Irish Times on Monday; Dr David Robert Grimes

Three days ago, physicist and conspiracy averse controversialist Dr David Robert Grimes, writing in the Irish Times, called for compulsory jabs for Ireland’s ‘anti-vax cohort’ arguing:

‘…others have a reasonable expectation that they should not be needlessly exposed to avoidable dangerous pathogens, nor should selfish stances be allowed imperil the freedom of others.’

Meanwhile…

…this morning, via Irish Times Letters:

In 2013, David Robert Grimes wrote in The Irish Times to support the introduction of same-sex marriage on the grounds that people “have the right to lead their lives in any way they choose” and that we should not “presume to dictate to others” in relation to the issue.

In 2018, he wrote in your newspaper calling for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, on the grounds that society should “not seek to impose their morality upon others”, and that we should “leave that decision to the individual concerned”.

However, in his latest contribution to your newspaper he calls for compulsory vaccination for those who have so far refused to be vaccinated.

Can Dr Grimes please explain to me as a woman why my decision on whether to marry and have children should be left for to me to decide, but in the case of vaccinations, the State should be allowed to dictate to me what I can and cannot do?

It seems that there is none so illiberal as a liberal whose views you do not align with.

Sarah Anne Cleary, Roscommon

Meanwhile….

David Robert Grimes weakens his argument on mandatory vaccination by invoking the England and Wales Vaccination Act of 1853 and a decision of the US Supreme Court in 1905, both of which permitted compulsory vaccinations. Surely the modern Irish legal framework is of more relevance to his proposed course of action?

The right to refuse medical treatment – dismissed by Dr Grimes as a “tired and debunked old canard about liberty” – is enshrined in the Constitution.

In 1996, the former chief justice Susan Denham said this right is “a matter of choice…. not necessarily based on medical considerations. Treatment may be refused for other than medical reasons, or reasons most citizens would regard as rational”.

This right may only be overridden in circumstances where there is a grave and immediate threat to life.

It is against this backdrop which proposals on compulsory vaccinations should be judged, not against laws which were introduced during the early reign of Queen Victoria at a time when notions of individual rights and personal autonomy were in their infancy.

Dr Grimes correctly suggests that medicine should be left to doctors. He should take a double-dose of his own advice, and leave the law to lawyers.

Barry Walsh, Dublin 3

Ouch.

Irish Times Letters (Irish Times)

Small anti-vaccine cohort can’t hold society hostage (David Robert Grimes, Irish Times, December 6)