Under-examined in vaccine hesitancy discourse is how decades of a “you’re on your own” approach to health makes it hard to get ppl to buy into collective health campaigns. If society doesn’t care if one is indebted due to cancer, why should individuals care abt herd immunity?

The culture and infrastructure that have left ppl w cancer largely to fend for themselves make collective buy in harder. If someone has been left for dead (or debt or homelessness) bc of a medical condition by society, it’s hard to tell them to do something for others’ health.

Of course I think ppl should vaxxed. And I hope the culture & tech & govt role in 1.5 yrs of folks showing up to get healthcare w/o a fee for COVID will convince us we can do this for all health. We have the resources. The military budget went up. The health budget can, too.

But there’s little defensible logic in telling ppl “you need to get vaxxed to stop harm to others, we will pay for it together” while saying to ppl w cancer “you’re on your own,” esp given how the harms of all illnesses (COVID, cancer, influenza) are collectively felt.

I hope COVID has taught us that disease is collectively experienced and its risks should be born on no one alone. Earthlings should bear the costs and risks together. And the same is true for all disabilities, diseases and matters of health.

It’s great to try to get vaccines to ppl who are unhoused. They deserve protection & stimulus funds, too. But we should also get them HOUSING. And it’s hypocritical for those of us w homes to lecture them to do something to protect them and us if we won’t do things to protect—

—from the biggest health threat they face, which is being unhoused.

One final thing I am trying work out in my book on a theory of the viral underclass is that theory can be a prism that can be used to look and think in different directions. Viruses can show us who is (repeatedly) affected by (different) viruses AND also show ongoing harms, ie—

—vaccine hesitancy doesn’t just reveal which communities might be harmed by it. It shows us the ONGOING harms of neoliberalism, profiteering private healthcare, individualism & the breakdown of the social contract IRT US medical care.

The good news? Viruses have shown us there are better ways! And they’ve forced us to reveal, quickly, that YES as a society we DO have the resources to provide healthcare to 330 million, without a “consumer” point fee!

Always forget to do this at peak thread reading, but I’m writing a book about all of this. Also, l’ll be on @NewsHour tonight w @hari talking about vaccine equity v vaccine passports and my latest @sciam column https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1262848245212086277