That is the assessment in today's Toronto Star editorial of those who refuse to get vaccinated, thereby holding the rest of us (or, as I like to say, the sane majority) hostage.
And it is time to start making them pay for their obdurate, anti-social stance.
It is their irresponsibility that is largely to blame for the restraints under which Canadians are currently required to live.
It is no surprise, then, and largely to be applauded, that exasperated jurisdictions from Quebec to countries in Europe have opted to raise the cost of demonstrably anti-social behaviour.
In Quebec, the province’s health minister Christian Dubé announced this past week that, as of Jan. 18, Quebecers will have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to access provincial liquor and cannabis stores.
“If they can’t protect themselves, we will protect them against themselves,” said Dubé. “And we will make sure that they understand very clearly that if they don’t want to be vaccinated, they just stay home.”
European jurisdictions are hardening their hearts against the vaccine-refusniks with some relish. For example, the French President wants to make their lives hell:
Macron told the newspaper Le Parisien that he wants to “piss off” unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated that they’ll relent and accept the vaccine. The unvaccinated, he said, are reneging on the obligations of citizenship.
Other European countries are getting tougher with the unvaxxed. Italy requires proof of vaccination – or of having recovered from COVID — for entry to a host of public spaces. Greece is levying a monthly fine (called a “health fee”) of 100 euros ($144) on people over 60 who won’t get their shots.
Unlike Erin O'Toole, who pleads for understanding and accommodation for those who thumb their noses at the health and safety of their fellow-citizens, most prefer the stick over the carrot at this critical juncture.
But right now the responsible majority are paying an enormous price for the stubbornness of the recalcitrant – and it is not the former who should be asked to make endless accommodations.
The majority of people who “did the right thing” and got vaccinated are effectively being held hostage to the selfishness of the few. At this point it’s entirely reasonable to raise the price of irresponsibility, and make life more difficult for those who won’t get their shots.
Ontario and other provinces should follow Quebec’s example and turn the screws further on the unvaxxed.
To that, I have nothing to add other than my whole-hearted agreement.
Perhaps separate water fountains for the unvaxxed? Or make them sit at the back of the bus?
ReplyDeleteOh I know what'll tickle your fancy, Lorne!
How about the authorities force them to wear some type of badge to identify themselves in public? You know, like the good old days!
-MC
I'm afraid you impute extreme motives to me, MC, with which I must disagree. As I have said before, when a minority show such willful contempt for the safety and well-being of the majority of their fellow citizens, consequences, including sanctions, are justified.
DeleteMC, that old fascist himself, Noam Chomsky, has said, quite unequivocally, that those who refuse vaccination have a moral obligation to withdraw from society.
Deletehttps://nationalpost.com/news/world/noam-chomsky-says-the-unvaccinated-should-just-remove-themselves-from-society
Your rant, MC, is fatuous.
We need to understand what we're confronting. What is in play is tribal, profoundly cultural.
ReplyDeleteIn the weekend NYT magazine, evangelical climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, discussed how even Christianity in the US has become tainted by political ideology.
"...today when you look at people who self-identify as Christians in the United States, love for others is not one of the top characteristics you see. Christianity is much more closely linked with political ideology and identity, with judgmentalism, partisanship, science denial, rejection of responsibility for the poorest and most vulnerable who we, as Christians, are to care for.
"something like 40 percent of people who self-identify as evangelicals don’t go to church. They go to the church of Facebook or Fox News or whatever media outlet they get their information from. So their statement of faith is written primarily by political ideology and only a distant second by theology.
"I think it’s Jonathan Haidt who says that we think that people use information to make up their minds but they don’t. People use what Haidt calls our moral judgment. We use moral judgment to make up our minds and then use our brains to find reasons that explain why we’re right. There’s no way to separate the emotional from the logical. We think it’s possible to convince people to act rationally in their best interests: Well, look at people who, as they are dying, are rejecting the fact that they have Covid. Look at people who are still rejecting simple things like taking a vaccine and wearing masks. We are primarily emotional, and emotions are engaged deeply with climate change because it brings up the most profound sense of loss: People on the right, for example, deeply fear losing their liberties because of climate solutions."
Whether it's the pandemic, climate change, the gamut of conspiracy theories, we're up against a contrarian movement, a tribe with its own ideology informing its conscience. They invent justifications for their anti-social disbeliefs because facts hold no currency for them.
We can expect to be engaged with these people in a similar vein on every crisis that now looms. If we don't deal resolutely now we may encourage even more dangerous intransigence on other issues later.
The human family clearly has many factions, Mound, some benign, some malignant. As you suggest, it is the latter that we have to stand up against, lest they ruin things for the rest.
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