Stop vaccine shaming

The pandemic has been an absolute gold rush for scolding. Everywhere you go, online and IRL, there is someone who is not adhering to the specific set of rules you have been abiding by, which makes them ripe for judgment. Now, a handful of truly elite scolds have turned their attention on people who they deem to be undeserving of getting a vaccine. Alex Abad-Santos, our resident shame correspondent, [wrote about]( why this isn’t an effective strategy, and is in fact once again the outcome of misdirected anger at the powers that be. (Also it's just extremely rude). Rather than musing about why your old high school bully is posting a vax selfie on Facebook despite having no visible underlying condition, it’s far more useful to use your energy to lobby for the correction of vaccine distribution inequities. Besides, no one is saying you can’t judge people for plenty of other reasons. —[Alanna Okun](, deputy editor for The Goods What vaccine shamers should really be upset about [A man who just received the vaccine celebrating with one arm in the air.]( Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images When I get one of the many [Covid-19]( vaccines available in the US — and I will surely be jumping at the first opportunity — I am not going to tell anyone. I will make my difficult-to-procure appointment, wait for the day to come, probably take an Uber to the glass mountain called the Jacob Javits Center, get my little jab, and keep my vaccination a secret between me and the volunteer who injected me. I won’t tell anyone because, frankly, people are ruthless. On social media, various users are screaming into the ether about the people they feel have “cheated” to get vaccines. While eligibility varies from state to state, allegations of cheating the system usually manifest when someone sees — usually also on social media — a person getting a vaccine who they don’t believe fulfills the requirements. [Read the full story ]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Your tweet goes viral. Here come the companies asking you to sell their crap. Clout mining is the new way to make money off viral tweets. [Read the full story ]( The best $59 I ever spent: A rice cooker that connected me to my roots I never felt "Persian enough," partly because I couldn’t master cooking rice. [Read the full story ]( More good stuff to read today - [What it’s like to announce an NBA game to an empty arena]( - [Virtual tips are helping content creators actually make money]( - [To all the clothes I’ve loved before]( - [Lost in the Brine]( - [This week in TikTok: The problem with the “Cancel Porn” movement]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.