Freedom, Democracy and the Choice to Opt out of COVID-19 Vaccination
Too many times in 2021, and in these first days of 2022, I have heard the word “freedom” associated to the choice of opting out of the COVID-19 vaccine shots. Hearing this always makes my skin crawl under my shirt: is this choice really about freedom? Or is it, in fact, a violation of personal freedom? I’ll say it straight up: complying to vaccinations is the only option that can guarantee personal freedom in the society where we live. Freedom requires us to get vaccinated during a pandemic.
Society gives us freedom. Imagine severing all links and connections with the society, like packing up a few essential things (your toothbrush, a few clothes and DIY tools) and moving to live on an isolated inhabited island. Would you be free? I think not. Unlike in most novels and movies, your time on the island would be completely taken up by survival actions: hunting for food, cultivating a few plants to get fresh vegetables, cooking, repairing stuff, cleaning, healing yourself after a wound, preparing food reserves for harsh seasons, building new tools, and so on. Since early in the morning you would be busy with activities that you do not have to do when living in the society. There are countless people doing it for you: growing food for you, bringing it to shops or to your door, repairing what you break or disposing of the debris. Sure, the price to pay is keeping a job, doing some work you may or may not like in order to make a living and afford the services offered by the society. However this frees time for you to do other activities, like entertainment, culture, hobbies… living in a complex society gives the freedom of choice. Choice about what to do with our free time. Freedom is about choice after all.
This is one of the cornerstones of living in a society, often interpreted in terms of direct damage procured to another individual. As long as my fist doesn’t reach your nose, I can swing it as wildly as I want. In my own yard, I can do whatever I want as long as it does not affect other’s property. In fact, the words quoted above are more far reaching: to preserve my own freedom, I need to actively preserve and guarantee the healthy existence of the whole society, as any act damaging the society also damages and limits somebody’s freedom. Here it enters the vaccine. Vaccinations limit the diffusion of an infective disease and reduce the symptoms of the disease itself. As such, they are essential in preserving the society during a pandemic like COVID-19. Taking my shots ensures that the shopkeepers I need every week for my groceries do not get sick, and the hospitals I may need for a surgery or an examination are not full and canceling their appointments. Not taking the shots makes me liable of spreading the virus, even if I don’t have any symptoms or very mild ones. My health might not be endangered, but that of other people in the society yes. And this is a violation of their right to be free (and mine as a consequence).
At first, I did not like the idea of getting vaccinated. In fact, I still do not like it. Yet, I just took the third shot, the booster, a week ago in view of the new wave of infections in France and Europe caused by Omicron. I did it because of civic sense, to protect the society I live in. Not only to save my life, but also to save the lives of the countless people my life depends on. Unless you are willing to retire to an isolated hut in the forest and give up all the other choices the society offers to you, there is no open choice about vaccinations. The benefits of vaccinations can only be reaped if everybody gets it: 90% is not enough, 95% is not enough. This is what the recent history of COVID-19 is teaching us, as the virus will continue spreading and sending many people to the hospital. Most of them unvaccinated. 100% of eligible individuals being vaccinated is the only goal here. Like I said before, there is still a choice that one can make, without violating other’s freedoms: either getting vaccinated and continue living in the society, or opting out and completely severe the ties with society (go live in an isolated hut, no shopping allowed, no human contact). Opting out and continue living a “normal” life violates the freedom of all the other people in the society, the people that make the “normal” life possible at all.
Freedom only comes with limitations, in fact there is no freedom without them. During a pandemic, the only choice allowed by freedom is to get vaccinated as soon as possible, as part of a collective effort to preserve the society and the freedom of choice it guarantees for us all. This is not just about health, in fact I think that the same civic sense should be integrated in the discussion about democracy. The right to vote is “sacred”. But, what if I need to vote on something I’m not informed enough to make a good choice for the society I live in? Wouldn’t a bad choice also violate the sacred principle of freedom? Just asking.
