Vaccination, freedom and responsibility
The great singer-songwriter Paul Simon once sang that the floor of an apartment is the ceiling of the apartment below, expressing the complexity of urban life. Specifically, Section One He declared in his song:
“There are some bad feelings here
About something said
There are some bad feelings here
What else
Has a bloody purple nose
And some bloody purple clothes
Make a mess of the lobby floor
This is just the rules of the apartment
So all your apartment buildings fools
Remember: a person’s ceiling
Is another man’s floor
One’s ceiling
Is it another man’s floor?”
For most of the year, I live in an apartment in Morningside Heights, New York City. I have neighbors above, below, and next to me. We pay attention to each other’s space and privacy. But we share a collective water system, electricity system, heating system, elevators and building staff.when Coronavirus disease Upon hit, we stopped sharing the elevator and allowed them to pass until the elevator was empty. Today, we share the elevator again, but we are all wearing masks. Unlike Paul Simon’s song, we didn’t have any bloody clothes or other obvious signs of conflict in the hall. Every day, we must strike a balance between our freedom to work behind closed doors and our interdependence on shared resources.
If I live on a quarter of an acre or more in a private home, my attitude towards sharing responsibilities may be different, but I live in a place where I need to pay attention to the volume of music because I might wake up and baby sleep In the adjacent apartment. What does all this have to do with vaccination? I believe that almost all of us should be vaccinated to protect our neighbors and our communities.
I understand that some people do not get vaccinated for medical reasons and they should follow medical advice. I also know that breakthrough infections are possible, but health, like life itself, is always a question of probability. People who are vaccinated are unlikely to contract COVID-19, nor are they likely to spread it. Last February, when I was eligible for the vaccination, I hurried to get the vaccination. Yes, I want personal protection from COVID-19, but I am more worried that I will be infected because I teach in the classroom and may spread the virus to my spouse, children, granddaughter, friends and neighbors. I am a little afraid of side effects, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.
Across the United States, especially in the suburbs and rural areas of the country, many people refuse to be vaccinated. When the agency where I worked and other agencies began to demand vaccinations, people began to protest that compulsory vaccination violated their freedom. They are right-it does restrict freedom. Just as we were X-rayed at the airport and filmed at Walmart, no matter where we go, our freedom is violated. You cannot drive at 100 miles per hour on the highway or turn left at red lights. In a crowded theater, you cannot freely yell “Fire”. In my hometown, you can’t carry guns at will without a hard-to-obtain permit. In some states, you can freely carry weapons wherever you go, but in crowded places like New York, we prefer to let the police protect us with weapons.
The degree of freedom we have varies from place to place and politics, but it is never absolute, because even in Texas, people are responsible for each other. In Texas, the political leadership is more willing to hold people personally responsible for their actions, and believes that the government should not demand responsibility for protecting our neighbors from COVID-19. The anti-authorization governor is correct. It is better to voluntarily assume personal responsibility than to force it. If the sense of responsibility to society is not internalized by the individual’s value system, government intervention will not be particularly effective. Unfortunately, there are not enough people to take responsibility for preventing the spread of the virus, so authorization is required.
Sometimes, the needs of the community must take precedence over the needs and even the rights of the individual. In emergency situations, different rules must be applied. I suspect that the governor of Texas does not consider COVID-19 to be a national emergency. If he lived in New York in February and March 2020, he might see the world differently. At that time, the sound coming from my window was interrupted by the sound of police sirens and sent the patient to the hospital, where too many people died. During wars and national emergencies, people are called up to serve and their freedom is restricted to ensure survival. New Yorkers do not want to return to New York in early 2020. If you need vaccinations and masks, bring them.
For collective security, the government’s exercise of the power to request vaccinations should be regarded as an infringement of individual freedom. In New York City, our city government has mandated all its employees to be vaccinated, but it seemed awkward to implement the requirement. Although the city government could have done a better job in implementing vaccination requirements, the policy is still sound. This is back to our collective responsibility in densely populated cities. When I saw the police, medical staff, and firefighters refuse to be vaccinated, I was particularly disappointed because their basic job is to protect the public. These people often put themselves at risk, so why don’t they view vaccination as another tool they have to protect the public? The resistance of public health and safety officials to vaccines is a sad indicator of the collapse of consciousness in our community. COVID-19 will not be the last global pandemic we will face; we will either fight these threats as an international community or endure the pain and loss caused by the spread of the disease.
Freedom of thought and speech is the foundation of our democracy. Many people believe that this should extend to the freedom to control the substances placed in our bodies. This was once possible in a world with a population of less than 1 billion, without global trade and global travel. Today, with a population of 8 billion, and our bodies cannot withstand the ongoing risks of the virus, this freedom has become an unbearable luxury for us. The world today is more like my apartment building than a suburban house with lawns and driveways.
I worry that we are going through an era when we forget the necessity of mutual respect. I have friends and colleagues who refuse to be vaccinated, and some who refuse to wear masks. Although I think their response to this epidemic is selfish, I will listen carefully to their arguments and respect their beliefs. I am concerned that some of their arguments are based on false information spread through social media, but some are due to the scientific uncertainty we experienced when experts learned more about COVID-19. Our political polarization may have been overcome through collective efforts to understand and fight this virus, but the lack of respect for each other and our institutions has led to this fragmented response. Donald Trump did not evoke a sense of national purpose, but refused to take public health measures to motivate his support base during the campaign year. The response was badly handled, and even the promise of a more cautious approach helped elect his opponent. Joe Biden has been working hard to establish a collective response, but was blocked by the governor, other elected officials, and experts who continue to politicize the pandemic.
Distrust seems to be contagious. Among Democrats in Congress, it is delaying the development of approximately $3 trillion in infrastructure, environmental, and social project spending. Republicans are united against these policies, even plans they might wish to support. Symbolic positions and calls for a narrow support base have replaced almost all efforts to build consensus. Our global economy is complex, interconnected and fragile. COVID, climate change, toxic substances, fires, droughts, floods, cyber attacks, terrorism and corruption threaten our prosperity, security and lifestyle.
Some Americans are unwilling to use a vaccine that is beyond the reach of more than one billion people on our planet, many of whom desperately want it. We need to exercise our freedom with a sense of responsibility, keeping in mind our obligations to our neighbors, our country and the world. Another option before us is division, conflict, chaos, and the demise of our democracy.
