The electromagnetic force grows larger at short distances because of van der Waals effects?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Waals_force 

The van der Waals force is believed to exist because transient dipoles in molecules attract each other. It is a polarization force and always attractive, while ordinary polarization is always repulsive.

Suppose that polarization of vacuum is superlinear on the electric field E. We have a good reason to believe that it is superlinear. Very strong electromagnetic forces in particle collisions "tear out" electrons and positrons and they become real particles. Virtual pairs are bound together by the Coulomb force, and that force grows weaker at a greater distance.

                  vacuum

                  polarization

       e- ●     +++   - - -       ● e+

                                      +    -

                                      vacuum

                                      polarization

Suppose that we have an electron and a positron close to each other. The electric field E is double between the charges, and produces some additional vacuum polarization between them because of superlinearity.

The additional dipole of the vacuum polarization strengthens the attraction between the charges.

We need to figure out what is the effect of superlinearity on ordinary, repulsive, vacuum polarization. Does it grow in strength when the charges come closer?

The electron mass is finite because of extreme vacuum polarization close to it?

The classical radius of the electron is 3 * 10^-15 m. The mass-energy of the electric field outside that radius is the electron mass, 511 keV.

Why is the 1 / r^2 electric field massless inside that radius? The reason might be that vacuum polarization almost totally cancels the electric field close to the electron.

There has to be an electric field E inside the classical radius, to maintain vacuum polarization, but the strength of the field E might be of the same order as at, say, the Coulomb force at two classical radii from the electron.

What about the energy which is required to stretch the vacuum dipoles close to the electron? That energy might be very small compared to the infinite energy that is required to create a 1 / r^2 electric field.