This commentary is by John Greenberg of Marlboro.
Jeff Euber’s commentary demands more rebutting than I can provide here. Still:
1) “… you can decline the vaccine, but that choice may ultimately banish you from a civilized existence.” Euber never defines the word “civilized.” When defined as “showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, ethical, and reasonable,” the precise opposite is true: Vaccination is clearly evidence of intellectual advancement (believe in scientific evidence); it is humane, ethical and reasonable, since it shows a modicum of the respect for others which is the foundation of most ethical codes.
2) “What happens if you can’t find a grocery store that doesn’t require proof of vaccination?” Order online or by phone?
3) “an experimental vaccine.” All vaccines, like all drugs, are experimental: that is, based not just on basic scientific knowledge, but on patient testing. Prior to being made available publicly, tens of thousands of volunteers were vaccinated and the resulting data carefully examined. The “experiment” has now been enlarged to include 231 million Americans. “A review of available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records revealed no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths.”
4) “99.7% recovery rate (without a vaccine).” I didn’t find this statistic at the link provided, but the calculation is pretty simple. As of April 26, the CDC reports 31,883,289 cases and 569,272 deaths. That’s a death rate of 1.79%. Among those fully vaccinated, the rate falls to .000001%. Keep in mind that many of those not killed by Covid still suffer harm, sometimes lifetime harm from it. This includes “long covid” cases as well as those whose organs were damaged by the disease but who have still managed to recover.
5) “If vaccinated people can still spread the virus — as shown by reports of “breakthrough cases” in the fully vaccinated — then passports are rendered meaningless.”
a) First,”breakthrough cases” are defined as fully vaccinated individuals who nonetheless contract Covid19, but it is not clear from this that these individuals can or do transmit the disease. It is especially unclear whether they do so at rates equal to or less than those who have not been vaccinated, but current evidence points in the latter direction.
b) More importantly, the existence of a tiny percentage of failures does not make passports “meaningless.” It simply means that they are not foolproof. We face decisions of this nature all the time: most people who cross the street do not get hit by a car, but some do. Most people who undergo a medical procedure do not die, but some do. Euler’s blanket conclusion does not follow from his premise.
6) “If the vaccines are eventually proven to provide immunity … recipients can feel confident they are protected regardless of others’ choices.” Again, there are distinct problems here.
a) Vaccines have proven to provide immunity to the current strains of the virus in the vast majority of those who receive them, so “recipients can feel confident they are protected.” That’s true, at least, unless and until a disease mutation comes along which manages to subvert that immunity.
b) Vaccinated individuals protect not just themselves, but others as well. The evidence for that is not as strong as the evidence for immunity from the virus, but it is growing.
c) The core problem is not what is said here, but what isn’t: As long as the disease remains pandemic, it can and will impact vast numbers of people and continue to mutate. But even in that larger context, locales where everyone has been vaccinated have, by definition, herd immunity: The vaccine is far less likely to spread in those locales, whence the need to limit access to those who have been vaccinated.
7) “Yellow fever, for one thing, has a much higher natural fatality rate than Covid-19.” Natural fatality rate is not the only measure of the seriousness of a disease. Indeed, diseases with 100% fatality rates generally do not become pandemic, precisely because they kill off potential victims and spreaders. Diseases like Covid, which can spread before symptoms are apparent, kill far more people in the long run.
8) “Requiring proof of vaccination is nothing new, as seen with schools and international travel. However, there is a difference between proving vaccination status in specific circumstances … and doing so just to engage in everyday life.” Schools aren’t part of everyday life? As far as I’m aware, no one in the U.S. has proposed that governments require vaccination passports for activities they don’t already control (like schools). But businesses and other private organizations already have and make use of the right to allow entrance to those meeting reasonable guidelines: “No shirts, no shoes, no service.” Is that “Orwellian”?
9) The difference between Nazi propaganda and vaccine passports is facially obvious: Jews were no more “spreaders of disease” than Nazis themselves. Nazi propaganda — alas, like much of Euler’s — was not based on any factual foundation. But those who have not been vaccinated arae more likely to spread disease than those who have been. The distinction is quite real, and potentially threatening to “civilized” society.
