A while ago I got into a heated conversation with a Dutch lady living in New Zealand. She asked me to sign a petition against the government’s plan for mandating the vaccine.
My choice, my body!
“Social harmony is at stake, it’s discrimination. Our freedoms are being taken away, it’s like Nazi Germany living in this tyrannical country. This mandate is going to divide New Zealand.” You probably heard the shouting.
I beg to differ.
Actions like this is what divides a nation. You want the right to go to work, unvaccinated, and potentially pass Covid to people you come into contact with, with the possibility of causing death. Is it just me or doesn’t that sound a little bit selfish? Your choice can have vast public health ramifications.
Discrimination
Discrimination is when you are unfairly treated because of something you cannot control. For example your skin colour or your sexual orientation.
We are literally being presented with choices. It’s like the movie “The Matrix” https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/09/08/matrix-red-pill-blue-pill/ (if you haven’t seen it, I can highly recommend it). If you choose the red pill life will look like this and if you take the blue pill it will be different. It’s not discrimination: it’s a choice you have willingly made. Welcome to the world of consequences. The options have been made very clear.
Nazi comparisons
The Nazis were withholding compulsory vaccinations. The trash would take itself out: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/vaccine-mandates-covid-pandemic-german-nazi-inoculation-policy?fbclid=IwAR38eEOVpW7l-6sH790HqH0Y-KAgDtg1kbSPp6Tz5wScc4HycYhISeIcBP0. Quite the opposite of the anti-vaxxers claim that Bill Gates wants to depopulate the world with vaccines.
To compare mandating the vaccine with the Holocaust is just inaccurate and offensive. Public employees being compelled to take a vaccine that will prevent the Covid virus to spread is not the same as being subject to genocide. Anne Frank would turn in her grave.
Responsibility
Everybody has the right to take personal responsibility. But here’s the thing ….
This is just the very opposite of how vaccines work. Their purpose is protecting people as a collective not just as individuals. Getting vaccinated helps protecting you and others. Do vaccinated people spread Covid as much as unvaccinated people?
Vaccinated people are like wet logs, unvaccinated like dry kindling. Covid is the fire. Can wet logs catch fire? Yes. Can wet logs spread fire once they catch flame? Sure. But it’s much harder to start a fire
with wet logs, and nearly impossible when there’s no more kindling.
Why the denominator still matters: https://shrime.medium.com/do-vaccinated-people-spread-covid-as-much-as-unvaccinated-people-df88e678d476
Experimental
While the Pfizer vaccine has been available as from December 2020 as a health emergency, you can’t claim it’s experimental anymore. Since august this year it has shown enough effectiveness and safety data to meet the stringent Biologics License Application requirements: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine?fbclid=IwAR1w2nhXGjllwNn7HoThHS5lQTCnuoZyzGiFKiZ0Tf7L3fOMGSiUUn4m7oQ
All of my friends and family have had the vaccine. I haven’t seen mountains of dead bodies. 8.18 billion doses have been administered worldwide. A small percentage of side effects has been reported and people might have even died of the vaccine; the CDC and VAERS are investigating reports to assess whether there is a relationship with the vaccine: https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/covid-19-vaccine-related-fatalities-updated?fbclid=IwAR1crGYCxbxJY_3jNrquxnQGI2UAhV_Rv8-KarPRw2QaXEW9lPVr5fzYtg8
Some people also die from eating one single peanut: that’s very unlucky. I’ve seen lots of people eating Snicker bars without dying. Healthy friends overseas contracted Covid and ended up in hospital at ICU in need of a respirator. Previously healthy people who suffer from long Covid and haven’t been able to work as a result. They belong to my overseas family.
I would say: getting the virus itself is experimental. Nobody can predict for sure who will get ill, who will die and who will suffer from “long covid” too, although there is a new research presented by the University of Copenhagen: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211019082716.htm?fbclid=IwAR3vU-rgcywkaKhY94TkeYQQ-X4p-_nkKVwBZboegiF_ORUstPtWuT9bxRU
Also as from today the New Zealand government has purchased 60.000 courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral medication to treat early infections of Covid: https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/nz-secures-new-pfizer-medicine-covid-treatment?fbclid=IwAR1-BfophA7SgpK1AzyQUvFl_KU9lEPDOwpRh4Np6sXRbekBW0tUg1zP5W0
Science vs Government (control)
For lots of people the Covid vaccination has become a political thing, not a scientific one. The mandate represents government control.
Everyone has the right to the highest standard of health, this also includes the right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment. But on the other hand it’s the state’s obligation to prevent and control disease. Catch 22
New Zealanders have the right under international and domestic law to refuse to be vaccinated, and yes, the government has in return taken away some rights and freedoms.
I admit his is highly controversial to push through a mandatory vaccination but a purely voluntary approach can result in disaster as the 2019 measles outbreak in New Zealand showed: https://journal.nzma.org.nz/journal-articles/a-measles-epidemic-in-new-zealand-why-did-this-occur-and-how-can-we-prevent-it-occurring-again
Misinformation
More than ever we are surrounded by lies. Media platforms earn a tonload with spreading misinformation.
We’ve come so far in science, yet a lot of scientist and doctors are spending their precious free time debunking ridiculous claims and educating the population on the most basic concepts of medical science. Stop relying on Facebook and YouTube as sources of information (look at this, I found something that ALL scientist missed). The vaccines have been tested and are supported by the vast majority of the scientific community. By all means, question what’s put in front of you, but stop pretending you know more than epidemiologists and researchers, because you don’t.
Protecting myself and others
I am double vaxxed. I don’t think it’s part of a nefarious plan of the government to get us all into submission, the New World Order. I just want to protect myself and others, because I have no doubt vaccines are saving lives in general, as they have done for centuries. The risks of severe side effects of the vaccine are tiny in comparison to the risk of the disease itself: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Main_DeadliestPandemics-Infographic-11082021.jpg?fbclid=IwAR2Dv59ehWBbdEEqulNyi2x1_81XakTMc4SD3EEvl9xMcJN5nYQCMbFtEs8
Extraordinary times take extraordinary measures and I’m totally aware that the vaccine mandate on its own won’t end the pandemic, but all the measurements together will, hopefully.
Did I do the right thing? Ask me ten years from now.
If I’ve turned into an enslaved magnetic zombie, I will be the first to acknowledge I was wrong.
Een pittig stukje. En je hebt gelijk.
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het zij gezegd. Er is geen woord Frans bij. Lekker duidelijk!
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