The coronavirus vaccine is the new status symbol, the ultimate signifier of privilege, chutzpah, and exclusivity: the things that separate the ultra-powerful and the powerful from ordinary traps. It is a sign that one has achieved.
In the United States, the few, the big ones, the insolently arrogant are jumping on the heroic and nameless first aid, the vulnerable elderly and the chronically ill – anyone without an elected title or a big government salary.
One can forget to talk progressively about inequality. These right-wing people have been invited to roll up their sleeves and, presumably, even with crap, sink into the abyss of the potentially life-saving drug. Some have taken the opportunity to rub the stings of the needle in our face, using social media to promote their supposed courage to passively receive the miracle elixir of Pfizer, or pose for photographs or in front of cameras of television while receiving a sweet relief.
The rest we will just have to wait, many of us until spring, at the earliest.
Suckers!
There was New York’s Democratic-Socialist representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (among others), who is championing the poor and powerless in her Bronx / Queens district, showing off her own injection, live on Instagram. His narcissistic stance began when he shamefully shared the advance of the needle, doing things like filling out a form.
After undergoing the main event on Friday, he talked about arm pain.
This, even though the beloved far-left face is only 31 years old and appears to be in excellent physical condition. I haven’t heard of any attempt on his part to get the vaccine spread soon to people for whom it could be a matter of life or death.
But Ocasio-Cortez vigorously defended his vaccine line cut after Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, 57, argued that members of Congress, particularly those under the age of 65 and in good health, they should not go ahead. of elderly people and health workers.
For AOC, taking the vaccine meant fighting the right-wing villains.
“Well, maybe if the Republican Party hadn’t spent so much time undermining public faith in science, masks and COVID itself, it shouldn’t have weighed the possible consequences of [would] it would happen if the leaders urged it [people] to get a new vaccine that we didn’t get ourselves! ”He tweeted.
But some members of Ocasio-Cortez’s own party were even more passionate against the preferential treatment given to politicians. They included Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, a member of the AOC progressive “squad,” whose father died of complications from COVID-19.
He called it “shameful” that young, healthy lawmakers had early access to the vaccine.
“It is now clear that we do not have enough vaccines for everyone and that there is a shortage of supply, we need to prioritize those who need it most,” Omar wrote online. “That’s why it’s troubling to see that members are the first to get vaccinated while most front-line workers, the elderly and the sick in our districts, wait.”
And on Monday, former Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Hawaii’s 39-year-old Tulsi Gabbard excoriated health officials for allowing young, healthy individuals to selfishly jump to the head of the inoculation line.
“Without a heart, arrogant, without a choice [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] bureaucrats have decided that the lives of elderly Americans don’t count, ”Gabbard tweeted.
“They recommend that 100 million‘ essential workers ’(i.e. healthy people working in liquor stores or phone companies) be able to get the vaccine before our grandparents,” Gabbard wrote.
“This is an immoral and bad health policy, I had planned to get the vaccine, but now I will stand in solidarity with our elders by not doing it until YOU CAN. I urge my colleagues under 65 and healthy to join to me “.
Ensuring the health of the people of the Washington, DC swamp has somehow become a higher priority than protecting the safety of the elderly and health care workers because they are considered vital to the functioning of the federal government. (Insert a punchline here.) Their well-being is also considered to contribute to national security.
But a growing number of lawmakers say they will pass up the opportunity to take the inoculations before they get their most deserving components. Refuseniks include Senator Paul and Reps Gabbard and Omar, as well as Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida) and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).
Politicians, hard to believe, are no more important than everyone else. Check your privilege at the door. Come the time of re-election, you can and will be easily replaced.