Are the unvaccinated becoming modern-day lepers?
Will ‘health taxes’, fines, bans on foreign travel and a French strategy of ‘pissing them off’ nudge anti-vaxxers towards the COVID-19 jab?
From Italy to Iran, opinion — and policy positions — are hardening against those who refuse COVID vaccines. At the same time, opposition to vaccine mandates remains fierce and a weary world faces an impasse over the best way to manage the pandemic.
Republican governors in the US continue to push the cause of the vaccine-resistant, signing laws that bar companies and schools from insisting on vaccination for their employees.
Meanwhile, Quebec has announced a ‘health tax ‘ — Canada’s first — on those who refuse COVID jabs for non-medical reasons.
And the world’s top-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic, Serbia’s best-known vaccine sceptic, has opened up a difficult prospect for international sport. Should anti-vax sports stars be allowed to travel the world to compete? After the Australian Open, the next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open in May, and in between, there are the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells, California and Miami, Florida. But the US requires all visitors to be fully vaccinated to travel to the country and only limited exceptions apply.
…
Nudge, nudge
So, what’s the solution to vaccine scepticism? Is there one?
Read on at https://www.opendemocracy.net.
