The availability of a vaccine to protect us from a virus that has killed over half a million of our friends and family members is not a product of a government conspiracy; it is not a product of government at all, except in terms of the billions of dollars the Trump administration invested in the effort to develop a vaccine at “Warp Speed.” That had never been done before for a virus, much less in a year’s time.
It is a scientific miracle. So why do Republicans have such a problem with it? Why has support for Trump now translated, for some half of his supporters, into distrust for lifesaving science? How can a party like this succeed in the 21st century, already marked by scientific miracles and disasters?
Not getting vaccinated is not only the wrong choice, scientifically speaking; it is a selfish one. We need to create herd immunity to protect those who, for medical reasons, cannot be vaccinated. It’s not a matter of assuming the risk for yourself, and it’s not simply about the public resources that will be spent to treat and hopefully save vaccine deniers. Will we do unto others, or not?
The second story from last week is the final confirmation of Dr. Rachel Levine as assistant secretary for health. Levine is the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate for a position in any administration.
The vote was 52-48.
All but two Republicans, both women – Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – voted against her. Rand Paul of Kentucky was among them, after relentlessly questioning Levine about medical treatments for transgender youth, including puberty-suppressing drugs that may be used in particular cases. How that relates to her ability to manage Department of Health and Human Services offices around the country I don’t know, and why a choice of medical treatments would be better made by government than by a family and its doctors I don’t know. But all that deserves more discussion.
What is clear, however, is that the notion that human beings are either male or female, one or the other, defined by the sexual organs they are born with, is simply not right. And because it is not right, it is dangerous, as it discriminates and stigmatizes based on what can only be insecurity and anger, all of which is dangerous tinder for a political platform.
Republicans have been introducing legislation in more than 20 states to deny transgender athletes the right to compete in school sports. It’s not about sports, and it’s not about Dr. Levine. It’s about finding wedge issues that can create political traction – at the expense of those who are victimized. Instead of providing an encouraging example for young people struggling with their own sexuality, it provides a rather frightening one.
That 48 United States senators, all of them Republican, could have voted against Levine solely because of gender is a measure of the power that the deniers hold within the Republican Party. It is also a very big reason many younger Americans and better-educated Americans have trouble with the party. Science has saved all our lives, time and again. The existence of a nonbinary world is not a Democratic hoax but a scientific reality. Why do Republicans keep denying it?
