Exactly.
And having it forced on you by saying that without a vaccination you can’t go to school, you can’t go on a plane, you can’t work at your job, and saying “Well, it is your choice. We aren’t forcing you.”
I get the impression you and I are of the same sentiment-when a massive barrage of propaganda is unleashed, I tend to dig in my heels and draw back, especially when I know the people generating it do NOT have my best interests at heart...the same people who have assaulted my freedoms on all sides and tried their damnedest to destroy this country...no. I take nothing they say without a giant salt shaker of salt.
I have said this often before, even to my best friend who muttered “Oh, boy, here we go...”
If this had been a serious pathogen like Smallpox or Bubonic Plague where up to half the people infected die, that would be a very different thing.
We wouldn’t be having these discussions. People would be clamoring for a vaccine, we would wear hazmat suits in public, and social distancing and quarantining would be a non-issue because we might be holed up in our houses with firearms to keep people at bay.
But it ISN’T that. I know millions of people have been sick and died from it, but...millions of people are injured and die while driving automobiles, and nobody is calling to destroy the world economies, degrade or eliminate personal freedoms, or accepting huge increases in suicides, mental illnesses, and drug overdoses as measures to bring those traffic deaths down.
Hell, 3,000 die EVERY day from fentanyl. Twice as many as heart disease or cancer.
Yet we let China keep sending it.
I agree, it’s NOT the end of the world.
Good post.
I understand your point, but, to play Devil’s advocate, let’s do a comparison:
On average the last few years we’ve had 38,000 fatalities from auto accidents in the US. These numbers essentially are from the same gov’t compiling Covid fatalities. Even if Covid fatalities are off by, say, 30%, we are still talking about nearly an order of magnitude more Covid fatalities than auto fatalities.
Driving a car is HIGHLY regulated. Serious violations can result in loss of driving privileges, very high fines, and prison time. If you go to traffic court, it’s almost unbelievable how many people are in there. (My wife and I went there recently to get an incorrectly issued ticket to her nullified - it was.) Incredible monies are spent making highways safer, and cars safer. Honda looked at reintroducing their super efficient CRX and even with ~30 year’s improved tech, it was not feasible to get the mpg without this “budget” car costing over $50k, mainly due to safety constraints (gov’t requirements). Expensive insurance is required. Manufacturers are forced to alter their offerings to meet gov’t whim. Consumer choice is similarly severely restricted. And so on.
Do I agree with all that? Heck, no. At least some parts of cost, and freedom & choice restrictions regarding auto usage, I strongly disagree with. But given that the vast majority of the population accept all the above with respect to their cars, and given vastly greater Covid fatalities (data accepted by probably 95% of the population), are the Covid policies’ inroads on freedom, and damages done, any surprise?
Still (I’ll stop playing “advocate”)... Even if we say Covid’s direct negative health impacts are 10x those of automobiles’ direct negative health impacts, this Covid thing (trying to slow it down) was done all wrong. I think incompetence, lust for power, and lust for money, are all involved. Maybe that’s 50% / 25% / 25%, maybe it’s some other ratio. (I find it REALLY hard to get below 40% on the incompetence portion.) Regardless, it is a sad comment on our “civilization” and intelligence as a society.