Vaccine Freedom
Vaccine mandates are coming. As the FDA inches towards full approval and ICU’s refill with COVID patients — employers, colleges, and parts of the gov’t are going to start requiring vaccination.
Amongst the vaccine-hesitant people I’ve come across, there’s a strong sense of “freedom” behind their reasoning. Free to not take it without consequences or restrictions. Free from the gov’t pressuring them to put something in their body.
As the mandates come, the cries that freedoms are being violated will become louder and louder. Freedom is sacrosanct in our country, and rightfully so. However, the freedoms that we enjoy were never meant to be unlimited or unconditional.
There are two limits to personal liberty that I want to talk about here because I think understanding them is key to getting the vaccine mandate debate right.
You can think of freedom as “freedom to” do X and “freedom from” oppression, violence, etc. In any liberal democracy, the government protects both. Unless otherwise stated, you are free to do anything and if someone tries to stop you — the gov’t intervenes. Likewise, the government has checks on its own power so that we are free from repressed speech, for example.
The conception of “freedom to” we have is that you are free to do whatever you like — until the moment it becomes (potentially) harmful to others.
You can drive your car as fast as you want — until it becomes potentially dangerous to yourself and others. You can play your music as loud as you want — until it keeps the neighbors up. I think we all understand this basic social expectation we have of each other.
Thus, you are not free to spread a deadly disease. Even if it’s only a potential that you get it, spread it, or take up a hospital bed.
Refusing the vaccine is a violation of that social contract. You are causing harm, even if it’s indirect.
The loss of life, the grief, the economic ruin, the cost of care, all of it — is incredibly harmful to our country. This is undeniable. To refuse the vaccine is to see this fire burning across our country and not just ignore the water next to you, but to sprinkle a little oil on.
Remaining “free from” gov’t overreach is an important cultural value in the US and one I sympathize with.
However, the vaccines are not an example of gov’t overreach.
Why? Because another foundation of democratic freedom is that it has to be sacrificed for. “Freedom is not free” we like to say.
In WWII there was little complaining about rations and other gov’t demands. We understood that we had to sacrifice for the health of the nation and our enduring freedom. Many made the ultimate sacrifice. To date, COVID has killed 6x as many Americans as in WWII. Yet, most of our dead are not soldiers on the battlefield but innocent people in our communities.
We benefit from having a functional society because we collectively sacrifice for the greater good. We sacrifice liberties for the rule of law that allows us to feel safe going about our days. We allow money to be taxed to fund things like roads and sewage that keep the world spinning.
Look, I get it. Sometimes new gov’t actions can be unjust, and there is a slippery slope with any new gov’t program. Just look at the “temporary” security measures post-9/11 that violate our privacies. But again, this is not the case with vaccines.
The vaccine program is a justified, straightforward public health response. It is not the first vaccine push in our country, it is not a new limit on freedoms. A vaccine mandate is a necessary suspension of a tiny aspect of personal liberty in order to ensure a healthy nation. It’s that simple.
In a time of crisis, we are called to do our part to get out of it. We get off easy. Instead of having to storm a French beach, our contribution to our country is as simple as getting a free, effective, and safe vaccine.
To refuse the vaccine is to not do your part. You enjoy the benefits of society but don’t sacrifice to ensure its functioning. It is selfish. It is childish. Only children owe nothing to society.
You are free from gov’t oppression, but you are not free from your obligation to others.
Humans do not tolerate selfishness in a crisis. If a dozen people were on a lifeboat filling with water and three refused to help bail, how does that situation play out? Would the majority be unjustified in coercing the others to help? No.
All of us want to be free, it’s part of the human spirit. The ebb and flow of freedom is that to get more of it, sometimes we have to temporarily give some up. Financial freedom comes from sacrificing your time, spending, and comfort. The freedoms the greatest generation sacrificed earned us a world order with America on top instead of the Nazis.
The freedom we enjoy and protect as sacred in our country is a great thing but it never was unlimited or unconditional. You are not free to spread disease. You are not free from consequences for not getting vaccinated.
Getting the vaccine is an easy, good, and just thing to do to help your community and your country.
I hope you get it.
