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In 2016, poor health strongly predicted Trump voting. A county& #39;s rate of diabetes, alcohol consumption, obesity, etc. predicted its propensity to vote Trump *even better* than race/education. https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2017/01/04/americas-health-and-the-2016-election-an-unexpected-connection/">https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2017...
I think of that grim relationship between Trump and sickness as I read the latest stories about how so many Republicans continue to refuse COVID vaccines. 2/x
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/20/vaccine-hesitant-republicans/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/20...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/20/vaccine-hesitant-republicans/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/20...
As @DKThomp points out, vaccine refusal is especially strong among younger Republicans 3/x https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/1384858951540486144">https://twitter.com/DKThomp/s...
The self-harm of Trump voters should concern us all. They are fellow human beings. And because their self-harm also drives them to dangerous political extremes, their self-harm is also an important civic matter too. BUT ... 4/x
... there& #39;s an issue of personal responsibility here too. A heroic scientific effort - achieved at huge cost - has delivered vaccines that are astonishingly effective at protecting life from COVID. So effective that we may not need to worry about herd immunity. If so ... 5/x
... If so, if the vaccines work as well as they seem to work, then vaccine refusal really does become a personal decision, like a motorcyclist refusing to wear a helmet.
I believe we ought to try to save people from self-harm. But there are practical limits to paternalism 6/x
I believe we ought to try to save people from self-harm. But there are practical limits to paternalism 6/x
Trump and the Fox leadership have vaccinated themselves of course. But they have a different message for their followers. They have persuaded them that it& #39;s a test of identity and loyalty to refuse COVID protection. 7/x
Just as Sarah Palin once waged culture war against healthy eating https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/11/in-war-against-the-obamas-palin-drops-cookie-bomb/343471/">https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/a... and as Senator Joni Ernst has done the same more recently. https://www.iowafieldreport.com/congress/joni-ernst-in-the-lefts-war-on-meat-ill-stand-up-for-iowa-farmers/">https://www.iowafieldreport.com/congress/... 8/x
The gun issue is also one of self-harm and harm to loved ones. Almost 25,000 Americans a year use guns to end their lives. Thousands more are horribly injured in gun accidents that would never have happened without a firearm in the home. 9/x https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/16/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/">https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...
The people who voted Trump and watch Fox are victims of a slow-rolling national tragedy. But they are not *only* victims. They bear responsibility too for the harm they do themselves and their families. 10/x
In the earlier phases of COVID, we were all in it together. One person& #39;s reckless behavior endangered his or her more prudent neighbor. As highly effective vaccines spread, however, the harm of COVID denial increasingly falls almost wholly on the denier. 11/x
Eventually a free society reaches the limits of its ability to protect the ignorant and careless from themselves - and what a society cannot do, it can have no duty to do. END
