They might have a case if the COVID vaccines were at least over 90% effective. We don’t mandate flu shots, right? They are typically about 60% effective. But, this is the ACLU, who find defending civil liberties a subjective thing
We Work at the A.C.L.U. Here’s What We Think About Vaccine Mandates.
Do vaccine mandates violate civil liberties? Some who have refused vaccination claim as much.
We disagree.
At the A.C.L.U., we are not shy about defending civil liberties, even when they are very unpopular. But we see no civil liberties problem with requiring Covid-19 vaccines in most circumstances.
While the permissibility of requiring vaccines for particular diseases depends on several factors, when it comes to Covid-19, all considerations point in the same direction. The disease is highly transmissible, serious and often lethal; the vaccines are safe and effective; and crucially there is no equally effective alternative available to protect public health.
In fact, far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. They protect the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated and communities of color hit hard by the disease.
So, then the people who want them should get them, and the people who don’t should be left to deal with the consequences of their own actions. A vaccine is meant to protect the person: if someone else doesn’t get it that matters little to affecting me.
Vaccine requirements also safeguard those whose work involves regular exposure to the public, like teachers, doctors and nurses, bus drivers and grocery store employees. And by inoculating people from the disease’s worst effects, the vaccines offer the promise of restoring to all of us our most basic liberties, eventually allowing us to return safely to life as we knew it, in schools and at houses of worship and political meetings, not to mention at restaurants, bars, and gatherings with family and friends.
That’s a pretty big stretch in deeming that Government should force people to get a vaccine that has shown that it cannot fully stop a person from getting COVID. Especially since Government seems to be searching for reasons to continue slapping on restrictions. Where was the ACLU when government was going crazy, some more than others, last year, particularly during lockdown? Where is the ACLU when Biden, Harris, Pelosi, and so many others were, and still are, blowing off their own masking mandates? And, yes, this is the ACLU saying this. The two ACLU employees, David Cole and Daniel Mach, certainly didn’t write this for the NY Times without corporate approval.
The real threat to civil liberties comes from states banning vaccine and mask mandates. Even though most Covid-19 vaccine mandates do not infringe civil liberties, several states, including Florida, Iowa, South Carolina and Texas, have banned vaccine mandates or mask mandates — and sometimes both — in the name of freedom. But these bans directly endanger the public health and make more deaths from the disease inevitable. They trample the rights of the most vulnerable, who want to participate in society without putting their health at grave risk.
We care deeply about civil liberties and civil rights for all — which is precisely why we support vaccine mandates.
We care about civil liberties so we want Government to force everyone to take a vaccine that hasn’t been studied for years. And, yes, I am pro-vaccine. I will take a booster if I can. Whether you want one is your business.
(USA Today) The concept of what “full vaccination” means – two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one of the Johnson & Johnson shot – is likely to change.
That’s the estimation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who on Thursday presented data supporting booster shots during a briefing of the White House COVID-19 response team.
Asked whether another dose will be required, Fauci said the decision will be up to the Food and Drug Administration, but added, “I would not at all be surprised that the adequate full regimen for vaccination will likely be three doses.’’
They don’t even know the effectiveness to the point they think 3 doses will be required, and, heck, perhaps even every 6 months, yet, the ACLU wants to mandate this for all.
Read: ACLU: COVID Mandates Actually Increase Civil Liberties Or Something »