SNOBELEN: Time to stop vilifying the unvaccinated | Toronto Sun - "the logic gets thin on isolating the cost of treating a single virus. There are now vaccines for pneumonia; are the unvaccinated about to be taxed? How about that flu vaccine that 70% of Canadians don’t bother to get? Influenzas land people in the hospital, presumably at some cost to the taxpayer. And then there are the lifestyle choices that have an impact on health care. One wonders when Premier Francois Legault will undergo a lifestyle assessment and be charged the appropriate tax for his diet and workout choices? Undoubtedly Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will undergo a similar assessment and pay the appropriate tax for whatever risky behaviour he participates in (skiing, golf on cool mornings, dancing on slick floors). I am bracing for a tax on those of us who persist in starting two-year-old colts (who are known to be a tad snotty). That, my friends, is a clear risk to the health-care system. If the health-tax efficacy (and legality) is suspect, the politics are crystal clear. The vast majority of people are vaccinated, making the unvaccinated a delicious target for vilification. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has mastered politicizing this virus. Vilifying the unvaccinated is morally abhorrent but politically expedient. Trudeau and Legault are following the time-honoured path of fixing the blame instead of the problem. Blame the unvaccinated for health-care failures. Heck, they are an unseemly lot who probably drink cheap beer. That’s a whole lot easier than fixing a health system that has consistently let down Canadians during the long course of this pandemic... It might be a good time to heed the wise words of Helen Keller: “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”"
Logic, Empathy, Honesty - Posts | Facebook - "If you had found out that your wife or daughter had been called into her bosses office, and given an ultimatum: sleep with me and ill promote you. Refuse and I'll fire you. How would you feel? Would you argue that's she is being given a fair choice? That she can just quit her job if she doesn't want to sleep with her boss? That she is being offered something in return? Of course not. Because most people understand that coercion is not consent. Having your livelihood threatened to force you to give up your bodily autonomy is evil. Whether you're being asked to perform sexual acts, or to take medical treatments you do not want is simply a matter of scale. To expect a person to acquiesce is not only to expect them to give up their own choice, but to set a precedent that coercion is okay. Your wife or daughter may willingly conform, because maybe they really want the promotion and the trade off seems worth it, but what other demands will be made of other women once the behavior is excused? Coercion is just a cover for violence. Its the threat of harm used to instill fear. That a person can choose to comply does not make it less evil, it just makes the evil harder to distinguish."
Deloitte reverses COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but remains one of few large employers to do so - The Globe and Mail - "Mr. Samfiru also said that immediately after various provinces started easing their restrictions, his firm started seeing employers debating whether to recall their vaccine mandates. Recent data from the job posting site Indeed.com showed that the share of Canadian job postings mentioning vaccine requirements stopped rising at the end of January. The share of job postings mentioning some form of vaccine-related requirement went from 2.4 per cent at the beginning of September to 11.5 per cent in mid-January and has remained the same ever since. A February survey conducted by the Canadian Federation for Independent Business showed that 60 per cent of businesses supported eliminating vaccine mandates for employees, compared with 37 per cent who disagreed with getting rid of them."
