Letter to the editor: Vaccine zealots gloat over deaths, joblessness

There are two nurses in my life who wish not to get vaccinated. One has been a nurse for my entire life – 32 years – and one has been a nurse for more than five.

Both have worked throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, and both actively treat COVID patients (many of whom, they report, have been fully vaccinated). Indeed, they were among the many frontline workers who were regarded as “heroes” when the pandemic began.

But since they don’t wish to get vaccinated, these women, who I care deeply about, are among the many health care workers who are now regarded as detestable by vaccine zealots.

It’s rather disheartening to see how contemptuous pro-vaxxers are toward health care workers who refuse the vaccine. Believing themselves morally pure and uniquely enlightened, pro-vaxxers sound actively hateful, using insults and disparaging health care workers who refuse the vaccine despite many of them working throughout the entirety of the pandemic. I can’t help but think their words apply to those two nurses, neither of whom deserve such antipathy.

Vaccine zealots also seem to bear no sympathy for anyone unvaccinated who dies from COVID. Not only do they lack remorse, it seems they actively celebrate the deaths and joblessness as if they’re vindicated. Their sentiments repugnantly suggest a “chickens have come home to roost” philosophy.

While vaccine zealots claim to care about people, their ostensible altruism seems to ring hollow when they’re cheering on the joblessness and deaths of the unvaccinated. Such darkened hearts need light. I hope they find it.

Garrick Hoffman
Auburn