Wonder what the actual vaxx uptake would be if the Govt wasn't forcing people to be vaccinated or get kicked out of society?? The risk of serious illness falls on the unvaccinated, far as I'm concerned that's their choice n their risk.
Company I work for has operated right through the pandemic with not a single case of the virus here in Vic just by following the simple n basic covid rules of distancing, sanitising n masks. Company has now been forced by Govt regulations to stand down three possibly four employees because they wouldn't get vaxxed. None would be considered in the high risk category, none have the virus, but the law says they can *smile* off regardless. Not just me, but i reckon the law is a wrong one.
Your first point is excellent. For me it’s about outcome. So whatever the most effective way to get the majority of the population vaccinated is the right one and taking into regard the implications of how it is done.
The point you are missing is that the cumulative effect of individual choices has an impact on society. Public hospitals are a social good in Australia as we all pay tax to use them. Right now we are doing triage in this system because demand >> supply in large part because of many individuals choices to not get vaccinated. So an individuals choice to not get vaccinated hurts someone else they Probably don’t know and in A way that is not very public. The cost to the individual of the jab is way less than the cost to society of the non jab. You either have to violate some individual freedoms to get a society outcome or let society suffer the effects of misinformation and enabling ‘freeloading’ of individual choices on the system.
This is the crux of so many debates anyway. Personal freedom vs societal impact. If you look at gun control if you go to the infinite level of personal freedom that means everyone has the right to have a button that blows up earth if they feel like it. At the other end of it, you can’t use a plastic knife (all tools are banned) and have to eat with just your hands in case someone uses a tool against another person.
I don’t think any absolute outcome is the right one but where society impacts are large and personal impacts are small I lean way more to individuals rights being impinged for the greater good.