Rupa Subramanya: Time to lift the federal government's outdated and unnecessary vaccine mandates - "As provincial vaccine mandates across Canada continue to fall like dominoes, attention is shifting to federal vaccine mandates, which are “some of the strongest in the world,” as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bragged when he announced the mandates for the civil service and on federally regulated transport back in October 2021. Vaccine rules are much less stringent in most other major western countries. Austria, which announced that it was going to mandate vaccines for everyone last fall, recently withdrew the mandate before it came into force, arguing that it is not needed at this time due to the milder illness caused by the Omicron variant. A similar vaccine mandate being considered in Germany, which has proved extremely controversial within the governing coalition, has not been implemented and likely won’t be. In that country, except in the health sector, vaccination is not mandatory for federal government employees. The list goes on. Canada has indeed the most stringent federal vaccine mandate as they apply to federal civil servants of any G7 country. In the United States, President Joe Biden’s sweeping federal vaccine mandates, meant to apply to federal workers as well as to private businesses that employ 100 or more people, are in shambles, as they’ve been aggressively challenged in court, and judges have suspended most of the mandates as the challenges work their way through the judicial system... Biden’s difficulties in ramming through federal vaccine mandates via executive orders stands in sharp contrast to the situation here in Canada, where legal challenges to federal and provincial vaccine mandates have enjoyed little success. Canadians, meanwhile, have largely acquiesced to some of the most stringent vaccine mandates and other COVID-related restrictions on individual liberty in the world. In part, this is a reflection of our legal system, which gives much greater leeway to government-imposed mandates and restrictions than in the U.S., but it also reflects a Canadian culture of compliance, which was only challenged recently during the Freedom Convoy protests. Indeed, despite all the protestations to the contrary, the accelerated removal of vaccine passports and other restrictions at the provincial level arguably reflects the influence of the protesters. According to reports, as of April 4, Ontario will no longer insist on proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test for provincial civil servants. In Nova Scotia, provincial civil servants who had refused vaccination can return to work on March 21, except for those who work in the health-care sector. What is truly ironic about the vaccine mandate imposed on the federal workforce is that Canada tops the list of major countries in which public servants continue to work remotely... It surely is bizarre that unvaccinated federal employees who are working from home have been placed on leave without pay, even though they’re not coming into their offices. And many civil servants will likely continue working remotely for some time to come... some federal employees will have been on leave without pay for nearly half a year, even though they were fully capable of doing their job safely from home. This is about as Kafkaesque as it gets. Given that the provincial governments and many of our peer countries are removing their pandemic restrictions and starting to find ways to live with the virus, it’s extraordinary that the Canadian government refuses to acknowledge this reality and modify its policies accordingly. If it’s safe for civil servants in Ontario and Nova Scotia to return to work without proof of vaccination, what is so special about federal workplaces?"
Since vaccine mandates are essentially political, the different restrictions make sense
'Judge, jury and executioner': Aurora restaurant owners frustrated with proof-of-vaccination rules - "Not only are eateries forced to police customers for their proof of vaccination — keeping some customers away, slowing the seating process, confronting patrons presenting fake documentation and subjecting staff to possible harassment — but they still have to limit the number of customers dining in despite patrons proving they are double vaxxed... Sposito hasn’t had any run-ins with customers but he feels mandating proof of vaccination is an infringement on the rights of customers and business owners. There isn’t any proof that restaurants have been the cause of spreading the virus... Checking vaccine certificates is a tool to prevent future lockdowns, Elenis added. “It’s a good thing for the overall industry because this industry cannot suffer to be closed anymore,” he said. “It would be totally devastating. This industry has suffered enough. It’s simple. Whether someone prefers vaccination or hates vaccinations, it doesn’t matter. This will keep the industry open.”"
So much for that
It’s Time To End Vaccine Mandates - "vaccine mandates for the general public are a straightforward contravention of standard medical ethics. Specifically the coercive nature of vaccine mandates violates a central principle: freely given consent. We have clearly recognized this in other areas in recent years, by having necessary and long-overdue conversations about what constitutes valid sexual consent. These same principles also apply to medical consent generally. The Canadian Medical Protective Association publishes legal advice to physicians, in which they say for consent to a medical act to be considered valid, it must be voluntary: “Consent obtained under any suggestion of compulsion either by the actions or words of the physician or others may be no consent at all.” Specifically, if a physician becomes aware that a patient is seeking consultation at the behest of a third party (such as an employer), the Association notes the physician must ensure that “there has been no coercion.”