Political Irony

The Atlantic has an interesting article about the fact that the US — despite being the world leader in developing and manufacturing Covid vaccines — is falling way behind in actually getting our citizens vaccinated.

The U.S. is no longer in the top five in national vaccine rates. We’re not in the top 10, or the top 20, or top 30. By one count, we’re 36th—countries as varied as Malta, Canada, Mongolia, and Ecuador have all surpassed us. If the European Union or the G7 were countries, they would be ahead of us too. With about 66 percent of Americans over 18 fully vaccinated, some might be impressed that it’s possible to get two-thirds of the country to agree on anything. But America still seems to suffer from an internationally unique reluctance.

Why did we fall behind?

The data point to three key reasons the United States is 36th and falling: It is unusually uninsured, unusually contrarian, and unusually polarized. These are three familiar—even defining—attributes of American life.

Not just attributes of American life, but now of American death.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the only way for Americans to avoid catching Covid is to move out of America? The NY Times has a tracker for which countries are the most vaccinated against Covid. The top 3 countries, all three with 84% fully vaccinated, are Portugal, U.A.E., and Malta. Coincidentally (?) all three of these have large and thriving expat populations.