Divisive Rhetoric About the Unvaccinated

By the summer of 2021, divisive rhetoric about the unvaccinated became a common feature of public discourse relating to vaccines and vaccine mandates. This rhetoric became particularly intense following the public messaging campaign built around the phrase “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” In a televised address given on September 9, 2021, President Joe Biden said of the unvaccinated “your refusal [to get vaccinated] has cost all of us.”¹⁾ Addressing the vaccinated, he went on to say “I understand your anger at those who haven't gotten vaccinated.”²⁾ By the fall of 2021, other public figures, as well as prominent doctors, human rights activists, and bio-ethicists were calling for unvaccinated people to be denied medical care, denied insurance, subject to fines, barred from public spaces, or put into concentration camps.

As divisive rhetoric about the unvaccinated became commonplace, it was increasingly clear from the Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Reports issued regularly by the UK government (and from other sources), that the narrative of a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” was poorly supported by epidemiological data.³⁾⁴⁾ For example, reports through December 16, 2021 (Week 50) indicate that the vaccinated population have accounted for 3 in every 5 Covid-19 cases, 3 in every 5 Covid-19 hospitalizations, and 4 in every 5 Covid-19 deaths, in England since August 16, 2021.⁵⁾⁶⁾⁷⁾ Moreover, the vaccinated population have accounted for 63% of Covid-19 hospitalizations since August 2021. Meanwhile, the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in single four-week period among the fully vaccinated population has been 3,284, whereas the highest number of Covid-19 deaths among the unvaccinated population in a four week period has been just 850 - a 286% difference. Further, between August 16, 2021 and December 5, 2021, there were 3,070 Covid-19 deaths among the unvaccinated population in England, compared to 12,058 deaths among the vaccinated population during the same time frame - a 293% difference. The case-fatality rate among the not-vaccinated population is just 0.2%, in line with the average case-fatality rate in 2020 before a Covid-19 injection (or vaccine) was introduced, while the case-fatality rate among the fully vaccinated population is much higher, at 0.8%.⁸⁾

By mid-December 2021, the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” narrative was undermined by conspicuously large numbers of politicians, professional athletes, and other public figures who contracted COVID-19 despite being “fully vaccinated” or “boosted.” Almost immediately it became de rigueur for infected public figures to announce their infection, while simultaneously saying they were “grateful” for the vaccines for keeping their disease “mild.”⁹⁾ By the end of December 2021, public messaging around vaccines began to pivot away from the narrative that only the unvaccinated were contracting and spreading COVID-19. Instead, the prevailing narrative in the media and from public figures was that the unvaccinated were going to overwhelm hospitals and cause others to be denied medical care.¹⁰⁾ Indicative of the role of the news media in spreading divisive rhetoric towards the unvaccinated, at a January 5, 2022 press briefing, Biden's press secretary was asked by a reporter:

“Why hasn't the president focused more on scolding the unvaccinated to try to tell them, hey, this is not working for society, you know, we keep getting these shutdowns?”¹¹⁾

Commentators have noted a disconnect between the technocratic pretensions of vaccine mandates and their failure to achieve their stated goal of stopping infection and transmission. Writer and academic Geoff Shullenberger, for example, has argued that technocratic competence has been replaced by “moral fervour”:

“Before last year it might have seemed obvious that the guiding ethos of technocracy was cold utilitarian calculus, but in the past two years it has become something like the opposite: moral fervour.”¹²⁾

By summer of 2021, after the initial vaccine rollouts in the US, aggressive messaging campaigns by public health authorities had transformed vaccination into a hot-button political issue. Both traditional and social media began highlighting the deaths of unvaccinated people who died of COVID-19. Some of the deaths highlighted in the media were of prominent or semi-prominent public figures who had expressed skepticism of or opposition to the new COVID-19 vaccines, or who had been vocally opposed to lockdowns or masking. Other media coverage highlighted the deaths of ordinary people whose unvaccinated status was framed as cautionary tale for other unvaccinated people. Media highlighting COVID-19 deaths among the unvaccinated continued into the beginning of 2022.¹³⁾

The Herman Cain Award is a spoof “award” that emerged from a popular Reddit channel (r/HermanCainAward), and is “awarded posthumously” to unvaccinated people who have died of COVID-19.¹⁴⁾¹⁵⁾ The award is named after former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and presidential candidate, Herman Cain, who died of COVID-19 in 2020. Cain was diagnosed with the COVID-19 a few days after attending a Trump rally where he and others gathered indoors without masks.¹⁶⁾

@Ramireztoons¹⁷⁾

• March 29
• August 9

Numerous commentators, such as N.Y. State Assemblyman Patrick Burke, have called for denying medical care to the unvaccinated.^{18) 19)} Others, without explicitly arguing for denying medical care, have drawn up arguments that lend support to such policies.²⁰⁾ In particular, some have argued that the unvaccinated should either not receive care for COVID-related illness, while others have argued that the unvaccinated should be required to pay for such care out of pocket. Colorado Newsline columnist Trish Zornio argued in an August 3, 2021 column that the unvaccinated should be denied care in favor of the vaccinated.²¹⁾ Marcus acknowledges that her argument conflicts with broadly accepted principles of bioethics: “This conflicts radically with accepted medical ethics, I recognize. And under ordinary circumstances, I agree with those rules.”²²⁾ Marcus, like other pundits arguing for denying medical care to the unvaccinated, bases her argument on the widely held misperception that the currently available COVI-19 vaccines have a significant impact on transmission:

“Vaccine resisters are different. Their refusal to take the shot doesn’t just affect their own health — it poses a known risk to the health of others, especially now, with the spread of the delta variant. To decline to be vaccinated is to fail to live up to your duty to your community. And it should mean that you forfeit — if necessary — your claim to equal medical treatment.”²³⁾

Neither Marcus nor Burke, however, specify whether “vaccinated” means having had a booster (or series of boosters).

