Medical Rights in the Pandemic; Or the Depletion of Them

Would you say that it is okay for a CEO or manager of a company to withhold due or promised promotions from employees unless they performed intercourse with the manager? Probably not. Not only is this highly unprofessional, but the general consensus is that this kind of behavior is wrong. People have the right to earn rewards for their hard work without having to bend to the will of someone more than previously agreed upon. People need to work to live, and they should not have to do something they strongly do not want to in order to slightly improve their quality of life. 

How about if a landlord decided that their tenants are not allowed to stay in their home unless they go vegan? You may be vegan or have positive thoughts about vegans, but that does not mean that other people have to become vegan to please you. This is considered to be common sense and people usually go their separate ways if they disagree strongly. You don’t force someone to eat food that they do not want to eat or food that they don’t like. People can eat what they want as long as they are not stealing it from other people. 

These examples are probably making you look at the screen like I am crazy. These are wild proposals and surely nobody would think these things are okay, right? Well, these situations are actually not far off of what is happening to a lot of people right now. Here is one more situation that is closer to what is happening in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: 

Would you say it is reasonable for a parent to take away their kids’ toys one by one every day in front of them until the child begins obeying the parent constantly with no explanation. Then, once the child becomes compliant, the parent continues to take away the toys but at a slower rate and when the child is not looking. Even after the child follows through on the initial deal, or rather, demand, they are still being wronged by the person who is supposed to protect them. It is quite reasonable, given the circumstances, for the child to be upset when they realize their toys are cut down to about half what they once had. When the child confronts the parent, the parent gaslights the child into thinking that it is for the greater good. Maybe the toys went to charity and are helping a lot more people now than if they were all given to the one child. The parent says “How dare you be so selfish? Your sacrifice is helping a lot of other people, you know. By the way, I need you to give up seven more of your toys, dear.” 

The parent is the government. The child is the representative for people who are vaccine hesitant. And the toys are the rights and freedoms of the people who are not vaccinated yet. 

Now, this is not irreversible. Right now, the people who are vaccine hesitant are losing their jobs because of their choice. Medical care is seen as a right by the left, and therefore they should also have the right to opt out of medical procedures. Have you read The Giver? In this dystopian novel, people are given meds every day to suppress their sexual or romantic urges without their knowledge. One day, a child figures it out and decides not to take the injection to see what would happen. He starts to have a crush on a girl at school and he finds more things that the government is not telling them. He eventually leaves the community so he can have freedom and choice about his life. 

Similarly, many people are not taking the vaccine because they are waiting to see what comes of the pandemic and what the side-effects of the vaccine may be. They are now not allowed to work in many cases, they do not have their freedom of mobility, they are prohibited from places of leisure, and are denied an education. People who have worked hard for years are now seeing their lives go down the drain because they won’t get the “jab” because of religious reasons, previously existing health issues, or simply because they don’t want to. Out of all countries, one would think Canada would realize that this is their right and they are treading on thin ice by infringing it.

However, there are already reports of some companies that were laying people off because they did not receive the jab having to change their policies because so many people left. They are now allowing people to come back under the condition that they will do testing regularly, but we don’t know if these people are going back to the company that so quickly abandoned them.

Our rights, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, are being taken away. The difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated in our toys analogy is that the vaccinated are not aware of the toys being taken yet. The point of taking away the rights of unvaccinated people in front of them and all at once is to get them to comply. Then, when they do comply because they are promised that it will end their suffering, we all get shut down still. We all lose the ability to go to the restaurant or theater. We all get put on online school. We all are cut off from outside emotional support and physical contact. The vaccinated and unvaccinated end up having to deal with the same injustices, but the unvaccinated have to face it sooner. 

And the larger powers that be will continue to do it. Again. And again. And again. They keep promising that it will end after one more sacrifice. It will end after one more test. It will end after one more shot. But it doesn’t until people call them out in large enough numbers that they cannot ignore. They’ll keep on manipulating people into doing what they want, and this is the indicator as to how far they’ll be able to go in the future. Coercion is never okay. There is a reason that coercion is conflated with force. Yes, the risk of side effects from the vaccine is “extremely low”, but so is the risk of serious issues from COVID-19. It is a huge game of “would you rather.” Would you rather get this illness that you hear equal parts of deadly or just a cold, or the vaccine that has caused your mom to get stronger but your grandma to get tremors? It’s all chance, and there is no right answer. 

However, this is going to come out with huge repercussions on the coercers as long as the victims stand together. Quite frankly, it is not an issue of unvaccinated vs vaccinated, liberal vs conservative, or rich vs poor right now. All of us need to get through this with our rights intact and our relationships still thriving. No one deserves to die from either the vaccine or COVID, but no one deserves to lose their livelihood because they made the deviant choice or if they made the approved one. Our job, as humans, is to make sure that human rights are not violated. And our job, as people with voices and abilities, need to figure out what we want and what we need. The vaccine program is not about promoting the greater good if everyone that is part of the greater good is being harmed from it in some way. It might not be the same way, but it is still harmful. Even if you willingly went and got the vaccine, think about the people who cannot get it or have reason not to. If you haven’t got the vaccine, think about the rights of the vaccinated to choose. Those who were forced to get vaccinated in order to support your family, think about the rights that you had to sacrifice for it. This is a time when we cannot afford to be divided, because that division and confusion is going to be exactly what will be noted in history books. It won’t be that everyone’s lives were impacted by the choices of the leaders of our country; instead, the focus will be on how every citizen chose to direct their anger at widespread injustice toward other people who were facing the same stress. 

I’m not saying that we should all always agree, because that is what the government wants more than anything right now. Instead, we need to use our differences to bind us together into a strong group made up of unique individuals with the right to associate with each other. We need to remember that while each of us is different from the next person in line, we are all facing challenges at the hands of the same people. Use your differences to unite with others. 

One voice in a sea of speakers will not make it through. Use your different voices to shout all the different perspectives, and give everyone the ability to live free. It’s something to think about. Social issues cannot resolve themselves on their own. We need to work for what we believe, regardless of the stresses of this crisis on all of us. 

Until next time, keep thinking outside the box, and keep reading in between!