Just wondering, how does taxing work? Would it be considered raaaaacist, since the black and Latino populations have low vaccination rates? From the uber-Progressive (nice Fascism) minds at Washington Monthly
More than 700,000 people are flooding the South Dakota badlands this week for what will surely be the COVID-19 superspreader event of the year, the 81st annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
No complaints about Obama’s big party at Martha’s Vineyard, where infection rates have shot up. Or the big Lollapalooza in Chicago, where infections are going up.
Policymakers—and employers—have radically shifted their treatment of vaccine holdouts in recent days. Carrots, like million-dollar prizes and college scholarships, are giving way to sticks and cudgels, with vaccine mandates for government workers and proof of vaccination soon to be required for activities like indoor dining. Life for the unvaccinated will be increasingly inconvenient.
It should also become increasingly expensive.
In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Elizabeth Rosenthal and Glenn Kramon proposed higher insurance premiums for the willfully unvaccinated, in the same way that smokers also pay higher rates. COVID-19 patients are expensive, with average costs ranging from $51,000 to $78,000, depending on age.
It’s a good idea, and we need to do more along the same lines. Does an unvaccinated high schooler want to play on the football team or participate in another high-contact sport like wrestling? Schools should double the activity fees for those students to cover the cost of expenses such as disinfection or medical expenses for teammates infected in an outbreak.
Does a traveler want to fly unvaccinated? Airlines should add a “public safety fee†along with the fees for checked baggage and extra legroom, with proceeds compensating flight attendants, airport staff, and other professionals for sick days and lost wages.
Restaurants should reinstitute the COVID-19 surcharge many were adding to bills at the height of the pandemic (but waive it for vaccinated customers), setting aside the funds for servers and other frontline workers. Movie theaters and concert halls should institute similar fees (again, waiving them for those who show proof of vaccination). Perhaps local governments should even impose meal and hospitality sales taxes (with exemptions for the vaccinated) to defray the costs of testing, tracking and contact tracing (in essence taxing the willfully unvaccinated).
You vill comply, Comrades. Supposedly, this won’t affect the low income
Granted, many of those remaining unvaccinated are low-income Americans facing challenges of access and scheduling. Black Americans are justifiably distrustful of a government that, historically, has mistreated them. But there’s also a sizeable subset of Americans for whom opposition to vaccination (and masking) is political and ideological, born of misguided fealty to former President Donald Trump or mystifying adherence to conspiracy theories. Vaccination rates are significantly lower in counties that voted for Trump in 2020, and about 30 percent of Republicans say “they will not get vaccinated†(compared to 5 percent of Democrats).
Nope, won’t affect blacks or low income at all!
Republicans are seizing on backlash to new mask and vaccine mandates
Republicans have found a new boogeyman in the battle for the House: the nation’s top public health agency.
As Republicans head back to their districts for the August recess, they are hammering the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and seizing on the backlash to new mask and vaccine mandates — part of a GOP-wide effort to use the fears and frustrations of Americans worried about another round of school closures and lockdowns as cudgels against their Democratic opponents.
Seizing! How horrible! Just because Americans do not want masking, lockdowns, school closures, all those things that barely worked? Terrible! At least back in the first months of the breakout there was a lot of unknowns and contradictory science, now we know that stuff doesn’t work.
Read: Chinese Virus Today: Tax The Unvaxxed, Republicans Seizing »