The “horse paste” narrative around ivermectin, which took off in late August 2021, provided an additional angle for those wanting to deny medical care to the unvaccinated. Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi describes the reaction of MSNBC personality Joy Reid, who refers to the unvaccinated as “the ivermectin people”:

“Citing a report of Oklahoma emergency rooms so overwhelmed by ivermectin overdoses that gunshot victims were going untreated, MSNBC anchor Joy Ann Reid Sunday proposed sticking the swallowers of 'horse paste' at the back of the line in order to prioritize the more deserving, 'rather than allowing the ivermectin people' — she spoke the words as if holding a vile wriggling thing with tweezers — to 'take up all the beds.'”²⁴⁾²⁵⁾

In December 2021, the UK Independent published and article with the headline “Hardcore vaccine refuseniks could need deradicalising like terrorists – expert.”²⁶⁾ “A 'deradicalisation' programme like those given to former terrorists or cult members,” they wrote, “might be the only way to dissuade some hardcore antivaxxers from their beliefs, according to one psychology expert.”²⁷⁾ The article discussed the work of Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, chair in cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol. Lewandowsky told The Independent “They’ll refuse anything – ‘I’m not going to wear a mask’, ‘I’m not going to get vaccinated’, ‘I don’t think climate change is happening’, ‘Covid is a hoax’, and, you know, ‘Hillary Clinton is actually a reptilian shapeshifter’.” One such “refusnik” interviewed for the article was quoted as saying:

“Nothing could make me decide to have this jab, it’s dangerous. I’ve had Covid and it’s true I was very ill and could barely breathe for over a week but I survived through my immune system, I’m willing to continue to trust said immune system rather than a jab with so many cases of bad, life-ending side affects. I believe we’re being lied to.”²⁸⁾

While dangerous adverse side effects are widely documented and acknowledged by public health authorities, including those in the UK, the article suggests that recognizing dangerous side effects is psychologically aberrant or irrational. Likewise, natural immunity in the COVID recovered is well documented, supported by several scientific studies, and acknowledged by many public health authorities.

As the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” messaging campaign took off during the summer and fall of 2021, some prominent and semi-prominent public figures began talking about putting the unvaccinated into concentration or internment camps. For example, on September 10, 2021 (two days after President Biden's September 8 address to the nation) Frank Schaeffer, author of Fall in Love, Have Children, Stay Put, Save the Planet, Be Happy, tweeted:

“If you value human life, there's a much better argument for putting the 80 million Americans who are eligible but stupidly, selfishly criminally remain unvaccinated in internment camps than there ever was to intern the innocent loyal Japanese Americans is WWII. Just saying…”²⁹⁾

Other, less prominent Twitter users expressed similar sentiments in the days following Biden's address to the nation.³⁰⁾ For instance, one account tweeted on September 11, 2021: “i don’t know why we aren’t building camps where the unvaccinated can live together until the pandemic crisis is over.”³¹⁾ Support for putting the unvaccinated into camps appears to have been largely rhetorical, but nonetheless reflects the extreme rhetoric directed towards the unvaccinated, beginning in the second half of 2021 and continuing into 2022.³²⁾

In an opinion piece published in the Connecticut Post on December 21, 2021, Harry Jukna advocated for “a forced quarantine of the unvaccinated until the pandemic subsides,” because they “truly have blood on their hands and this is the only reason this pandemic is unending.”³³⁾

President Biden's televised address to the nation, September 9, 2021, announced new, Federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The address also continued and amplified the administration's “pandemic of the unvaccinated” messaging campaign. The speech, like the mandates announced during the speech, was premised on the belief that more vaccinations would lead to an end of the pandemic: “If we raise our vaccination rate, protect ourselves and others with masking and expanded testing, and identify people who are infected, we can and we will turn the tide on COVID-19.”³⁴⁾ In addition to announcing new mandates, the speech was notable for its divisive rhetoric towards the unvaccinated:

• “Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated, even though the vaccine is safe, effective, and free.”

• “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And it’s caused by the fact that…we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot.”

• “The vast majority of Americans are doing the right thing. Nearly three quarters of the eligible have gotten at least one shot, but one quarter has not gotten any….That 25 percent can cause a lot of damage — and they are.”

• “The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, are overrunning the emergency rooms and intensive care units, leaving no room for someone with a heart attack, or pancreitis [pancreatitis], or cancer.”

• “But what makes it incredibly more frustrating is that we have the tools to combat COVID-19, and a distinct minority of Americans –supported by a distinct minority of elected officials — are keeping us from turning the corner. These pandemic politics, as I refer to, are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die.”

• “We cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting the large majority of Americans who have done their part and want to get back to life as normal.”

• “As your President, I’m announcing tonight a new plan to require more Americans to be vaccinated, to combat those blocking public health.”

• “The bottom line: We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers.”

• “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us.”

