Journalist Zaid Jilani told Hill.TV that news outlets need to be careful not to shame unvaccinated individuals or vaccine opponents who later die from the coronavirus, a practice he called “COVID-19 grave dancing.”
Jilani told Hill.TV’s “Rising” that some media coverage is a symptom of the political polarization surrounding the response to the pandemic.
“Maybe they were skeptical of vaccines, or masks or something like that, and maybe they got COVID, and they died,” Jilani said. “That’s usually a very sad circumstance, but it’s turned into sort of a celebration, like ‘ha we got the other side!’”
“It’s an odd way to think of a virus,” he added.
Oftentimes, Jilani said, the virus’s trajectory is more complex and does not necessarily have a political explanation that can be tied to a governor’s order.
Using language that stigmatizes people who are not vaccinated can fuel further hesitancy, he cautioned.
“People will feel like their side is being attacked, so they need to dig down into their position to be even more hesitant about, you know, it could be vaccination; it could be masking; it could be other measures,” he said.
Jilani’s comments echo those of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who called for a similar approach of avoiding shame tactics when convincing people to get the vaccine.
“What we need to be doing is encouraging people to get vaccinated, not trying to shame people who are unvaccinated or people that got vaccinated,” Scalise said Aug. 15 on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“We gotta be getting them information, encouraging people to go talk to their doctors because there is real hesitancy out there,” Scalise added.
State data has shown that new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are overwhelmingly hitting unvaccinated people, with the more transmissible delta variant driving up many of those figures.
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