What can we do about vaccine hesitancy?

Lessons from earlier vaccines

Hello! First off, let me apologize for forgetting to post a discussion thread yesterday. No excuse, I just messed up. I will try to be better in the future.

Second, if you like seeing me yak, check out my BloggingHeads with Bob Wright where we talk about Substack, foreign policy, and everything in between.

Now onto the main event: vaccine hesitancy.

I published a piece in the Washington Post’s Outlook section recently titled “Not All ‘Anti-Racist’ Ideas Are Good Ones.” This piece was kind of wide-ranging, but it contained a passage that prompted some pushback from someone whose opinion I value, and I want to revise and extend my remarks to concede the basic truth of his critique.

The overall theme of the piece is that the post-Kendi move of pointing to every disparity and labeling it “racism” is not a super-useful way to analyze problems. One example I gave was the extent to which in basically every American city, you can see more vaccinations done in white neighborhoods than in non-…