2021, the second year of the covid 19 pandemic but unfortunately not the last, is over. In 2020, rather curiously, the hottest social conflicts were not directly related to the pandemic, but to police brutality, racism, the climate. In 2021, it was different. How to deal with covid became the focus of countless quarrels and riots, demonstrations, fights and endless discussions. The divide between the pro- and anti-vaxxers is deep. What is unusual is that it cuts across all groups. All classes, races, religions, countries, ages and other categories are internally divided on the question of what the situation requires.
The anti-vaxxers are a minority but not a small minority. They have an influence on policy and also on the course of the disease itself. Some of them find the name “anti-vaxxer” inappropriate because they are not against vaccines per se but against the obligation to be vaccinated. It should be a personal choice. What this means in today’s context is that they demand the right to refuse to follow the measures to limit infection, or to decide for themselves which ones to follow or not. But no one has a purely personal relationship with an infectious disease. A pandemic is by definition a social danger that can only be overcome socially.
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