Around the world, governments are starting to put the screws to people who refuse to give in to vaccine mandates and vaccine passport schemes. In many areas, the unvaccinated are unable to enter bars, restaurants, gyms, and other public places. But some governments aren’t content with going that far. Instead they want to make the unvaccinated really suffer.
The government of Quebec recently announced its intention to start fining those who have decided against receiving COVID vaccinations. The government is trying to claim that those who aren’t vaccinated are supposedly creating a greater burden on the healthcare system, and thus they should be forced to pay more to support that system. But how about alcoholics, the obese, and the sexually promiscuous, all of whom also burden the system? On those the government is tellingly silent.
The fact is that refusing to vaccinate against COVID is a perfectly legitimate healthcare decision. And the unvaccinated are at no greater risk of overburdening the healthcare system than the vaccinated. For a government to try to fine people just because they disagree with the government’s health policy recommendation is a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope. We would have to hope that there is significant opposition to the proposal from Quebecois.
Let’s also hope that US localities don’t try to impose similar penalties on the unvaccinated. We all know that the premise of these types of fines isn’t really to make the unvaccinated pay any true costs, but rather to penalize them financially for having the temerity to buck the government’s desires. Government authorities are now engaged in a vindictive campaign against the remaining holdouts, those who have demonstrated the folly of getting vaccinated.
Rather than admit that vaccination is a failure, can’t protect you from getting COVID, and can’t keep you from spreading COVID, governments want to punish those who were right all along. And they’ll keep right along punishing them until enough people stand up and say that enough is enough.