• “For the vast majority of you who have gotten vaccinated, I understand your anger at those who haven’t gotten vaccinated.”³⁵⁾

During remarks given December 16, 2021, President Biden issued a dark warning to the unvaccinated as he continued to blame them for the ongoing pandemic:

• “For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death — if you’re unvaccinated — for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm.”³⁶⁾³⁷⁾

This messaging was echoed the following day during a press briefing with the White House coronavirus response coordinator, Jeffrey Zients.³⁸⁾ Many Americans found the rhetoric of these remarks bizarre and excessively dark. One Twitter user quipped: “New White House Christmas Card hittin a bit different this year.”³⁹⁾ Others likened the remarks to Jimmy Carter's “malaise” speech.⁴⁰⁾ Writer and academic Geoff Shullenberger wrote that “the real addressees of Zients’s sermon were the vaccinated, who could assure themselves that they are on the side of the good.”⁴¹⁾

January 4, 2021: “And for parents with kids too young to be vaccinated, surround your kids with people who are vaccinated.”⁴²⁾

In an interview with Le Parisien published January 4, 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that his coronavirus strategy was to “piss off” the unvaccinated:

• “I am not about pissing off the French people. But as for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And we will continue to do this, to the end. This is the strategy.”⁴³⁾⁴⁴⁾

At the time of the interview the French government was debating whether to restrict the “health pass” only to those who are “fully vaccinated.”⁴⁵⁾ Macron went on to imply that the unvaccinated were “stupid”:

• “In a democracy, the worst enemies are lies and stupidity. We are putting pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting, as much as possible, their access to activities in social life.”⁴⁶⁾

Believing, or pretending to believe, that the vaccines have a significant impact on infection and transmission, Macron also declared that the unvaccinated should not be regarded as citizens:

• “When my freedoms threaten those of others, I become someone irresponsible. Someone irresponsible is not a citizen.”⁴⁷⁾

Marine Le Pen said that Macron “should not say such things”, adding that Macron was “turning the unvaccinated into second-class citizens.” Meanwhile, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said that “the vaccine pass is a collective punishment against individual liberties.”⁴⁸⁾

As some commentators have noted, Macron's comments about trying to “piss off” the unvaccinated was part of a wider trend that emerged in the first few weeks of 2022, where other national leaders took a similarly aggressive, publicly antagonistic stance toward the unvaccinated.⁴⁹⁾ Despite the Omicron variant's near-total vaccine escape, President Biden continued his “pandemic of the unvaccinated” messaging into 2022. Biden also said that parents of children too young to be eligible for COVID vaccines should keep them away from unvaccinated people.⁵⁰⁾ Meanwhile, a clip of Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, resurfaced in late December 2021, during which he told a French-language television show audience that some unvaccinated people are extremists who “don't believe in science, who are often misogynists, often racists.”⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾ Trudeau went on to ask, “Do we tolerate these people?” Shortly after this clip resurfaced, Trudeau held a news conference on January 5, during which he encouraged anger at the unvaccinated and blamed them for lockdowns and for cancer patients going untreated in hospitals:

“It's not just about governments and health workers frustrated that there are Canadians who still continue to choose to not get vaccinated. It's fellow Canadians as well. When people are seeing cancer treatments and elective surgeries put off because beds are filled with people who chose not to get vaccinated, they're frustrated. When people see that we are in lockdowns or serious public health restrictions right now because of the risk posed to all of us by unvaccinated people, people get angry.”⁵³⁾

Trudeau's comments were viewed by many in the context of Macron's aggressive comments just a few days earlier.⁵⁴⁾ Indeed, the Toronto Star favorably cited Macron's comments in a January 9, 2022 editorial demanding that governments “turn the screws further on the unvaccinated.”⁵⁵⁾

Writing in the Lancet, Günter Kampf has argued that the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” rhetoric overlooks the role the the vaccinated play in the pandemic, and leads to dangerous stigmatization of the unvaccinated:

“There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission….People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic. It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Historically, both the USA and Germany have engendered negative experiences by stigmatising parts of the population for their skin colour or religion. I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatisation of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together.”⁵⁶⁾

In one of Margaret Anna Alice's dissident dialogues series', letters are exchanged exploring how the rhetoric against the unvaccinated meets the 4th stage of genocide: dehumanization. See the second post for many examples. Additional examples are also posted at Eulogy for the COVID Kapos

Canadian satire website using real-world rhetoric for humour.

• ”Erin O’Toole urges Canadians to accommodate the unvaccinated so they don’t feel excluded from the society they’re trying to destroy”⁵⁷⁾

In an interview with bio-ethicist Arthur Caplan, during which Caplan said he would “condemn,” “shame,” and “blame” the unvaccinated, Berman said:

“Again, I get the idea of creating a moral standard here and really judging - being willing to judge, and say things out loud….It's the unvaccinated who are going to get hurt, so, so why should anyone who is boosted bother at this point, to do anything that makes the unvaccinated more safe?”

On November 23, 2021, NY State Assemblyman Patrick Burke introduced a bill in the NY State Assembly that would allow insurance companies to deny coverage of COVID-related medical care for the unvaccinated. Burke who is an advocate for universal healthcare, says “this is obviously different.” ⁵⁸⁾ Burke announced the introduction of the bill on Twitter.⁵⁹⁾ Burke, however, did not specify whether “vaccinated” means having had a booster (or series of boosters).

