Vaccine mandates are becoming talk of town, as Delta causes havoc to health, economies and jobs. New Zealand implemented ‘no vaccine no job’ policies for teachers and doctors. Fiji just announced unvaccinated public and private sector workers could lose their jobs if they refuse their jabs. There’s a fierce debated raging. Do vaccines compromise or protect our liberty?
Which Direction is the World Moving on This?
The White House previously announced most federal employees must have their jabs. The statement also encouraged ‘large companies’ to do similar or submit employees to weekly testing.
However, this pales by comparison with the Saudi Arabia monarchy, according to Al Jazeera on October 18, 2021.
1… Saudi public and private employees may not enter their work places unless they have double doses.
2… Anybody wanting to enter Saudi government buildings and schools, or use public transport must have both their jabs.
However, Italy has the most draconian rules of all. Workers of all kinds must have full vaccination, immunity, or a forty-eight-hour-recent negative test to report for work. Those without green passes may be suspended, or have their pay stopped after five days.
All Italian residents and visitors require green passes to enter museums, gyms and restaurants, and to travel by train, bus and plane. But surely they have rights to civil liberties too, hence the question we ask.
Do Vaccines Compromise or Protect Our Civil Liberties?
Al Jazeera attempted to bottom out on this by consulting Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou. He is a professor in human rights law at University of Liverpool with an academic turn of mind. ‘It is 100 percent a human rights issue related to the right to privacy,’ he says. ‘And the right to bodily integrity,’ he adds. ‘That’s why we have the right to determine our medical treatments’.
But, and this is the crux of the matter, this right is not absolute he continues. Governments can interfere ‘if they can justify interference as necessary for and proportionate to the achievement of another valuable goal’. This is the crux of the debate whether vaccines compromise or protect our liberty.
Human Rights Watch draws the line at governments using ‘physical force or coercion’ according to Al Jazeera news. ‘A policy that covers all of society will be seen as too heavy-handed,’ explains Debbie Kaminer. She is a professor of law at Baruch College, City University of New York.
‘I want to emphasize here that nobody’s talking about forced vaccinations. It’s that if you want to be a healthcare provider, you need to get a vaccine. If you want to work in a classroom full of unvaccinated children, you need to get the vaccine. The point isn’t to be punitive. It’s about keeping society safe.’
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