The dumb logic of conservative COVID vaccine opponents

I went out recently with some friends and met a mutual acquaintance who is anti-covid-vaccine. I’ve known this person for a long time and have always considered them an average reasonable person but given the area of the country she lives in, I was not surprised that she had not gotten the vaccine. This is a conservative area and she believed the message she was hearing from everywhere.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Here is the thing, I marginally respect people’s choice to not get a vaccine. I think it’s stupid for a number of reasons but it’s a free country where you have a right to be a moron. Oh, and you can’t fix stupid. I say I marginally respect people’s choices because I wouldn’t be opposed to mandatory vaccinations. But I also believe that once a suitably contagious and virulent variant arises, the problem will take care of itself, one way or the other. I mean a 5% reduction in the number of people who are anti-science in the world might not be a bad thing. Most importantly as long as your worldview or belief system is self-consistent I can respect that.

And that’s the thing, I don’t understand what conservatives are thinking the numbers just don’t add up and go entirely against their own self-interest. Particularly for conservatives or any political movement that has aligned themselves with the anti-vaccine movement. The logic is just dumb.