In a December 2021 interview with Times Radio, Tony Blair said:

“Frankly, if you’re not vaccinated at the moment and you’re eligible and you’ve got no health reason for not being vaccinated, you’re not just irresponsible, I mean you’re an idiot.“⁶⁰⁾

In response, Fay Stockton (former barrister colleague of Tony Blair’s) wrote an open letter to Blair.⁶¹⁾

On December 8, 2021, the New York Times published an opinion piece written by Charles Blow titled “I’m Furious at the Unvaccinated”.⁶²⁾

Adalsteinn Brown, Co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said that Ontarians should only be “associating with people who are vaccinated”.⁶³⁾

Andrew McRae, Editorial Fellow for the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and Andreas Laupacis, Senior Deputy Editor, wrote an editorial titled “SARS-CoV-2 vaccination should be required to practise medicine in Canada”. The pair advocate for unvaccinated doctors to be disallowed to conduct in-person practise for the sake of protecting patients and colleagues.⁶⁴⁾

Arthur Caplan, a bio-ethicist, is the founder and head of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Appearing on CNN, December 5, 2021, Caplan said he would “condemn,” “shame,” and “blame” the unvaccinated, and that insurance companies should not treat them “as equals”:

“I don't want to reject those who still haven't done the right thing. I'll condemn them, I'll shame them, I'll blame them, but I don't want to exclude them. They've got to come around. We can't win this war, we're gonna be talking about Covid this time next year if we don't get more people to do the right thing, so we can't write them off. We can penalize them more, we can say, you're gonna pay more on your hospital bill if you aren't vaccinated. You can't get life insurance or disability insurance at affordable rates if you aren't vaccinated. Those companies should not treat us as equals in terms of what the financial burdens are that that disease imposes. So I can think of a number of ways in which we should say, here's the stick, get on board.”⁶⁵⁾

Vancouver Island-based news station CHEK Media frequently posts polls for readers to express their opinions. In regards to COVID-19, they are often leading questions that begin heavily against the “unvaccinated”, before flipping to the defense of that group.

• January 11, 2022: Should the government should charge people without a medical exemption, who refuse to get vaccinated a financial penalty?⁶⁶⁾
  • As of 4:47PM on January 11, 2022, the vote was 63.65% No and 36.35% Yes.

When asked about the unvaccinated in an interview, Noam Chomsky (92 years old at the time) said:

“People who refuse to accept vaccines, I think the right response for them is not to force them to but rather to insist that they be isolated.” ⁶⁷⁾ The interview took place in April, but resurfaced in September 2021 as divisive rhetoric about the unvaccinated intensified, especially in the days after Joe Biden's September 8 address to the nation.⁶⁸⁾

While interviewing Bill Gates in August of 2021, media personality Anderson Cooper suggested that Social Security benefits might be withheld from the unvaccinated.⁶⁹⁾

Journalist Ryan Cooper wrote in a January 20, 2022 column in The Week about “the quiet rage of the unvaccinated,” who, in his view, “are still being harmed by the willful irresponsibility of the unvaccinated minority.”⁷⁰⁾ Cooper's column is framed around the notion that President Biden has not done enough to coerce people into taking a vaccine they do not want: “Biden is neither coercing vaccine refusers into doing the right thing nor channeling the anger of the vaccinated. Stewing resentment is the result.” The piece favorably cites Yasmeen Serhan's piece which appeared in the Atlantic the same week and which makes similar arguments. Indeed, Cooper argues, like Serhan, that Biden should follow Emmanuel Macron's example by “channeling the frustration of the vaccinated majority by imposing more and more punishing burdens on the unvaccinated.”⁷¹⁾⁷²⁾

Cooper goes on to express his “vindictive glee” upon hearing about an Italian cellist who chose not to take multiple doses of one of the COVID-19 vaccines:

I felt nothing but vindictive glee. Here's a stubborn, self-deluded jerk who refuses to get a vaccine that would cost him nothing, would let him go back to a mostly-normal life, would protect both him and others from a deadly virus, and is safer than aspirin — and so he's been ostracized from society? Good.⁷³⁾

Cooper's column contains many links to online sources, but none to scientific journal articles or relevant data sets.

In November, 2021, financial media personality Jim Cramer called for the US military to help enforce universal, mandatory, vaccination in the U.S., calling the unvaccinated “psychotic.”⁷⁴⁾

In January, 2022, Duterte told authorities to arrest the unvaccinated if they go outdoors.⁷⁵⁾

In an interview with the NY Times’Michael Barbaro for The Daily (November 12, 2021), Barbaro asked

“Where does this conversation about boosting fit in with the conversation that we’ve been having for a long time about the unvaccinated?”

Fauci: “ … it makes the unvaccinated situation even more problematic … if you have a population of individuals who are vulnerable to infection, with no protection from a vaccine, you give the virus ample opportunity to circulate, to infect even through breakthrough infections vaccinated people. And you give it the opportunity to mutate to possibly develop into a new problematic variant…”

Barbaro: … let me just summarize this. Unvaccinated people threaten infection to those with waning immunity from full vaccination…”

Later Fauci said “… if you got attacked by the crazy press, far-right press the way I have…”

In an interview on MSNBC (December 21, 2021) Tony Fauci said that Americans should ban their family members from holiday gatherings if they are unvaccinated:

“If there's an unvaccinated person, I would say; 'I'm very sorry, but not this time, maybe another time when this is all over.'”

