Since the first vaccines first started rolling out back in the spring, opponents have been a strong force in invalidating their legitimacy. However, there has also been a brighter side, there are over 194 million US citizens who are fully vaccinated and around 443 million in the process of receiving their next dose.
Still, there seems to be no end in sight to anti-vaccine rallies anytime soon, and yet, that may not even be the greatest worry the US has concerning the opposing side. This past weekend, a municipal meeting in Kansas that occurred to discuss the vaccine set the stage for a Holocaust comparison demonstration. Daran Duffy, a former unsuccessful Kansas mayor candidate appeared before the council with him, his wife, and his daughter all wearing a patch that represented the Star of David.
“It’s not meant to be offensive. It’s not meant to be controversial,” Duffy said.
Is that really the case? The Holocaust is a period in our history marked by its cruelty and antisemitism towards the Jewish community in European countries as well as other minorities. Under the regime of the reprehensible tyrant, Adolf Hitler, Jewish citizens in ghettos (closed off Nazi-run temporary housing communities) were required to wear a Star of David patch/band on their sleeve to outwardly attach their religion to them and subsequently ostracize them. The suffering Jewish citizens endured during the mass genocide was indescribable, survivors today can hardly recall such events without becoming overwhelmed with emotion. Victims were starved, worked to the point of exhaustion, abused, and eventually killed by cruel means.
With history in mind, it is apparent that the comparison of choosing to remain unvaccinated is somewhat equivalent to the oppression faced by the Jewish citizens of the affected countries is horribly offensive. Whether or not a person chooses to get vaccinated is up to them, and sparks a whole different conversation. However, I think it is at least fair to say that to even attempt to say that the unvaccinated are as harshly ostracized as the Jews were is utterly ridiculous. The treatment unvaccinated individuals may be facing could hardly hold a candle to the suffering endured by Holocaust victims. There is no way to compare the dehumanization of an entire group marked for death to something even remotely similar, and I, like many, take genuine offense to the stretch being made here.

Democratic Senator, Pat Pettey, was one of the few in the room who confronted Duffy’s offense display by remarking, “You are not respecting Jewish people when you wear a star like that. You are desecrating that memory. Millions of people were killed. We’re not talking about millions of people being killed.”
Pettey later pointed to the fact that ironically 760,000 people have died of COVID, due in part to lack of vaccination commitment, but was cut off by the presiding judge.
I think that no matter how you view the situation, and whether or not you agree with being vaccinated, it’s clear that the term “oppressed” can not be applied to making that kind of choice. When horrid connections are made that imply receiving a shot (if you are medically able to) to protect yourself and others against a deadly virus that has killed many is in any way equal to the suffering those endured in concentration camps whilst their friends and families were murdered, directly invalidates the horrific impact created by the genocide and the pain its victims felt.

***This opinion article reflects the voice of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of The Viking Times as a whole.  Like most news outlets, The Viking Times is a non-partisan media platform.***