In the early days of the pandemic, there was a real sense of camaraderie. We were all in this together. We stood on our balconies and stoops and leaned out windows to clap for front-line workers. We stayed home to keep each other safe. Now, that altruistic mentality has reverted to the all-too-familiar mean of tribalism. It can feel like the battle lines have been drawn: on one side, those who have been vaccinated, and on the other, those who haven’t.
But things are never that black and white. Even among those who have been vaccinated, many people still have concerns and questions about the vaccine. And among those who haven’t, their reasons for not getting the jab vary from concerns over potential side effects, to a fear of needles, to simply not being able to take time off work. The roughly 30 percent of eligible Americans who have yet to be vaccinated are not all anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, and treating them as such could make them even less likely to get the shot.