On Twitter, media personality David Frum called for hospitals to “quietly triage emergency care to serve the unvaccinated last.”⁷⁶⁾

A news conference with Northern Territories Chief Minister, Michael Gunner, went viral in November 2021, when he declared:

“if you are anti-mandate, you are absolutely anti-vax…if you are out there in any way, shape, or form campaigning against this mandate, you are absolutely anti-vax. If you say 'pro-persuasion', stuff it, shove it.”⁷⁷⁾ Gunner was frequently derided for these comments, and for his comical resemblance to Adolph Hitler.⁷⁸⁾

In a press conference given a few weeks later, a tearful Gunner complained about the death threats he and his family had received in response to his “stuff it, shove it” comments.⁷⁹⁾

January 2022: Gunner announced new lockdown rules for the unvaccinated. There are only three reasons the unvaccinated can leave their home; work is not one of them, and neither is exercise.⁸⁰⁾

MSNBC contributor Vin Gupta argued on December 23, 2021 that the unvaccinated should be denied hospital care. In his view, doing so would create “negative incentives” that would coerce people to get vaccinated. ⁸¹⁾

Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik titled his January 10, 2022 column “Mocking anti-vaxxers' COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes - but necessary.”⁸²⁾ Notably, the URL for the article suggests the original title of the article may have been “Shouldn't We Dance on the Graves of Anti-Vaxxers?” In the column Hiltzik argues that the unvaccinated, whom he equates with “anti-vaxxers,” deserve to die of COVID-19:

“On the other, those who have deliberately flouted sober medical advice by refusing a vaccine known to reduce the risk of serious disease from the virus, including the risk to others, and end up in the hospital or the grave can be viewed as receiving their just deserts.”⁸³⁾

Hiltzik goes on to argue that the unvaccinated, especially those who oppose vaccine mandates, should be mocked and denied sympathy in order to teach others a lesson:

“It may be not a little ghoulish to celebrate or exult in the deaths of vaccine opponents. And it may be proper to express sympathy and solicitude to those they leave behind.

But mockery is not necessarily the wrong reaction to those who publicly mocked anti-COVID measures and encouraged others to follow suit, before they perished of the disease the dangers of which they belittled.

Nor is it wrong to deny them our sympathy and solicitude, or to make sure it’s known when their deaths are marked that they had stood fast against measures that might have protected themselves and others from the fate they succumbed to.

There may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard.”⁸⁴⁾

Before the 2020 election, Hiltzik penned an article alerting his readers to the potential dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines:

“Here’s a more judicious counsel about how you should be reacting to the administration’s push for rapid approval of a vaccine: Be afraid. Be very afraid.”⁸⁵⁾

Hiltzik's 2020 column also highlights a Stat poll showing that over 70% of Americans believed that “the vaccine approval process was driven more by politics than science.”⁸⁶⁾ The following day Hiltzik tweeted his column, saying that “Trump's plotting for a pre-election vaccine will kill people.”⁸⁷⁾⁸⁸⁾

In the wake of the public discussion stemming from Emily Oster's 10/31/22 “Pandemic Amnesty” column in the Atlantic⁸⁹⁾, users on Twitter recalled Hiltzik's “Mocking anti-vaxxers' COVID deaths” column, citing it as an example of the excessive rhetoric surrounding Covid vaccines. However, Hiltzik defended his January 10, 2022 column, telling Twitter users to “read the column before criticizing it” lest they “come off as illiterate.”⁹⁰⁾

'‘Mumbo jumbo’ of anti-vax campaigners ‘completely wrong’' from early January, 2021.⁹¹⁾

German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach stated that “Compulsory vaccination needs to pass legislation quickly as we can't wait for it to become obsolete.”⁹²⁾ Lauterbach has also said “in Germany, it's not enough just to get on the nerves of the unvaccinated, you have to do more.”⁹³⁾

On January 11, 2022, Québec Premier Francois Legault announced his government would be imposing a “significant” financial penalty on unvaccinated citizens to compel them to “contribute to an overburdened public health care system”.⁹⁴⁾

On September 16, 2021, CNN host Don Lemon called on Americans to shun 'stupid' unvaccinated people, and to “leave them behind”. 'It's time to start shaming them.”⁹⁵⁾

In a December, 2021 article, Evening Standard opinion columnist Anne McElvoy blamed the unvaccinated for the ongoing pandemic, despite the fact that in the UK the vaccinated were becoming infected at higher rates than the unvaccinated. The title of her article called the unvaccinated “a lethal liability we can ill-afford.” ⁹⁶⁾

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus argued in a September 3, 2021 column that when “resources such as intensive care beds or ventilators are scarce, vaccinated patients should be given priority over those who have refused vaccination without a legitimate medical or religious reason.”⁹⁷⁾ Marcus, however, did not specify whether “vaccinated” means having had a booster (or series of boosters).

