LETTER:Love the unvaccinated

When has scapegoating a group of people ended well?

I’m writing in response to the letter suggesting that the unvaccinated are holding us hostage.

Similarly disturbing language is gaining traction to marginalize people who want bodily autonomy.

“They are domestic terrorists,” Gov. Inslee; “misogynists and racists,” Canada’s Justin Trudeau; “non-citizens whose lives should be made as unbearable as possible,” France’s Emmanuel Macron; and “responsible for our slow economic recovery,” President Biden.

Several European countries plan compulsory vaccination, an act of violence.

George Orwell’s famous 1984 quote applies here:

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”

It should be plainly obvious that people have the innate right to accept or reject medical treatment free of coercion.

But here’s some Orwellian math backed by dozens of research papers to add weight: disease eradication isn’t possible due to animal reservoirs, vaccines efficacy wanes, omicron is exploding even in highly vaccinated places with mandates and passports, natural immunity has durable protective qualities, minority groups tend to be more vaccine-skeptical because of past abuses, risk-benefit calculations vary with age and gender.

There’s no functioning safety net for vaccine injured people.

Many people willingly, even joyfully, get vaccinated.

For others, a different choice makes sense for a wide variety of medical or personal reasons.

Corrosive speech strips away our own humanity if we don’t push back against it.

Especially now, we need to love our neighbors.

All of them.

Kathy Zelenka

Port Angeles