Kathleen Parker (Opinion, Aug. 4) pulled off an amazing feat: she wrote an entire column on polarization over vaccination status without once mentioning the prime reason for it: the Republican Party. On Sunday, Martin Schram provided the correct diagnosis: “stridently right-wing Republican governors who think it is good politics to oppose commonsense scientific ways of safeguarding all Americans.” Florida and Texas alone accounted for nearly one-third of all new COVID cases last week, but their Republican governors have issued executive orders preventing local authorities and schools, or in Florida even private businesses, from taking protective measures.
Donald Trump probably could have prevented 100,000 deaths of his worshipful followers if he had gotten vaccinated publicly on camera rather than keeping it a secret for more than a month. Although nearly all GOP senators have been vaccinated, until recently the only one to publicly advocate it was Mitch McConnell; as a youthful polio survivor, he has different perspective on vaccines. Marc Thiessen points out that we allow people to “engage in all sorts of risky behaviors” such as smoking. He conveniently overlooks that we do not allow indoor smoking in most public places, much less on public transportation.
A wise Texas judge once stated, “Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.” The same applies to tobacco smoke, and to the COVID virus and its increasingly virulent variants it will develop the more it is transmitted.
