Tag Archives: Mandatory Vaccines

UCC philosophy boffin Vittorio Bufacchi (above) says ‘herd immunity must be fairly shared among the individual members of the morally responsible collective’

This morning/afternoon.

Via Dr Vittorio Bufacchi, a senior lecturer in Philosophy at University College Cork, in the Irish Times:

‘…Contrary to what the anti-vax movement is declaring, mandatory vaccinations are not an infringement of our basic rights. One’s right to choose not to be vaccinated is being respected, although this right does not give anyone the licence to put others at risk.

‘Under mandatory vaccination a person maintains the right not to be vaccinated, but does not enjoy the right that puts others under a duty to allow unvaccinated people into their restaurants, pubs, or work environments. In certain circumstances this may extend to losing one’s job.

‘…there is a strong case for vaccination to be mandatory, at least in theory. That is because the principle of fairness requires that the burden to reach herd immunity be fairly shared among the individual members of the morally responsible collective.’

He adds:

‘Mandatory vaccinations could be as minimal as stipulating a longer isolation period for the non-vaxxed, or at the other end of the spectrum legislation could be introduced so that those whose elective surgery has been postponed can take a civil case against those who refused vaccination but ended up in hospital due to Covid-19.

Somewhere in the middle there is the option of making pubs and stadiums out of bounds to anti-vaxxers – that’s probably what would hurt them the most.

Yikes.

Mandatory vaccination not the same as compulsory (Vittorio Bufacch, Irish Times)

RTE/RollingNews

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Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer

This morning.

Via Irish Times:

The State’s public health team is set to consider mandatory vaccination, with a new paper being prepared by the Department of Health on the legal and ethical aspects of such a move…

…In a letter to Government last week, the chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, said Ireland had not yet reached the peak of the Omicron wave. Nphet recommended that all current measures – such as the earlier closing time for pubs and restaurants and indoor events – remain in place until the end of January.

Separately, minutes of a meeting of Nphet on December 16th reveal that mandatory vaccination will be considered by the team. “It was noted that the Nphet will discuss the issue of mandatory vaccination at a later date and this discussion will be facilitated by a forthcoming paper from the Department of Health on the relevant ethical and legal considerations pertaining to this topic.”

There you go now.

Nphet considers mandatory vaccination (Irish Times)

RollingNews

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Today’s irish Daily Mail

This morning.

Via Extra.ie:

Analysing the result of the poll of 1,002 people, Dr Kevin Cunningham, of Ireland Thinks, said there was an interesting gap between the majority of people who think vaccines should be mandatory and the even more support seen in recent months for more restrictions on people who are unvaccinated.

In October, an Ireland Thinks poll found 76% of those surveyed want unvaccinated people to be subjected to continuing restrictions – with just 18% saying the unvaccinated should not face continuing restrictions.

Majority of Irish public support mandatory COVID vaccinations (Extra.ie)

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Ireland has the highest adult vaccination rate globally, which should bring us pride.

Unfortunately, Ireland has the worst access to healthcare in Europe and completely insufficient capacity at all levels in the system, especially in our ICUs. Addressing this capacity deficit should be our core policy focus.

Aside from the Covid-19 virus, there is also an epidemic of fear and blame, which can lead to intolerance.

I refer especially to the increasing rhetoric around “compulsory vaccination” and views  stating that those who are unvaccinated should “not be entitled to the pandemic employment payment”.

Unvaccinated are already stigmatised and punished, unable to travel, eat out, meet friends in a pub, or attend cultural events. There is also no high-quality evidence that punishing unvaccinated further, in the context of Ireland having a high vaccine uptake, will improve vaccination rates.

As a GP, we do not blame those who have “lifestyle choices” which we might disagree with – those who smoke, drink, use drugs, or commit crimes.

In fact, these patient groups are often the most vulnerable in society and distrustful of the State.

Fear and blame do not mix well with politics – we have seen how their weaponisation contributed to Brexit and Trump.

As Covid-19 becomes endemic in our future society – hopefully a normal circulating respiratory virus – we need tolerance and respect for different viewpoints, and we should counter blameful policies which lack evidence.

Dr Mark Murphy, Dublin 8.

Irish Times Letters

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Ah here.