Vaccination

 Prime Minister Trudeau upped the tone on the

campaign rhetoric today, with Conservative  anti-vaxers 

described as ‘beyond the fringe of the mainstream’.

No doubt about it; that’s out there. But is this scolding tone 

a useful way to handle it.

Mainstream media themselves are in fact more cautious,

referring to vaccination skeptics. What might be going on

here.

To my mind, there is a vital difference to the pro and anti-

vaccine positions. Pro vaccination is a public health measure;

vaccinated people are globally less sick and less likely to infect 

others and are useful in a pandemic context. The anti-vaccine 

position says vaccines are dangerous to those vaccinated. There 

are side-effects and possibly real dangers at work to the individual. 

People should be free to choose.

The fringe is nowhere in sight.

As the person who shops for my household, I am fully vaccinated,

my clothes are extra-clean, I change my masks often, and wash them

thorughly. I follow the rules. am thankful for the availbility of the Covid

vaccinations; but I am no pushover on vaccination itself. We are also

in the midst of an epidemic of sorts from auto-immune diseases. And in that

discussion, excessive vaccination is a prime suspect when the body

turns on itself, and the immune system starts attacking parts of

one’s body.

People should be free to decide whether they will accept the vaccine or not;

and in a real sense, they are. But those who refuse run other risks, and should

accept the consequences of their decisions. They may not be allowed certain 

venues and might be barred form certain kinds of employment. And that is

fairness in these hard times.