... [a] public approach can legitimize coercion in very limited situations, such as seatbelt legislation, indoor smoking bans, and a prohibition on lead paint. However, it leaves individual physicians in murky ethical waters with respect to individual vaccinations. This is important because throughout the pandemic, the use of coercive measures to pressure people into getting vaccinated has been normalized. They should not be acceptable practise. Threatening an employee with termination is obvious coercion. Not allowing parents to see their sick children in hospital is obvious coercion. Prior to the pandemic, it would have been widely acknowledged as unethical for physicians to vaccinate individuals who only seek vaccination in response to such coercion. Insofar as these mandates are effective in increasing vaccination uptake, this increase is only achieved unethically. Incidentally, it is by no means clear to me that these mandates have led to a material increase in vaccine uptake. I have had countless conversations with individuals who refuse to even consider vaccination “so long as the government is forcing it on me.” Studies of vaccine mandates prior to the COVID pandemic have shown mixed results. Some proponents of vaccine mandates do not call for them in order to increase vaccine uptake, but rather to protect the broader public from the unvaccinated. Ethically, I concede that this is a murkier proposition. If it were conclusively established that those unvaccinated against COVID posed a grave threat to society, such an exceptional violation of ethical norms might be justified. Luckily, we need not entertain such a controversial move, because it happens to be untrue. As summarized in a recent Public Health Agency of Canada report, six months after receiving two doses of mRNA vaccine, effectiveness at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection in Ontario was 0 percent. Another study found that 240 days after vaccination, two doses were actually negative 16 percent effective! Studies in England and Denmark also found negative effectiveness of two doses, with the latter study showing that two doses to be 0 percent effective at 2.5 months... We are allowed to put ourselves at risk. Adults in this country are allowed to ride a motorcycle, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and get fries instead of salad. Many of them have wound up as my patients in the ICU on this basis. My job is to dissuade against such activities, not to impose a blanket prohibition on them. It is true that three doses of mRNA COVID vaccine does a much better job at preventing transmission, to the tune of 60 percent prevention. However, it still seems to be the case that effectiveness wanes over time. One study found three-dose effectiveness dropped to 49.5 percent after 111 days, while another found that it dropped to 48 percent at 3 months. It seems likely to me that vaccine effectiveness against transmission, for any number of boosters, will continue to decline as time passes. Conversely, the CDC has reported that those who have recovered from previous COVID infection from Delta are three to five times less likely to get COVID than those who are merely vaccinated. Importantly, the protection gained via natural immunity does not appear to wane over the study period. If we truly did want to segregate society into those who are at risk for transmitting COVID to others and those who are not, it is perhaps the COVID-recovered who should be granted the most freedom of all. I am afraid that failure to recognize this straightforward, scientific point only encourages conspiracy-minded individuals who believe that the COVID vaccination drive is merely a pretext to enrich Big Pharma... Finally, as a matter of practicality, we really need to consider the endgame. However draconian we make our passport policies, some members of society will still refuse to comply. Canada already has one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world with 85 percent of us having at least one dose – something we should be proud of as a society. Perhaps we might be able to increase this by a few more percentage points by disregarding any consideration for bodily autonomy, freedom of movement, and medical privacy. We should consider whether abandoning such liberal democratic values is worth the price, which will be to ostracize one-in-10 Canadians from mainstream society. The long-term public health consequences of excluding so many Canadians from educational opportunities and gainful employment cannot really be countenanced"
It's not coercion if it's an objective that liberals approve of. But having "mandatory" patriotism in schools (even though students can opt out) is obviously wrong, jingoistic and a hideous violation of human rights
William Watson: Listen to the economics on vaccine mandates - "The authors estimate that mandates raised overall vaccination rates by roughly 2.9 percentage points... Was it worth it? The four SFU economists don’t try to estimate benefits and costs because doing so would require normative judgments — the sort of thing we newspaper columnists have no compunctions about at all... in terms of ending the pandemic, achieving herd immunity and so on, going from a vaccination rate of 80+ per cent, which is where it was when provinces introduced their mandates, to 2.9 percentage points higher doesn’t seem that big a gain. Yes, the world is full of tipping points. But no one predicted ex ante and we may never finally decide ex post whether 82.9 per cent was Canada’s tipping point. It seems unlikely. We do know that the mandates have created a low-level civil war. Maybe that civil war would have found other fuel: we do seem to love our divides these days, and politicians can profit from deepening them (I’m looking at you, prime minister). But, adding up all the benefits and costs, which is what economists try to do even when many benefits and costs don’t come in dollars and cents, 2.9 percentage points will strike many people as not having been worth it."
