Two-Thirds of Unvaccinated Jerks Say They Plan to Keep Being Jerks

According to a recent poll by Axio-Ipsos, two out of three unvaccinated Americans say that they aren’t vaccinated because they’re fine with potentially dying or killing people if it means that they get to keep feeling smarter than science (I’m paraphrasing, but the gist is correct).

The Washington Post reports that just 14 percent of unvaccinated American adults say that they are planning to get the vaccine, which means that if these projections are correct the country’s immunizations will just meet the 70 percent originally thought to be needed for herd immunity—though that might not be good enough:

“In the pandemic’s early stages, health experts said herd immunity would require at least 70 percent of the population to develop resistance to the virus, but that target has become less clear as new, more transmissible coronavirus variants have emerged and cases have become more widespread.”

Meanwhile, the global death toll for covid-19 is at around 3 million, while American hospitalizations and new cases among young people are up. The U.S. State Department is also reporting “dramatic spikes” in cases around the globe. And many countries remain without access to the vaccine even as Americans being offered a free dose of a potentially life-saving medicine are just turning up their little noses because of some bullshit they learned on Facebook. But hey, at least Ted Nugent has learned an important science lesson, namely that covid-19 isn’t like voodoo in The Skeleton Key. It can get you whether you believe in it or not.