If the vax doesn’t prevent you from getting or spreading Covid, then what is the point of the mandate?
The whole idea behind a mandate is to arrest the spread of the virus among the general public, right? For example, at restaurant, you make all the waiters and waitresses and bus boys and managers and bartenders and valets all get vaccinated so it’s safe for customers to dine there. Customers don’t have to worry about getting sick. And employees can feel safe about going to work knowing they won’t get sick from a coworker.
In theory.
It’s about protecting others, correct?
I mean, if someone wants to take the risk of being unvaccinated, that’s on them and them alone, but the idea behind the mandate is that it’s actually not just on them and them alone, because if they get sick they can spread the virus to others.
So there has to be a mandate, because while people think getting vaccinated is personal choice, it actually affects other people.
In theory.
But if the vaccine doesn’t prevent the spread of Covid, then what is the purpose of a mandate?
By definition, it is not to protect others. Because this vaccine doesn’t prevent the spread of Covid. They’ve admitted this. It’s not debatable. It’s not a matter of opinion.
It’s a fact.
A 100% vaccinated workplace can still experience a Covid outbreak. Not just one isolated case, but a full blown outbreak, as if nobody was vaccinated at all.
The vaccine mandate is, I guess, supposed to be for your own good, then?
I mean if it’s not to protect others, then it has to be simply for your own good.
But on these grounds the entire reason for a vaccine mandate then becomes a massive government and corporate overreach into the personal lives and medical preferences of sovereign individuals.
You can’t tell me to get vaccinated because you say it’s for my own good. I’m the only one who decides what’s good for me—me and my doctor.
You might even be 100% right that the vaccine is what’s best for me, but I’m still not going to get it, because you’re trying to tell me what to do. Out of principle, I’m going to say no to the vaccine because you’re trying to force me to get it on the grounds that you know what’s best for me.
That’s really what’s it boils down to right now. It’s not about protecting other people. It’s not a selfless act. It’s not for the good of society.
The only charitable interpretation of the vaccine mandate, given that we know it does not prevent Covid from spreading, is that it is the government saying it knows what’s best for you.
That just does not sit right with me at all.
To underscore the point that the vaccine does not prevent Covid from spreading, let’s look at Norway. Norway is experiencing by far its worst wave of new Covid cases since the pandemic began:
This wave completely dwarfs anything Norway has experienced thus far.
But it comes as Norway is over 71% fully vaccinated:
A further 10.5% of Norway has gotten the booster shot.
This is why I say it’s a fact that the vaccine does not prevent the spread of Covid. One could even look at this data and conclude that the vaccine increases the spread of Covid, honestly.
Now, admittedly hospitalizations are not anywhere near as high as they were during prior, and much smaller, waves of new cases:
But hospitalizations in Norway have been increasing since August, and they’re still going up. We have no idea when this wave of hospitalizations will peak. It’s still ongoing.
Germany is also currently experiencing its worst wave of Covid since the pandemic began:
Germany is also 68.5% fully vaccinated and 12.5% boosted.
Now, Germany does not have hospitalization data available on Google, but they do have deaths:
This wave of Covid is nowhere near as bad as last winter’s wave in terms of deaths in Germany, but it’s still ongoing and has not yet peaked. We have no idea where or when it’s going to peak.
Given the far higher number of cases right now, though, it does appear as if the vaccine will mitigate the death rate compared to the prior wave. The wave in Germany last winter peaked at about 25,000 new cases per day and 890 deaths per day, this wave is averaging about 58,000 new cases per day and 294 new deaths per day. So you can say the vaccine is making a difference in terms of reducing deaths.
But it still goes back to the idea that the vaccine mandate exists not to protect others, but “for your own good.”
And whether it truly is “for my own good” or not is really beside the point: I don’t want the government to have the power to make me get a vaccine.
Smoking is incredibly unhealthy and dangerous, and the government hasn’t banned smoking, right?
And, at the end of the day, we’re talking about a virus that has a very low fatality rate. According to a Stanford preprint study, the survival rate for Covid by age group is as follows:
I think I’ll take my chances.