Will Kids Need the COVID Vaccine for School? - The Atlantic - "School mandates for new vaccines tend to lag behind CDC recommendations by about half a decade, but COVID-19 shots appear to be in the express lane. The Los Angeles Unified School District—the nation’s second-largest—will require students 12 or older to be vaccinated by mid-December if they want to continue attending in-person classes. The entire state of California plans to mandate shots for all of its public- and private-school students as soon as vaccines are fully approved for them, and New York City’s mayor-elect has said that he supports the same idea... how, exactly, does the case for mandating COVID vaccines in schools compare to the one for all the other shot requirements—such as those for polio, chicken pox, and measles—that are already in place throughout the country?... no one can say yet whether a bout of vaccine-induced myocarditis now would harm someone’s health in a year, or 10 years, or 50. Salmon told me he wouldn’t support a kids’ mandate until researchers are able to rigorously follow kids who get myocarditis for a year or two, and find no related serious health problems... Should the COVID vaccine become an annual shot... The paperwork, she said, would be a nightmare."
This ignores the fact that for other diseases, their vaccines are good to prevent transmission: but not for covid
Marvel Actress Evangeline Lilly Comes Out Against Vaccine Mandates: ‘Nobody Should Ever Be Forced To Inject Their Body’
The left has a new "anti-vaxxer" to hate. Maybe they will get her fired from future productions
UCLA Threatens to Drop Online Student over Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate - "UCLA is threatening to drop a black student — who says that all of his classes are online — for not submitting proof that he has been vaccinated against the coronavirus... Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, said it will fine and cut the internet access of non-exempt students who fail to show proof that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. The university’s fines for unvaccinated students start at $100 a week and quickly escalate to $200 a week, or $2,275 for a full semester."
Clearly the student is an irresponsible plague rat who could infect everyone else via Zoom. Covid is just that infectious
Raymond J. de Souza: Justin Trudeau's 'punitive' vaccine mandate - "Vaccine mandates should be driven by prophylactic criteria. Blanket measures of a punitive nature, with no adjustment to circumstances or local conditions, are not about public health but political punishment. Vaccine mandates are a justified tool where there is a demonstrable need and benefit, but it has to be demonstrable, not merely asserted... to suspend or fire employees who work from home? A vaccine mandate ought to be related to an activity that is facilitated by it. There is a reasonable link between vaccination and operating a dining room at near capacity. But if proof of vaccination was required at the drive-through, or for take-out, that would be nonsensical... As of Thursday afternoon, there were twice as many staff on layoff from Kingston, Ont., hospitals as there were COVID cases in our health region; 59 times as many laid off as the sole COVID patient in hospital. There are 10 times as many staff on layoff as the total number of coronavirus deaths during the entire pandemic, which is six in our region. Is that a carefully targeted prophylactic mandate? Or it is using blunt instruments to batter those who dissent?... . Emergency measures, such as layoffs in hospitals — where 99 per cent of staff are vaccinated and there is one COVID patient — cannot be considered a “reasonable limit … demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” That quaint phrasing is from our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It’s in Section 1, actually, right at the top... When asked about what accommodations there will be for those who have medical reasons not to be vaccinated, or conscience objections, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the process for those people would be “onerous.” That gives the game away: it’s designed to be punitive, not prophylactic. One imagines a directive going out that the usually user-friendly standards employed by government bureaucracy are to be suspended. Make it as difficult as possible! It’s hard to see how the prime minister’s heavy-handed approach will survive discussions with the public-sector unions, to say nothing of a constitutional challenge. Courts are reluctant to endorse making the exercise of charter rights “onerous.” But the government is not worried about the charter; it just wants everyone to know that punishment is on the way."
Romanian EU Representatives Expose Culture of Silence on Vaccines, Big Pharma Deals and Vaccine Mandates - " The rebel MEP Romanian said, “We had a lot of debates at the beginning of this year in the parliament where we demanded full access to the contracts signed between these companies that produce the vaccines and the European Union.” What they got in return, Terhes explained, was “redacted format, after the [pharma] company agreed to open the contract to scrutiny.” (According to Terhes this was only after the company was pressed hard on the matter.)... It’s pertinent that a Romanian representative is one of the few speaking out against the infringement on human rights. Romanians, like all Eastern European countries, who lived like slaves under the Marxist heel of the Soviet Socialist Empire, have first-hand experience with organised state thuggery, and its inhumane, elitist despotism... He condemned the misuse of “vaccine” passports, stating, “What we have seen in this crisis is that civil rights and liberties have been transformed from fundamental rights to privileges that governments grant or revoke as they see fit.” Terhes, and those who stand with him, understand that civil liberties are being replaced with “prisoner privileges.” The government is using the threat of losing those privileges to force compliance with a “fall-in, line-up, goose-step in unison and salute, or else,” Globalist prison. Like Communist China, privileges will be issued on the basis of someone’s social credit score. Rights will be rationed out by degrees of loyalty to the regime, and its ideology. One recent example of this is a push from The Greens in Australia to replace free speech, with what they call “fair speech.” This all sounds “nice,” until you read the fine print. They get to decide what’s fair and what’s not."