Media personality Ana Navarro-Cárdenas said in a December 2021 tweet:

“Unless you have a LEGITIMATE medical reason, if you’re not vaccinated, I don’t want to see you, talk to you, work w/you, socialize w/you or know you. It’s enough. Your “personal freedom” is holding the rest of us hostage. It’s selfish and stupid.”⁹⁸⁾

Her tweet included an image of a Gay Guy Candle affixed with the message:

“If you're not vaccinated get the fuck out of my house.”⁹⁹⁾

As of December 22, 2021, the tweet had over 17,000 likes and 5,000 retweets.¹⁰⁰⁾

Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary said in December 2021 that “idiot” anti-vaxxers should be banned from flying, and that authorities should “make life difficult” for people who are unvaccinated. ¹⁰¹⁾

West Live host Ben O'Shea wen on a “huge rant over the brash COVID anti-vaxxers who hijacked the shock death of beloved ABC presenter Russell Woolf for their own ends.” O'Shea then subtly threatened:

“seeing the behaviour of anti-vaxxers this week gave me some pretty uncharitable thoughts… They’re gonna catch the virus… and some of them are gonna get really crook. And part of me doesn’t want that… there’s another part of me… that can’t wait to see it. Karma’s a bitch… and it’s coming for all you anti-vaxxers.”¹⁰²⁾

Political blogger and “fake news”^{103) 104)} writer Bill Palmer of The Palmer Report tweeted:

“This attempt by unvaccinated Southwest airline employees at crippling U.S. air travel is the latest reminder that it’s a very short distance from anti-vaxxer to domestic terrorist.”¹⁰⁵⁾ Chris Martenson described this Tweet as “insane” in an analysis of mass psychosis.¹⁰⁶⁾

Miami Herald opinion columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. penned an article titled “Goodbye, and good riddance,” which he addressed to “those of you who’ve chosen to quit your jobs rather than submit to a vaccine mandate.” In addition to describing these individuals as “gullible,” “conspiracy-addled,” “logically impaired,” and “stubbornly ignorant,” Pitts compared mandatory vaccination policies to regulations around seatbelts, smoking in movie theaters, playing loud music, and “posting the Ten Commandements in court”.¹⁰⁷⁾

Aaron Rodgers “This idea that it's the pandemic of the unvaccinated, it's just a total lie.”

Politifact: “We rate Rodgers’ claim False.”¹⁰⁸⁾

In a January 12, 2022 broadcast, media personality Joy Reid argued that the unvaccinated should be paid less and have higher insurance and medical costs, citing similar punitive measures in European countries and at certain corporations:

“They are collapsing our health system. They're the ones in the ERs. They're taking it up. If you have a stroke or you have a heart attack, you can't get in the ER because they're taking up all the beds. So shouldn't they have to pay more?”¹⁰⁹⁾

U.S. District Judge Robert Scola in Florida in a scathing order delayed an upcoming trial due to the surge in COVID-19 cases as he blasted adults who have yet to get vaccinated as “uninformed and irrational, or – less charitably – selfish and unpatriotic.”^{110) 111)}

Mirror (UK) opinion columnist Paul Routledge wrote in mid-December 2021:

“The anti-vaxxers are holding our wonderful health service – and the health of the nation – to ransom all because of their unwise, unscientific and unsociable so-called principles.” ¹¹²⁾

On September 3, 2021, Jennifer Rubin, an opinion reporter with the Washington Post and an MSNBC contributor, tweeted:

“Time. To. Come. Down. ON. Unvaccinated.¹¹³⁾

A January 15, 2022 editorial by the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board argued that Utah's governor should use the National Guard to help with a “mass vaccination campaign” that would bar the unvaccinated from any public space:

“Were Utah a truly civilized place, the governor’s next move would be to find a way to mandate the kind of mass vaccination campaign we should have launched a year ago, going as far as to deploy the National Guard to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.”¹¹⁴⁾

At the time of publication, the editorial board consisted of Tim Fitzpatrick, executive editor Lauren Gustus, owner and publisher Paul Huntsman, Dave Patel, George Pyle, and Michelle Quist.¹¹⁵⁾

Following Emmanuel Macron's declaration that he wanted to “piss off” the unvaccinated, journalists such as Yasmeen Serhan began praising the newly aggressive, antagonistic rhetoric from national leaders towards the unvaccinated. Writing in The Atlantic, Serhan praised Macron's rhetoric as a “politically shrewd calculation”:

By taking a tougher line on the unvaccinated, Macron and other democratically elected leaders facing elections this year may be courting an energetic new voter base: the vaccinated, and ever more impatient, majority.¹¹⁶⁾

Framed as straight-forward political analysis, Serhan's article echoes the divisive rhetoric and themes found in other writing blaming the unvaccinated for the ongoing pandemic, including the theme of banning the unvaccinated from public space:

Until recently, unimmunized French people could still access public spaces so long as they could provide proof of a negative COVID test, which I previously described as the “carrot” approach to promoting vaccination. By shifting to a more punitive model, Macron seems to be kicking off his as-yet-undeclared presidential campaign with a pledge to stick it to the unvaccinated.¹¹⁷⁾

Moreover, the article's pretense of objective analysis sits oddly with its conclusion, which repeats Joe Biden's “our patience is wearing thin” rhetoric in making the case for scapegoating the unvaccinated:

But many in the vaccinated majority, whose patience with the pandemic and compassion for their unvaccinated counterparts is growing thin, may feel a kind of relief: After almost two years of COVID-19, their leaders are telling them exactly whom to blame.¹¹⁸⁾

Notably, Serhan's analysis, like other writing demonizing the unvaccinated, is based on the unsupported belief that only the unvaccinated are driving the course of the pandemic and that the vaccinated are not contributing significantly to rates of infection, transmission and hospitalization:

As the Omicron variant spreads, and as intensive-care units come under the strain of primarily unvaccinated patients, many people may wonder why those who got vaccinated should face the same restrictions as those who opted against. This same logic informed the Austrian government’s decision last year to impose restrictions solely on the country’s 2 million or so unvaccinated individuals, a policy that several other European countries later mimicked.¹¹⁹⁾

The article further lends tacit support to “vaccine passports” and to the Australian government's decision to deport tennis star Novak Djokovic.

