I got vaccinated, and I support the vaccine as long as it’s not forced or mandated.
That being said, Covid has been around long enough that it’s now treatable. Many of the early Covid deaths were the result of us not knowing how to treat it.
Here is what I don’t really understand. There are many early treatment options for Covid that do prevent hospitalization and ultimately death in some cases. My take on the healthcare situation is this. Why not focus on early treatment to take the heavy load off our ICU wards and the ER? Early treatment can prevent hospitalization and death as effectively as the vaccine. And since the average pandemic is 3 to 5 years, Covid will be a threat for years to come until it runs it’s natural course simply because the entire world can’t be vaccinated.
I agree, mostly. The only thing I have trouble with is mandating vaccines. This becomes a thorny issue of rights, in which we must be careful to not understand rights the way the world does. Biblically speaking, we really have few rights and those we have come with responsibility to others. The secular idea of rights, even though they came from and can only be based on the Bible, are completely detached from the Bible and social responsibility; it is all about absolute personal autonomy.
So what happens then in this discussion, is that I would agree that people should have the right to decide for themselves as to whether or not they get vaccinated. However, I also believe that businesses and institutions have the social responsibility to do what they reasonably can to protect the health and safety of those on their property, which means they also have the right to who they let onto their property. Now we have conflicting rights--those who don't want to get vaccinated (or wear masks, distance, etc.) yet want to go about living their lives as normal, and businesses and institutions who have the responsibility to their employees, clients, customers, patients, etc.
I have asked several times on social media how are we to determine whose rights win and I have yet to receive a response. The obvious answer is that the rights of the greater good will prevail, because they should. While governments shouldn't be mandating vaccinations for private businesses, they should have the right for their employees and any who need to enter government buildings, etc.
It really is difficult but Christians especially should see that the Bible calls us to put socially responsibility above our own rights. If those who don't want to get vaccinated would then very religiously adhere to wearing masks, distancing, etc., I would have much less of a problem with them. Where I am, in Canadian redneck country, there are too many who don't want to follow the restrictions and don't want to get vaccinated. Over the last few months, during our fourth wave, we were the worst in Canada and among the worst in NA.
There is still enough uncertainty within all the data regarding how the virus spreads, what the long-term effects are of COVID, etc., to warrant erring on the side of caution, in my opinion. While we most certainly need to figure out the best approaches to treatment, the vaccines are just an effective way to get the spread under control as quickly as possible.
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