The idea is no longer mainly to persuade people to get vaccinated but to punish them for not following orders. Authoritarianism is always done “for our own good,” you see. Under totalitarian regimes, punishment camps are called “re-education” camps, to teach you how to be a better person in society.

The vax mandate is the natural progression from the kind of cruelty that has reigned through the pandemic. Whether it was screaming at unmasked people in low-risk situations outdoors or reporting your neighbors for gathering with friends and family, the severity with which we’ve treated each other has been intense. “We’re better than those people” has been a hallmark of the pandemic among people who’ve actually been the worst.

We’ve turned a virus into a moral test. You can catch it even if you’ve masked, even if you’ve been vaccinated, but if you don’t mask up and get jabbed, you deserve to be sick. We see that in the perverse glee of so many, like those now urging hospitals to delay or deny treatment to unvaccinated COVID patients.