A January 9, 2022 Toronto Star editorial, entitled “Time to raise the price for those who still won’t get vaxxed,” echoed similar rhetoric from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blaming the unvaccinated for lockdowns and the ongoing pandemic, and in arguing for more punitive measures against them:

Those refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are doing great harm to the majority of responsible citizens, to Canada’s health-care system, to the overburdened men and women who work in it.

It is their irresponsibility that is largely to blame for the restraints under which Canadians are currently required to live.^120)121)

The editorial goes on to cite favorably the aggressive comments made a few days earlier by French president Emmanuel Macron:

In France, President Emmanuel Macron used more colourful language to express a similar sentiment and plan of action.

Macron told the newspaper Le Parisien that he wants to “piss off” unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated that they’ll relent and accept the vaccine. The unvaccinated, he said, are reneging on the obligations of citizenship.¹²²⁾

The editorial argues that cutting off the unvaccinated from all essential services would be “too extreme,” but then argues for barring the unvaccinated from “the pleasures of life”:

Some of those frustrated with the intransigence of the anti-vaxx minority propose cutting them off from all social services. That would be too extreme.

But there’s no human right to the pleasures of life — to entertainment, libations, recreational drugs — and requiring vaccination as the price of admission is entirely reasonable.¹²³⁾

Like many other editorials and commentary calling for punitive measures against the unvaccinated, the arguments and rhetoric of the Star's editorial can be traced to the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” messaging campaign. Indeed, the editorial explicitly references this messaging in demanding that governments “turn the screws further on the unvaxxed”:

Epidemiologists have already called this “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” – a minority about five times more likely to be infected, 10 times more likely to end up in hospital and 25 times more likely to end up filling scarce ICU beds.

The majority of people who “did the right thing” and got vaccinated are effectively being held hostage to the selfishness of the few. At this point it’s entirely reasonable to raise the price of irresponsibility, and make life more difficult for those who won’t get their shots.

Ontario and other provinces should follow Quebec’s example and turn the screws further on the unvaxxed.¹²⁴⁾

During a September 16, 2021 appearance on French language program “La semaine des 4 Julie”, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed (in French):

“we all know people that are a little bit hesitant. We will continue to try to convince them, But also, there are people that are ferociously against vaccination. They don't believe in science, who are often misogynists, often racists. Also it's a small group, that takes up room.”

The host of the show Julie Snyder interjects, describing this group as “extremists”.^{125) 126)} Trudeau's remarks were largely unnoticed until the clip resurfaced in late December, 2021.¹²⁷⁾Peoples' Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier retweeted and responded by calling Trudeau “a fascist psychopath”.¹²⁸⁾

Liam Sturgess filed a complaint against the show's network Noovo with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) on January 1, 2022, on the grounds that Trudeau had violated Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada, “Public incitement of hatred” and “Willful promotion of hatred”.^{129) 130)} Shortly after, Sturgess filed a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal.¹³¹⁾

Jan 5, 2022: Trudeau says Canadians are 'angry' and 'frustrated' with the unvaccinated

The editorial staff of the Wednesday Journal (Oak Park and Riverside, Illinois) published an editorial (January 4, 2022) stating they have “no sympathy” for the unvaccinated, and arguing for their “segregation” from the rest of society:

“Segregating those people from the rest of us so that we can move toward some changed sense of normal life — breakfast at Louie’s, lunch at George’s, dinner at Lou Malnati’s — makes perfect sense. We have no second thoughts on this. We have no sympathy for the unvaccinated. Actually we have contempt for them and we don’t want them sitting near us coughing on our popcorn at the Lake Theatre.”¹³²⁾

Oct 5, 2021 — only about 54.7% of Americans are fully vaccinated.3 The situation has been rightly characterized as “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”¹³³⁾

This cartoon has been attributed to a Toronto Star cartoonist in a Tweet.

Aaron Blake wants to continue the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” label:

“And as we’ve seen recently, calling it a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” is rather mild compared to how some other countries’ leaders are talking about the culpability of those who refuse the jabs.”

Jan 11, 2022 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/11/overwrought-pushback-pandemic-unvaccinated/

Feb 3, 2022 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/03/yes-its-still-pandemic-unvaccinated-arguably-even-more-so-now/

In this piece he cites only CDC studies, which are not peer-reviewed and are intended to support CDC policies natural immunity Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

July 16, 2021 – COVID-19 cases are continuing to spike in communities where vaccination rates are low, leading to what CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, called “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

Walensky reported sobering numbers during a news conference Friday: The most recent 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases was more than 26,300, up 70% from the previous week. The average of daily deaths is now 211 – an increase of 26%.

“There is a clear message that's coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said. “We are seeing outbreaks in parts of the country where we're seeing low vaccination coverage.”

