But voices like Mary Beth’s
are drowned out by leaders who are contradicting
public health officials. “No. The state is not going to
be requiring and mandating vaccinations.” “And I don’t believe anyone
should be forced to take the vaccine. It should be your
personal choice.” “These vaccines are always
voluntary and never forced.” “We don’t have to accept
the mandates, lockdowns and harmful policies
and the petty tyrants and bureaucrats.” “We can either have
a free society or we can have a
biomedical security state.” There’s no better place to see
the impact of this political rhetoric than in the hospital. Only about 50 percent of the
staff are vaccinated. None of the
unvaccinated staffers were willing to talk. “There are just a lot of
people that you cannot convince to get vaccinated —
patients, employees. It’s very frustrating. It’s sad. It’s — I don’t know —
it’s disappointing.” Just a few months
ago, the staff was planning a cookout to
celebrate the end of Covid. But instead of barbecuing,
they’re now battling another surge. “It’s exhausting. We’re all exhausted. We don’t have staff. We don’t have beds.” One obvious way out is
to mandate the vaccine. But in April, the
governor signed a law banning government mask
mandates and vaccine passports. That shifts the responsibility
mostly to private entities. Vaccine requirements
as part of employment, attending school or
participating in sports are reluctantly
motivating some to overcome their hesitancy. It seems to me that
the only other thing that actually
sways people here is being in the hospital. “And I really am upset at
myself because I did not get vaccinated. I just — I’ve never
hurt like I’ve hurt. It’s made a
believer out of me.” This is what freedom looks
like in America today. It’s always been complicated. But political leaders
should remember that this country was
also founded on the idea that government
should protect us. After all, in a pandemic,
one person’s freedom can be another person’s death. Christopher Green died nine
days after this interview. He was 53 years old.
