On The Daily Show Trevor Noah comments on the odd fact that there seems to be high levels of resistance to getting the covid-19 vaccine among police and firefighters. The vaccine mandates issued by many jurisdictions that require all government employees to be vaccinated has resulted in many of them either leaving or challenging the mandates in court. Given that they pride themselves on risking their lives for the sake of others, this fear of taking a life-saving vaccine is puzzling. It may be that it is a higher level of general anti-vaccine and other right-wing ideology within these groups that is driving the resistance.
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
I really loved the point that ${whitehouse spokesperson} made, that more cops have died from COVID than in the line of duty. With sane people, the conversation would have ended there.
Cops just prefer to be the ones giving shots, not receiving them. Understandable. I think they can handle this one on their own, though. No real need for nurses and such…. Just put them in a circle with a big pile of needles, and them let them have at it. Maybe some blowguns too, to make it more enticing. I bet they’d sort things out in no time, and you wouldn’t even have to explain what’s in the needles.
But no, they won’t just “follow the law.” How incredibly unrealistic. That is for other people, and they certainly didn’t sign up so they could be other people.
Many years ago I had a friend tell me about something he called ‘the illusion of security’ provided by the police and fire personnel. I used to scoff at him for his views. Now I understand more fully what he meant. So are they just in it for the money and benefits and power and the whole ‘protect and serve’ thing is nothing more than a scam? This just seems like a weird place for them to draw the line.
It came up over in PZ’s blog, but I think refusal to get a vaccine should be grounds for restrictions on firearm use/ownership. If someone won’t get a vaccine, they are demonstrating either really poor risk assessment, or a complete disregard for personal safety. People with poor risk assessment shouldn’t be using firearms, and people with a disregard for personal safety shouldn’t feel a need to “defend” themselves, or whatever. yeah, yeah, exceptions for people with legitimate medical issues…
It is unsurprising that police are vaccine hesitant, as they skew heavily conservative. It is disappointing to see something similar in the fire fighters.
Police officers tend to skew authoritarian, also. I think a lot of the vaccine defiance is their refusal to do what an outside group (medical) tells them to do.
In Australia: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-22/qld-coronavirus-covid-police-lose-bid-covid-mandate/100561648
Echoing (and slightly expanding on) what Katydid said, it seems that, for a cop, taking the vaccine is being on the wrong end of the authoritarian arrow.
Toronto:
So, a bit better than the general population.