She continued, “The good news is, if you're fully vaccinated, you're protected … our biggest concern is we are going to continue see preventable cases, hospitalizations, and sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated.”¹³⁴⁾

December 25, 2021: As Omicron Spreads and Cases Soar, the Unvaccinated Remain Defiant¹³⁵⁾ By Jack Healy, Noah Weiland and Richard Fausset -

In the year since the first shots began going into arms, opposition to vaccines has hardened from skepticism and wariness into something approaching an article of faith for the approximately 39 million American adults who have yet to get a single dose.

Now, health experts say the roughly 15 percent of the adult population that remains stubbornly unvaccinated is at the greatest risk of severe illness and death from the Omicron variant, and could overwhelm hospitals that are already brimming with Covid patients.

January 11, 2022: 'WHO says omicron is life threatening for unvaccinated, elderly and people with underlying conditions' by Spencer Kimball.¹³⁶⁾

Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said omicron represents a “massive threat” to the lives of the unvaccinated.

January 25, 2022: 'As Covid restrictions ease, it's time to get tough on anti-vaxxers'¹³⁷⁾ “Enough is enough, says Polly Hudson. As Boris Johnson scraps restrictions to save his own skin, we need to convince everyone to get a Covid jab. And that means hitting them where it hurts.”

Hudson is a columnist on one of the UK's 'red-top' newspapers, but in early 2022, that's no excuse for writing, “The vaccine hesitant – those who are afraid, because they’ve genuinely fallen for untrue propaganda – need to be persuaded. The ­militant, rabid anti-vaxxers will never be persuaded, so they need to be forced.”

The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy: why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good - accepted MAY 2022 authors - Kevin Bardosh, 1,2 Alex de Figueiredo,3 Rachel Gur-Arie,4,5 Euzebiusz Jamrozik ,5,6 James Doidge,7,8 Trudo Lemmens,9 Salmaan Keshavjee,10 Janice E Graham,11 Stefan Bara

Leveraging stigma as a public health strategy, regard- less of whether or not individuals are opposed to vaccines, is likely to be ineffective at promoting vaccine uptake. 62 Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals often have concerns that are based in some form of evidence (eg, prior COVID- 19 infection, data on age- based risk, historical/current trust issues with public health and governments, including structural racism), personal experiences (eg, direct or indirect experience of adverse drug reactions or iatrogenic injuries, unrelated trauma, issues with access to care to address adverse events, etc) and concerns about the democratic process (eg, belief that governments have abused their power by invoking a constant state of emergency, eschewing public consultation and over-relying on pharmaceutical company- produced data) that may prevent or delay vaccination.

Emmanuel Macron, PM of France == “[It is] only a very small minority who are resisting. How do we reduce that minority? We reduce it by pissing them off even more…When my freedoms threaten those of others, I become someone irresponsible. Someone irresponsible is not a citizen.”

Justin Trudeau, PM of Canada “When people are seeing cancer treatments and elective surgeries put off because beds are filled with people who chose not to get vaccinated, they’re frustrated…When people see that we are in lockdowns or serious public health restrictions right now because of the risk posed to all of us by unvaccinated people, people get angry.”

“They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists…It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice, as a leader and as a country: Do we tolerate these people?”

Joe Biden, President of the USA “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And it’s caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccines have been available in 80 000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot.”

“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”

Naftali Bennett, PM of Israel “Dear citizens, those who refuse vaccines are endangering their health, those around them and the freedom of every Israeli citizen. They are endangering our freedom to work, the freedom of our children to learn and the freedom to hold celebrations with the family. Those who refuse vaccines hurt us all because if all of us were vaccinated, we would all be able to maintain daily life. But if one million Israelis continue to not get vaccinated, this will oblige the eight million others to shut themselves in their homes.”

Michael Gunner, Northern Territories Chief Minister, Australia “If you are anti-mandate, you are absolutely anti-vax, I don't care what your personal vaccination status is. If you support, champion, give a green light, give comfort to [or] support anybody who argues against the vaccine, you are an anti-vaxxer, absolutely. Your personal vaccination status is not relevant. If you campaign against the mandate…If you say 'pro-persuasion', stuff it, shove it. You are anti-vax.”

Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand, “If you are still unvaccinated, not only will you be more at risk of catching COVID-19, but many of the freedoms others enjoy will be out of reach…. we have managed very high vaccination rates, generally, without the use of certificates but what has become clear to me is that they are not only a tool to drive up vaccines; they are a tool for confidence. People who are vaccinated will want to know that they are around other vaccinated people…it is a tool for business.”

Tony Blair, former UK PM “We need to target the unvaccinated. Frankly if you are unvaccinated at the moment and you’re eligible and have no health reason for being unvaccinated, you’re not only irresponsible but you’re an idiot. I am sorry but truthfully you are. With this Omicron variant…you will get it and this will put a lot of strain on the health service.”

Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines “I’m now giving orders to village leaders to look for those persons who are not vaccinated and request them to stay put [in their house]…If they refuse to vaccinate, or continue to leave their home, the village leaders are empowered to arrest them….”

(eg, government employees, key workers, public and private sector) Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, France, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, New Zealand, Oman, Poland, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, USA

Healthcare worker mandates - Australia, Britain, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lebanon, New Zealand, Poland, USA (some states)

to attend social events, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, fitness facilities, entertainment venues and for bus/train/airport travel - Australia, Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Ukraine, USA (some states)

Canada (several provinces), Costa Rica, Lithuania and USA (some states) ¹³⁸⁾