The evidence I've been reading the last decade+ suggests that disease is much more damaging than is generally acknowledged. But, as shown by the coronavirus, the costs of stopping (or, more realistically, delaying) them are huge. I'm wondering if, in my lifetime, we're going to see a plan for dealing with Herpes.
If we all wore $2 N95-equivalent masks, spread out 6 feet whenever convenient, did outside whatever can be done outside, and received a vaccine at (roughly) the same time, COVID19 would be gone.
The costs are huge because we made them huge.
We ignore COVID19 when case counts are low, giving it a chance to mutate and spread. We take extreme measures when hospitals start filling up, shutting down schools and businesses.
See Korea, China, Taiwan, etc. for examples of reasonable-cost ways to control COVID19.
You'll find that the systems that can force the unwilling to buy $2 masks, spread out 6 feet and get vaccinated are worse than the disease. If you recognise that the government can compel people to be healthy it opens up some terrifying cans of worms.
I'd like to see this implemented with roughly the same systems which make me wear a bicycle helmet, a seatbelt, or have turn signals, which I don't find so scary.
In these systems, you have a law. You have law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn't catch everyone, and doesn't have particularly aggressive police powers.
I'm fearful it will be implemented with the same systems which make us register guns and have background checks, track bank transfers over $10,000, check IDs when buying cold medicine, or track us as we travel.
In these systems, you have law enforcement. Enforcement is given tools to track and monitor what people do just in case someone might be a criminal.
There is a big difference between those and mandatory vaccinations. If you're going to vaccinate everyone then it isn't like people can choose to opt out. Plus the logistical issues of how to vaccinate foreigners.
In Australia, Sydney is currently in lockdown because it turns out that masks & social distancing can't be enforced enough to contain a COVID outbreak.
You pass a law:
- Requiring vaccinations, or a $800 fine
- Permitting private venues to verify vaccination status by looking at vaccine cards (e.g. employers, concerts, etc.)
- Make it a crime to forge vaccine cards
- International travel already has yellow vaccine books, and it's well-established to check vaccines upon entry to/from high-risk countries
You don't implement any infrastructure to track vaccinations. I show my vaccine card when I enter a concert, same as I do when ordering alcohol. No one records anything.
The bar for intentionally breaking laws is much higher than not getting a vaccine. I think most people will follow laws voluntarily. Most of the ones who don't follow the law won't get caught, but a few will.
If you think it is reasonable to force people to make medical decisions when it is for the greater good, do you have an argument against mandatory sterilisation? Because I don't see an easy way to be pro- forced vaccinations and anti- forced sterlisation.
The basic argument is if the government can do this with only 1-3 years debate (when previously vaccines takes 4+ years to evaluate) then it starts opening the door to some really scary stuff getting rushed through. I'm more interested now in what you think is holding the door shut.
> I show my vaccine card when I enter ... No one records anything.
The vaccine card is what people are talking about when the say 'record'.
"The scale of the observed deficit [of people who had covid] was not insubstantial; the 0.47 SD global composite score reduction for the hospitalized with ventilator sub-group was greater than the average 10-year decline in global performance between the ages of 20 to 70 within this dataset. It was larger than the mean deficit of 480 people who indicated they had previously suffered a stroke (−0.24SDs) and the 998 who reported learning disabilities (−0.38SDs). For comparison, in a classic intelligence test, 0.47 SDs equates to a 7-point difference in IQ." edit: well, on further thought, a stroke is not the same as a disease but still there's insight here.