Dozens of NBA Players Refuse the Shot - "After spending most of the last few months portraying those refusing to get vaccinated as anti-science, Kool-aid-drinking MAGA supporters, the media is now stuck. How do they stereotype mostly black NBA players who refuse to get vaccinated? Especially a player like the Orlando Magic’s Jonathan Isaac. Mr. Isaac, who has already contracted COVID-19, wonders why he has to get jabbed if the antibodies in his system are already protecting him? Nobody had an answer for him because there is none."
NBA players blow up the media’s anti-vaxxer stereotypes - The Spectator World - "The mainstream media has spent months dancing on the graves of political personalities and normal people alike who refused a COVID-19 vaccine and then succumbed to the virus itself. They’ve created a totem of who these unwashed masses of zombie-horde anti-vaxxers are: MAGA hat-wearing, Boomer hicks more interested in their ‘free-dumb’ than their health... there is a deeper meaning to what he’s saying that goes beyond ‘Bill Gates is trying to microchip everyone.’ It stands against what the media and the Biden administration are attempting to do by shaming and other-ing anyone who opts not to get vaccinated or can’t because of medical reasons. And that’s before we even get into the dark history African Americans and vaccinations, which has no doubt played a role in lower vaccination rates among that demographic. Isaac is rejecting the atmosphere of division, the idea that anyone who’s unvaccinated is deserving of scorn from the desks at CNN, as well as ostracization from polite society by employers, friends and family. Division is the lingua franca of the national media — and Isaac isn’t speaking it. Legitimate medical diagnoses are being lumped in with QAnon Facebook conspiracists. That leads nowhere good. Jonathan Isaac seems to understand this. It’s worth asking why our media and political leaders choose to ignore it."
The killer cure for alcoholism in Russia - "this all started with a story I heard about a friend’s ex-boyfriend. A Russian alcoholic who promised he’d never ever drink again. Story was he got a capsule surgically inserted under his skin. Some kind of chemical compound, such that if he drank that capsule would explode into his bloodstream, and kill him. When I got to Moscow, I found out there are dozens of clinics that do this procedure"
One covid hystericist said that covid apartheid didn't mean that alcoholics were in danger of having their rights stripped from them too, since there was no fast, easy intervention for their alcoholism (i.e. a vaccine analogue). So much for that. So first they came for the unvaccinated. Next they'll come for the alcoholics
Some places to keep checking for COVID-19 vaccine proof in Ontario - "Some establishments in Ontario will maintain proof-of-vaccine requirements even after the province ends its vaccine certificate system on Tuesday, saying they want to ensure that people feel safe and comfortable coming through their doors. Jan Campbell-Luxton, owner of De La Terre Bakery + Café in St. Catharines, Ont., said he and front-of-house staff came to a joint decision to keep checking for proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Maintaining the policy feels like “a fairly small price” to pay to ensure both staff and customers feel safe"
Covid hystericists only "follow the science" when it plays to their prejudices
Can places discriminate against the HIV-positive so everyone feels safe?
Ron DeSantis: There's a 'Gap' Between Coronavirus Mandates and the Data - "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday noted a sizable gap between the “Faucian pronouncements of what needs to be done” and the actual data... As Florida continued to veer from the mainstream narrative and opened its state early on in the pandemic, drawing thousands seeking relief from lockdown enthusiasts to the Sunshine State over the past two years, DeSantis said:
And so there was time and again where the data would diverge from the Fauci pronouncements or from the corporate media or the medical establishment, and in Florida — whether that was having businesses opened, whether that was having kids in school, whether that was about mandating cotton masks, whether that was about mandating vaccines — we always sided with the data and rejected the narrative and that is something that I think was something that’s very, very significant...
