About responsibility

Curiously, anti-maskers and antivaxxers are saying they ascribe to personal responsibility.

I can’t applaud that statement because we know it’s false. Are they assuming personal responsibility for their $1 million in medical bills for a month of ICU treatment if they end up there? Now we’ve seen liver transplants with organ failure. What about their liability for medical expenses or wrongful death of those they infect? Aren’t they glad now there’s the Affordable Care Act (derided as Obamacare)?

Their personal responsibility also apparently means they don’t believe in science despite 150 million vaccinated and protected against serious illness with an infinitesimal rate of side effects. They’d rather believe Fox News (until the last couple of weeks, but too late) or get their science information from friends on their Facebook echo chamber. And their version of personal responsibility and choice is completely contrary to their position on choices about women’s bodies. How do they square that? They can’t. The hypocrisy is palpable.

In a complex society, personal responsibility is complex, too. And it isn’t remotely what they think it is.

JOHN WESLEY HALL

Little Rock