Most Americans believe that badgering, belittling, or excluding citizens who have not yet chosen to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is counte...
Most Americans believe that badgering, belittling, or excluding citizens who have not yet chosen to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is counterproductive, but CNN’s Don Lemon is not like other men.
Lemon believes the time has come to publicly humiliate the unvaccinated because they are “stupid.”
“It’s time to start shaming them,” Lemon told his audience on Wednesday night.
Lemon shouted his derision during an extended and unfocused banter with fellow CNN host Chris Cuomo at the beginning of “Don Lemon Tonight.”
Lemon began by saying it is “absolutely ridiculous” for Republicans to call for General Mark Milley to resign or be fired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after he reportedly promised to give the Chinese military advance warning of any U.S. attack and inserted himself in the nuclear chain of command.
“Have a seat!” Lemon told Republicans criticizing Milley. “You didn’t do the right thing” during the Trump administration. “You’re still trying to elevate yourself through some Big Lie.”
Without any provocation or apparent connection, Lemon abruptly shifted to denouncing anyone who refused a COVID-19 vaccination.
“I think we have to stop coddling people when it comes to this and the vaccine, saying, ‘You can’t shame them. You can’t call them stupid. You can’t call them stupid.’ Yes, they are!” he said.
Lemon made clear that he believes everyone who questioned the vaccine is as “stupid” as anyone who questioned any aspect of the 2020 presidential election.
“The people who aided and abetted Trump are stupid because they believed his Big Lie. The people who are not getting vaccines — who are believing the lies on the internet instead of science — it’s time to start shaming them … or leave them behind, because they are keeping the majority of Americans behind,” he said.
He went on to say that the only reason Americans refuse the vaccine “is because of your politics today.” Yet only 43% of black Americans have received at least one dose of the COVId-19 vaccine, while Republicans voters passed that threshold by July. According to exit polls, 90% of black Americans voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
“Stop it. Stop with it the ignorance!” Lemon harangued.
He went on to say that “we have to stop saying, ‘You know, you have to listen to people.’ No, you don’t! These people are being harmful to the greater good.”
People should set aside any lingering concerns about the vaccination, Lemon averred, because “scientists and science aren’t political.”
“I accept everything you’ve just said,” Chris Cuomo responded.
Lemon has long insulted and belittled the intelligence of Republicans, especially supporters of former President Donald Trump. Last January, Lemon’s guests Wajahat Ali and Rick Wilson mocked Trump supporters who believe only “elitists” know geography, spelling, math, or reading.
Lemon laughed until he shed tears.
Those on the Left have increasingly made the unvaccinated or vaccine-hesitant the subject of anger and calls for discrimination or social exclusion.
“For the vast majority of you who have gotten vaccinated, I understand your anger at those who haven’t gotten vaccinated,” said President Joe Biden in a national address outlining his plan to fight the coronavirus last Thursday.
“And my message to unvaccinated Americans is this: What more is there to wait for?” he said. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us.”
He then unveiled sweeping new mandates for federal employees and contractors, medical personnel who work at institutions that accept Medicaid or Medicare, and businesses that employ at least 100 people.
CNN health expert and former Planned Parenthood CEO Leana Wen has endorsed the concept of vaccine passports and said those who refuse to be vaccinated should be stigmatized in the same way as drunk drivers.
“I say that we need to start looking at the choice to remain unvaccinated the same as we look at driving while intoxicated,” she told Chris Cuomo on September 9. “You have the option to not get vaccinated, if you want. But then, you can’t go out in public.”
Wen has also claimed the right to travel is not a constitutional right, although that conflicts with legal precedent.
“[T]he right of passing through a state by a citizen of the United States is one guaranteed to him by the Constitution,” ruled the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1867 case Crandall v. State of Nevada. “We are all citizens of the United States, and as members of the same community must have the right to pass and repass through every part of it without interruption.”
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