Hard to Please

People who are hard to please, in other words, idiots.

― Marty Rubin

In today's New York Times, Harvard professor Dr. Sema Sgaier profiles the four types of Americans who resist the Covid-19 vaccine and suggests we mollycoddle them. To which I say screw that.

Sgaier surveyed 17,000 Americans and places the vaccine-avoiders into four categories:

Covid Skeptics—the idiots who think the vaccine is a Chinese plot. "Everyone in this group believes at least one conspiracy theory," Sgaier reports.

The Cost-Anxious—the idiots who worry about the vaccine's cost (it's free, of course).

System Distrusters—the idiots who feel maligned by doctors.

The Watchful—the idiots who are waiting for other idiots to get vaccinated first.

The good doctor recommends four ways to deal with the wretches: we should "hold conversations" with them; "offer them a "vaccinate later" option; "be transparent" about the vaccine; and "avoid trying to debunk what they believe" and instead "acknowledge how they feel."

That kid-glove approach sounds like good psychology. It may even be smart public health.

But we're talking about idiots here, and lots of them; in fact, 38% of Americans are idiots, according to Sgaier's survey. That's too many adults to mollycoddle, if we want to survive the "Commie threat from China."

"When it comes to idiots, America's got more than its fair share," Lewis Black once said. "If idiots were energy, it would be a source that would never run out."