Freedoms

It seems about 6% of NHS staff have not had a Covid vaccination, quite of few of whom are refusing on grounds of ‘freedom of choice.’ This issue will have university philosophy departments tangled up for ages. Do these people have a right to free choice? What about the choice of those people whom they treat? We know that hospitals, unsurprisingly have been pretty good places to catch the virus. I cannot imagine that there any NHS staff who could seriously deny that Covid exists (perhaps if they do they ought to be looking for another job anyway) or who hold idiotic theories about Bill Gates seeking to inject us all with nano-technology. But they do insist on their right to choose what is injected into their bodies. Now, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find (particularly in the United States) that vaccination refuseniks who talk of their freedom to choose what goes into their bodies are also pro-lifers who object to a woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body. Thinking of the U.S., with the Roe v. Wade judgement seemingly threatened by the new right-wing Supreme Court, somebody should send another case to the court demanding to know whether anyone should have the right to force an individual to have the vaccination. There is an easy way through: a woman’s right to chose an abortion is not a virus.