There has been a lot of talk about vaccine passports in the last year, and especially the last few months. The idea is that you need to carry proof of having taken a COVID-19 vaccine in order to travel or enter certain businesses. Here are a few reasons why this is an immoral idea.
COVID-19 isn’t that dangerous
If someone you loved died with COVID-19, please understand that this is not intended to minimize your loss. Whenever we lose a loved one, whatever the cause, it is painful. Reading statistics about how many other people died from the same cause doesn’t generally help to ease that pain. Feel free to skip this section if you don’t want to deal with it. The sections that follow are still relevant, even if you don’t read this one.
It is common knowledge that the vast majority of people who test positive for the virus are either asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms. A small percentage experience severe illness. The large number of people who have died with the virus represent a very small percentage of those who have tested positive, but since death is the most severe of all possible outcomes, let us focus on those who have died.
Across the US, about 80% of all people who have died with COVID-19 were 65 or older. According to the CDC, 94% of COVID-19 deaths occurred in people who had underlying health conditions (on average, 2.6 underlying conditions per person). In other words, the vast majority of people who died with COVID-19 were both old and sick. We don’t have any data on how many of these people actually died because of the virus, versus how many died of one or more of their other conditions.
To understand the actual impact of the virus, it is important to remember that most people who died in the past year did not have COVID-19. While some experts are anticipating that the 2020 all-cause death rate may have been slightly higher than projected, it is entirely likely that more people died as a result of our response to the virus than from the virus itself.
Finally, you will recall that throughout 2020, doctors in the US were largely either unwilling or unable to treat COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). There is abundant evidence that many lives would have been saved if HCQ had been a standard treatment. Therefore, the number of COVID deaths would likely be much lower if it weren’t for this failure to treat patients appropriately.
The available vaccines are experimental
The vaccines being used against COVID-19 are regarded as “investigational” (i.e. experimental), which is why the FDA has not actually approved them, but rather allowed them to be administered under Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA). Two of them use a new technique (mRNA) that has never been used on humans, and never successfully passed animal trials. The Nuremberg Code established the principle that you can’t give an experimental treatment without the recipient’s informed consent. This means that our society long ago agreed that it is wrong to force people to take things like experimental vaccines.
The safety and efficacy of the vaccines are unknown
We have all been inundated with the message that these vaccines are “safe and effective,” but that is a statement of blind faith, not fact. As far as safety is concerned, we do not have data to show what the long-term effects will be. With regard to efficacy, the FDA’s own announcement of its EUA states: “At this time, data are not available to make a determination about how long the vaccine will provide protection, nor is there evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person.”
On the other hand, we do know that many people have experienced adverse events after being injected. As of March 5, 1,524 people had died, 3,477 had been hospitalized, and 5,806 had gone to urgent care, after receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines. We don’t know how many of these were actually caused by the vaccines, but we do know that the people who are in the best position to find the answer to that question are also highly motivated to prove that the vaccines were not to blame.
Therapeutics are available
We might be able to justify a vaccine mandate to protect society against a highly deadly, untreatable disease. However, COVID-19 is not untreatable. There are a number of safe, inexpensive, and effective therapeutics available, including hydroxychloroquine. How can we force people to be injected with an experimental vaccine on the remote chance that they might infect someone with a virus that is not very deadly and is easily treated?
Prevention is possible without vaccines
As mentioned above, the vast majority of people who have died from COVID-19 had pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer. etc. Not surprisingly, there is also a connection between COVID-19 and deficiencies of nutrients such as vitamin D (see here and here). Most people can be protected from diseases such as COVID-19 with a healthy diet and a few supplements. Such an approach is well within the means of many Americans. For those who can’t afford it, we could find a way to help, if we had the will to do so. One short term solution could be to redirect a few billion dollars from things like vaccines in order to provide healthy food and necessary supplements to low-income people.
The point is, there are healthy, natural, non-toxic ways of keeping people from being seriously impacted by viral infections such as COVID-19. And, unlike vaccines, which are specific to the illnesses for which they are designed, a healthy diet and lifestyle is sufficient to protect most people from a broad range of illnesses.
Closing thoughts
The human immune system has proven itself to be effective for millennia, and I would far rather trust it than a vaccine that was rushed to market without a single animal trial. The very idea that humans can concoct a cocktail of chemicals that is more effective than the immune system designed by God, is sheer hubris. However, I understand the fear that drives people who have no hope of eternity, so I would be willing to accept the injection of a properly and thoroughly tested vaccine, in order to make them feel better. However, I’m not willing to force anyone else to accept such an injection. Nor am I ready to roll up my own sleeve for an experimental vaccine that contains known carcinogens and/or gene-altering mechanisms.
Any effort to coerce people to take these vaccines, whether by mandate or manipulation, would be morally indefensible.