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Lithuanian Covid Pass

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13 pointskfprt8 comments

I know I’m late to the party here, but I feel the need to chime in anyway.

In general I agree, the vaccinations do more good than harm. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continually question everything the government tells us to do. When you surrender your right (or ability) to make decisions for yourself, no matter how well-intentioned, you have already lost your right to self-determination.

In the Western world (US, UK, Germany, France, etc.) it’s easy to sit back and judge other countries. To varying degrees none of these Western countries have ever had these problems.

As a well-educated American who is very aware of the history involved, but has lived in far Eastern Europe (Estonia) for 4 years it has been shocking.

In the West we read and hear about the history, but we never live it. Here the people born in the 80’s don’t have to read about it, they remember it. The people born in the 90’s had parents and grandparents drilling into them from birth how they should horde resources and never, ever, speak to anyone they didn’t know.

In Estonia they have been “free” since 1992, but they didn’t even have their own set of laws until 2004 - before that everything was a carbon copy of the Soviet laws.

In these countries it is possible that Covid is a bigger threat to their fledgling democracy than to public health.

Whether you’re a he/she/they/them or you’re from a country that actually suffered during the Cold War, stop assuming that everyone else has had the same life experiences you have.

The piece attempts to equate reasonable public health measures to former tyrannical rule. These kinds of comparisons aren’t helpful for debate - they simultaneously exaggerate a mere and temporary inconvenience while reducing legitimate past atrocities.

It’s also simply a gross misrepresentation, the restrictions to freedoms are largely already gone - so covid wasn’t a covert power grab after all.

I hate these ideas for passes. I don't want to see this implmented on the EU level just because it reduces irrational fears. If Covid is a significant threat to you, get vaccinated.

> the restrictions to freedoms are largely already gone

I think needing a pass to enter public and private facilities is a severe restriction of freedom. On the contrary, it should be dropped and put into the closet labeled 'bad ideas'.

We already had enough censorship of information that later proved true. Enough with this FUD.

Many Germans went along with Hitler’s policies, convinced that they would ultimately be advantageous for the country. Reasonable public health measures don’t require censorship of public discourse.

COVID restrictions isn’t the holocaust.

And harmful items are frequently censored - from basic rating systems to the prevent of child pornography: Society and governments censor things that cause harm. The parent comment calls out germany specifically, yet this is a country where nazi symbols and gestures are censored (with a well established rationale for doing so.)

Covid disinformation is undeniably harmful and contributes absolutely nothing. Social media networks choosing to pull down harmful misinformation is entirely consistent with not only how they operate but how society operates as a whole.

So in other words the Covid Pass is effective at preventing irresponsible people like the author from spreading a dangerous disease to others.

Sounds good to me.

His argument hinges on the fact that getting vaccinated against a highly contagious disease that has collapsed several healthcare systems is a personal medical decision. I don’t think it can be until we have enough resources to handle COVID waves and still have capacity left over to treat other, less preventable diseases that bring suffering and death.

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