“Time and time again, though, in other jurisdictions over the past two years, with the lack of data to support it, we did have our medical establishment and politicians push repeatedly for these policies, which we know have been ineffective. And we also know they have been ineffective because the first chance they get to violate their own policies, oftentimes, they would do that,” he remarked. Indeed, several pro-lockdown Democrats have flocked to the state in recent months, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo added that politicians “made for some entertainment during the dark days of lockdowns” in other parts of the country, noting that some of them were visiting Florida, enjoying the sun “or having a nice dinner at a nice restaurant when everyone else was supposed to be at home and wearing their masks.”"
No wonder the left hate him. Because Florida won't "follow the science" and die of covid
Overcoming COVID-19 vaccination resistance when alternative policies affect the dynamics of conformism, social norms, and crowding out - "What is an effective vaccination policy to end the COVID-19 pandemic? We address this question in a model of the dynamics of policy effectiveness drawing upon the results of a large panel survey implemented in Germany during the first and second waves of the pandemic. We observe increased opposition to vaccinations were they to be legally required. In contrast, for voluntary vaccinations, there was higher and undiminished support. We find that public distrust undermines vaccine acceptance, and is associated with a belief that the vaccine is ineffective and, if enforced, compromises individual freedom. We model how the willingness to be vaccinated may vary over time in response to the fraction of the population already vaccinated and whether vaccination has occurred voluntarily or not. A negative effect of enforcement on vaccine acceptance (of the magnitude observed in our panel or even considerably smaller) could result in a large increase in the numbers that would have to be vaccinated unwillingly in order to reach a herd-immunity target. Costly errors may be avoided if policy makers understand that citizens’ preferences are not fixed but will be affected both by the crowding-out effect of enforcement and by conformism. Our findings have broad policy applicability beyond COVID-19 to cases in which voluntary citizen compliance is essential because state capacities are limited and because effectiveness may depend on the ways that the policies themselves alter citizens’ beliefs and preferences."
In other words, forcing people to get vaccinated reduces the number who get vaccinated. This coheres with the historical observation about the same (as per the History Extra podcast)
Errol Webber on Twitter - "A mask didn’t work. Two masks didn’t work. A vaccine shot didn’t work. A mask + a vaccine didn’t work. Two masks + a vaccine didn’t work. A mask + vaccine + booster didn’t work. Two masks + vaccine + booster didn’t work. But let’s require proof of full vaccination."
Why living with the virus means living with the unvaccinated too - "The evidence suggests that whether it is a young tennis player, or young drinkers out trying to enjoy themselves, the wrong people are being targeted by harsh vaccine restrictions around the world. Djokovic challenges a draconian Covid strategy down under that has governed life for countless months. It is, as Dominic Wilkinson, professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford, points out, a strategy founded in the nation’s isolation, which has allowed it to pretend it can cut itself off from the pandemic. But as Wilkinson, himself half-English and half-Australian, also notes: “The difficulty was always going to be in sustaining that.”... on the risk of infection, as Dr Julian Tang, clinical virologist, respiratory sciences, at the University of Leicester, has pointed out, “natural infection with viruses generally provides longer lasting and broader immune protection, compared to vaccination”. And, on transmission, Javid’s own Department of Health has just released a study showing that while vaccines cut transmission for the original Covid strain, new strains see both vaccinated and unvaccinated people transmitting the virus at similar rates. This is, as Wilkinson is at pains to point out, not to suggest that immunity acquired from catching Covid is somehow preferable to getting a jab. The dangers of contracting Covid are far greater than any potential vaccine side effects. “I think there are strong reasons to have a vaccine for health professionals,” he says. “The question is whether it’s ethically justified to force people to have a vaccine if they have had a confirmed infection… because there is reasonable evidence that those who have had the vaccine and those who have had an infection have similar protection from infection and risk of passing on the virus.” Across the Atlantic, there are similar doubts. “If you listen to the language of our public health officials, they talk about the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” Marty Makary, professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University told the British Medical Journal last autumn, in an article reviewing a host of studies that described similar protection from vaccine and infection-led immunity. “If we want to be scientific, we should talk about the immune and the non-immune.”