Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of clay Magazine or TPS.
What is a vaccine? For the past four years, the CDC defined vaccine as “a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.” As of September 1st, 2021, the CDC changed its definition: “A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases.” The critical change is subtle but significant to the debate raging across the nation this month. “[P]roduce immunity,” which implies complete protection, changed to the vague “stimulate the body’s immune response,” which could include any number of things, none of which would necessarily prevent someone from getting sick. The CDC’s definition changed in conjunction to the thousands of breakthrough COVID cases among vaccinated Americans with the rise of the Delta variant. Hence, a redefinition of the term vaccine was in order.
According to usafacts.org, 54% of Americans are fully vaccinated as of September 10th, suggesting that almost half of Americans have chosen not to get the shot. While their reasons vary and may have to do with the vaccine’s efficacy, on September 9th, President Biden announced a six-point plan to combat the virus. It included a sweeping vaccine mandate for 2.5 million federal workers, contractors, and healthcare workers, as well as for the employees of any company with more than a hundred workers.
Advocates of a vaccine mandate maintain that no one has the right to remain unvaccinated, arguing that in the name of public safety, it isn’t only the individual at risk but the risk to others around the unvaccinated. As Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, recently argued in her opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee, “It is time to focus on the duty we all have to protect each… The government should require vaccinations as soon as vaccine supplies allow [because] freedom doesn’t include a right to endanger others.”
Setting aside arguments about the efficacy of the vaccine in promoting public health as well as the verifiable dangerous side effects that have occurred from it, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is universally understood to protect the rights of “personal autonomy and bodily integrity and the right to reject medical treatment.” The 7th Circuit Court cited this in “Klaassen v Trustees of Indiana University,” where students sued Indiana University for its campus-wide Covid vaccine mandate. In this case, however, the Seventh Circuit upheld the university-wide mandate, claiming that the students could attend another educational institution if they didn’t want to get vaccinated. However, if a federal vaccination mandate were enacted, the right to bodily autonomy would be abridged completely.
“Intimately personal medical decisions should not be made by government,” said M.D. and former Congressman Ron Paul in 2002. “Freedom over one’s physical person is the most basic freedom of all, and people in a free society should be sovereign over their own bodies. When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the State owns our bodies.”
Not only would a federal vaccine mandate tread on constitutional and foundational liberties granted to all Americans, citizens shouldn’t be forced to trust and obey federal bureaucrats with medical treatment that violates their conscience and judgment. Citywide mandates of New York City workers are already causing protests from employees who are forced to take the vaccine or lose their job, decades-long careers, and their only method of supporting their families. And many state governments are “slamming the president over the yet-to-be-developed rule, declaring it an overreach and unconstitutional.”
Many Americans feel the federal government hasn’t proven itself worthy of such blind faith from its citizens. As one article explains, Americans have “been bombarded with contradictory, sometimes hostile messages” about the proper response to the virus for nearly two years. For months, the CDC discouraged masks, assuring the public that they were useless. Later, the government admitted it had been deceiving the public about the effectiveness of masks to save them for the healthcare workers. Mask mandates since then have been enacted in cities and states across the nation, while government officials and lawmakers combat those resisting them. Furthermore, two top FDA vaccine officials even announced plans to resign this week over the Administration’s plan to roll out booster shots before the FDA officials had a plan to approve it, according to the September 1st Business Insider.
There is no free nation in which the State can, to quote Dr. Paul, “tag, track down, and force citizens against their will to be injected with biological products… [if this begins to happen] there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.”
We are blessed to live in a country where people who want to take the Covid vaccine can, but nobody should be forced to against their own will. And, while it might seem comforting to think of everyone around us being vaccinated regardless of their consent, the federal power over your body is a genie that cannot be put back in its bottle. Either your body is the State’s property, or it is not. We would do well to remember Ben Franklin’s ominous warning: “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Sources:
“Opinion | You May Think You Want Vaccine Mandates, but Do You Really?” The New York Times, 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/opinion/argument-vaccine-mandates.html. Accessed 31 Aug. 2021.
Chemerinsky, Erwin. “Freedom Does Not Include a Right to Endanger Others. COVID Vaccines Should Be Mandatory.” The Sacramento Bee, The Sacramento Bee, 2021, www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article250650549.html. Accessed 1 Sept. 2021.
“Fauci Lies about Lying about the Efficacy of Masks.” Msn.com, Fauci lies about lying about the efficacy of masks, 21 June 2021, www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/fauci-lies-about-lying-about-the-efficacy-of-masks/ar-AALhCrp. Accessed 8 Sept. 2021.
“Mandatory COVID Vaccines: Why Forcing People to Get a Shot May Backfire.” American Council on Science and Health, 23 Apr. 2021, www.acsh.org/news/2021/04/23/mandatory-covid-vaccines-why-forcing-people-get-shot-may-backfire-15494. Accessed 8 Sept. 2021.
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“2 Top FDA Officials Resigned over the Biden Administration’s Booster-Shot Plan, Saying It Insisted on the Policy before the Agency Approved It, Reports Say.” Msn.com, 2 top FDA officials resigned over the Biden administration’s booster-shot plan, saying it insisted on the policy before the agency approved it, reports say, Sept. 2021, www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/2-top-fda-officials-resigned-over-the-biden-administrations-booster-shot-plan-saying-it-insisted-on-the-policy-before-the-agency-approved-it-reports-say/ar-AANYngp. Accessed 11 Sept. 2021.
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Photo Credit:
Stanley-Becker, Isaac. “Resistance to Vaccine Mandates Is Building. A Powerful Network Is Helping.” Yahoo.com, Yahoo News, 26 May 2021, news.yahoo.com/resistance-vaccine-mandates-building-powerful-142443391.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2021.