WaPo columnist: It's time to make life a 'living hell' for the unvaccinated

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Media top headlines January 11

In media news today, ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ gets worried Madison Cawthorn might ask to come on the show, an LA Times columnist says publicly mocking deaths of anti-vaxxers is ‘necessary’ to create ‘teachable moments,’ and ‘The View’ host Sunny Hostin says she no longer trusts CDC guidelines.

A Washington Post columnist on Tuesday praised French President Emmanuel Macron for a series of rude remarks he made about the country's unvaccinated, urging readers globally to make life a "living hell" for those who choose to forego the vaccine.

In an opinion column titled ‘Macron is right: It’s time to make life a living hell for anti-vaxxers,’ global opinions contributing columnist James McAuley referenced a recent interview where Macron expressed a desire to "piss off" the unvaccinated.

MACRON MAINTAINS RUDE REMARKS ABOUT FRANCE'S UNVACCINATED POPULATION

"We’re going to continue doing so until the end. That’s the strategy," he told the French news outlet.

McAuley explained to readers that the French verb Macron used, known as "emmerder," literally translates to "cover in excrement," and was "crystal clear" to French natives what the president was implying. 

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks as he participates in a media conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.  (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

Critics immediately slammed Macron for the remark, calling it unpresidential and offensive. But according to McAuley, Macron set a "fine example" with his words.

"Macron does seem to know what he says, but more than that, the president happens to be totally right. There is no justifiable excuse for refusing vaccination, which is the only way the pandemic will ever come close to ending," he writes. "Macron has set a fine example for other world leaders to follow in refusing to kowtow before ignorance or honor selfishness."

McAuley said Macron understands that "the sad and apparent truth [is,] that the only way to compel citizens to act for the greater good is not to appeal to some higher sense of civic duty but to tell them there will be no restaurant meals if they don’t get their shots."

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron wave prior to a meeting at La Villa Bonaparte in Rome, Friday, Oct. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

"Funny how even the loudest vaccine skeptics start to reconsider their convictions when they realize there won’t be able to drink wine on cafe terraces," he writes. "It’s almost as though their convictions are not so much convictions and actually just, well, what Macron said."

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It appears the demonization of anti-vaxxers has become a new trend among left-leaning columnists.

On Monday, LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik encouraged readers to publicly mock the deaths of anti-vaxxers, calling attacks of this nature a "necessary" evil to tamper vaccine skepticism.