... Here, young people have been targeted with measures requiring them to show proof of vaccination to enter nightclubs. As many in the industry predicted, it appears to be having little effect. Latest ONS figures show the highest rates of infection among young adults. Indeed, a year into the vaccination campaign, it is beginning to become clear who is most in need of jabs and boosters. And the answer is the same as at the start of the pandemic. Then policy was framed as if the virus did not discriminate. It soon became clear this was not true. The elderly and those with co-morbidities were very much more at risk. The same people, it seems clear, should be the focus of vaccination campaigns... coercion is unlikely to change their minds. Indeed, it is a blunt tool. In the latest ONS survey, fewer than two in 10 of those hesitant to have a vaccine said needing one to work or go on holiday might make them change their mind. The most persuasive reason, for the slim minority willing to countenance it, was altruism – to protect others. These millions are not anti-vaxxers – militant, headline-hogging campaigners calling doctors and nurses administering jabs murderers. But they are damned by association, making many even more reluctant to come forward now. Some GPs, like Dr Azhar Farooqi, in Leicester, have realised a less confrontational approach is required. Having noticed that many of his highest-risk patients, particularly from poorer or ethnic minority backgrounds, were turning down the jab, he telephoned them personally for a reassuring chat. On the spot, 70 per cent changed their minds. It is the very opposite of the French president Emmanuel Macron’s decision to “p––– off” the unvaccinated, making it increasingly hard for them to live without it. Indeed, insisting people take vaccines to protect themselves is not just of questionable effectiveness, it is also morally wrong, says Wilkinson. “It’s a bad ethical reason, it’s a paternalistic reason, it says government knows better than you what to do with your own health.” As a society we have chosen not to favour paternalistic health policies, on smoking or drinking, or obesity. Yet with the pandemic, he laments, such nuanced approaches have suffered. “Governments might prefer to keep things very black and white. You get the vaccine, or you don’t get in [to a bar or club, or country]. But ethics is not always simple and black and white. And if you’re restricting people’s freedom, you ought to do so on the basis of evidence and on the basis of valid reasons.”"
Dr. Leana Wen Reveals The Real Agenda to Comatose Cuomo - "Dr. Leana Wen, according to Wikipedia, is very much an establishment medical figure and someone the WaPo and CNN rely on. The clip is interesting not simply for what Wen has to say but for the unquestioning, semi-comatose state of ‘journalist’ Cuomo...
'But I think that there are many more people – millions of people – who, for whatever reason, have concerns about the vaccine, who just don’t know what’s in it for them. And we need to make it clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life. And the window to do that is really narrowing. I mean, you were mentioning, Chris, about how all these states are reopening. They’re reopening at a 100 per cent. And we have a very narrow window to tie re-opening policy to vaccination status. Because otherwise, if everything is re-opened, then what’s the carrot going to be ? How are we going to incentivize people to actually get the vaccine ? So that’s why I think the CDC and the Biden administration need to come out a lot bolder and say ‘If you’re vaccinated, you can do all these things. Here are all these freedoms that you have.’ Because otherwise, people are going to go out and enjoy all these freedoms anyway, and I fear a situation of coming into the fall, where we never reach herd immunity, and then we get hit by the next surge of Covid-19 in the fall, something that we could have prevented if we just got people vaccinated now.'"
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot: FOP President Is Attempting To "Induce An Insurrection" By Opposing Vaccine Mandate
"My body, my choice" = "insurrection"
Silkie Carlo on Twitter - "BREAKING. Italy's government approves by decree *compulsory* #Covid vaccinations for residents older than 50. Vaccine passports will be necessary also to enter shops, banks, and hairdressers/barbers"
"I’ve said it before, the fact that this astounding authoritarianism across the West is being met with silence by most rights institutions is devastating and their inexcusable cowardice is a horror to witness. Do you know of civil liberties groups in EU, US or Aus taking action?"
No doubt vaxholes will have some tortured logic about how this isn't really compulsory vaccination