Is Vaccination a Choice or a Mandate Responsibility?

Its been a year since the first Covid 19 vaccines hit the market. Billions of doses administered, billions of lives saved from what has been a dreadful pandemic thus far. We have seen global medical associations and medical science experts cling onto the importance of vaccinating the global population as the only defense against this atrocious pandemic. But since the arrival of the vaccines, governments all around the world have faced a moral conundrum of whether vaccinations be presented as mandatory for all or as a personal choice. This has been the base line for counter arguments among vaccine hesitant’s.

You may well have heard about the recent Djokovic saga, where he was barred from participating in the Australian Open by the Government of Australia due to a series of breach of covid protocols. There have been rumors that suggest it was Djokovic’s overall vaccination stance, which cost him his place at the AO.

Vaccine hesitancy and Conspiracy theories surrounding Covid 19 vaccines have shown firm resistance against widescale vaccination rates in several communities. Although democracies have resisted a mandate approach towards vaccinations from the very start, the repetitive emergence of covid waves have forced governments to stricter regulations against the unvaccinated population. There is a growing rant among vaccine hesitant’s that governments around the world, are in violation of their “Freedom of Choice”, when it comes to covid 19 inoculation. But then there sits the pandemic which affects not only you but the whole community surrounding it. The majority have come to terms with it by vaccinating themselves. So who is at fault here? The fundamental of a democracy prohibits itself from rushing or forcing anything upon its people. Let’s try to delve into some answers for what probably is the greatest debate of the 21st century.

The Problem with Freedom of Choice over Covid 19 vaccination’s

Since the beginning, the anti-vaccination community has been pretty adamant over how governments have been forcing its citizens to vaccinate. Their whole argument is based upon the human rights perspective of “freedom of choice” and “bodily autonomous movements”. But Covid 19 is unlike any pandemic or health emergency we have had as a species in the past century. It was pretty crystal clear from the start, that this is an extremely communicable virus and only a community level approach and not individual endeavors could help contain the spread. Soon, the vaccines arrived and with it a new wave of hesitancy and concern. Vaccination was the only way out from these dreadful variants, which were causing numerous waves.

So yeah, you have your freedom of choice when it comes to what medication you would want for yourself. But when it comes to general public health-safety, as it is in the present scenario, jabbing yourself becomes somewhat a moral obligation. And this is what the anti-vaxxers refuse to address or talk about.

We all live within a social order, where we have certain responsibilities to fulfill. Lack of information and deniability to accept facts could prove disastrous for an individual and the community surrounding it. So, No your democratic government is not forcing you to vaccinate, it’s your social circle. Schools, colleges and businesses have a certain set of autonomy, when it comes to how they want to operate themselves. Even governments aren’t allowed to interfere into them. We can already see that transition happening everywhere around the world, where institutions are framing policies which require its workers to be vaccinated, as a condition to be part of the workforce.

Why people are still hesitant to Vaccination?

One of the primary accusations against covid 19 vaccines has been that it has been jeopardized on testing and efficacy for the sake of quick production. The anti-vaxx community has trust issues over the vaccines having side-effects upon individuals due to lack of testing. But what they don’t know is that these vaccines were part of a process which has been running for years, which could aid during an infectious disease pandemic like covid 19.

There resides a myth among anti-vaxxers that if you contract covid 19 and recover, you get natural immunity, therefore eliminating the requirement to jab yourself. And part of this is even true, Yes, you would get natural immunity if you contract and recover from covid. But a study in 2021 shows that if you had covid 19 before and are not vaccinated, your risk of getting infected again becomes twice of those who were infected and got vaccinated.

And lastly the most important is lack of proper information or misinformation. The covid 19 pandemic is rightly referred to as the era of misinformation. Some Politicians, Celebrities and Community heads have been flooding social media platforms with improper and inadequate information about the vaccines. So yeah, this has been a difficult time to get a grasp of what is true and what is not. But still there are ample sources on the web and the physical world to get your facts right about vaccines.

Vaccines protect you and the vulnerable’s around you from falling extremely sick. The more time we take to vaccinate, the more you jeopardize the safety of others around you!

Opinion : Vaccine is a civic responsibility of which you should definitely be a part of

It’s been a year since the first vaccines rolled out for the general public. Billions of doses administered and very minute side effects, is what the data suggests. The pandemic has had a huge toll upon people both emotionally and financially. Yes you might have your differences with your governmental administration, but they are not the one’s who produced the vaccines, your scientists, your doctors did. Whenever you raise a question upon a vaccine, it is your medical professional you are raising a finger upon to.

This is apparently the first time you have an opportunity to save yourself and the others around you. And hell yeah this is your responsibility. So make it count and vaccinate yourself and encourage others too. Do your research, ask relevant questions if needed and then make a choice. There are countries in need of vaccines and yet they suffer due to inadequate supplies. Mass vaccination is the only way back to normalcy, so do your bit.

The Principal author of the blog Just Logically Speaking, Susanta Ray is an enthusiast for information and learning. He thrives in subjects related to Modern Technology, Science, History, Space, Finance and Global Affairs.

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