The opinion writer of “Bodily autonomy” (June 30) uses a form of argumentation known as “reducto ad absurdum” when equating bodily autonomy regarding vaccines with a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
The main difference is contagion and the health and welfare of the public. No woman has ever become pregnant sitting next to a pregnant woman on a bus or plane. Not true of COVID-19.
Contagion is why vaccines have occasionally been a requirement in our country. They have brought dangerous illnesses such as polio, smallpox, and measles under control and in some cases eradicated them from the world.
When COVID-19 was new and little was known about it, people were dropping like flies, and more than 1 million Americans have died. We learned that the disease is easily transmitted, some strains more than others.
If those who refuse to be vaccinated go out in public, they can spread the disease. Those who have medical reasons for not being vaccinated can obtain a doctor’s exemption.
It is a public health issue, and not only rude, but lacking in compassion, to disregard the possibility of spreading disease to any person one may encounter. We build community by building trust, and sharing in creating a safer public space for all.
But only a man can make a woman become pregnant, and it takes more than sitting next to her and breathing on her. The writer should learn the difference between apples and oranges.
Christine Mulholland
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Jul 14-24, 2022.
Thanks to Christine Mulholland for giving such thought to my piece on “Bodily Autonomy” and writing a response. Unfortunately, in her rebuttal, Ms. Mulholland omits one vital fact – which is that the Covid-19 injections do not prevent infection or transmission. The original vaccine trials never even tested for transmission and any statement otherwise is simply false. Our public health agencies assumed, or hoped they would stop transmission and simply acted as if they did without any evidence. In Winter 2022, reality finally caught up to this falsehood as vaccinated people were falling sick left and right and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky had to publicly acknowledge that the vaccines do not stop transmission.
Also, I find it interesting that Ms. Mulholland would scold me for comparing “apples and oranges”. In reality, apples and oranges can be compared in many ways. They can be compared in size, weight, nutritional value, and sweetness among other things. They both grow on trees, and are both fruit. And yes, they are different, but I, along with many people, enjoy and appreciate them both. If you don’t like apples, don’t eat them. But please do not deny them to the rest of us.
I agree with Ms. Mulholland’s statement that “we build community by building trust” – but calling people “rude” or “lacking in compassion” for not taking experimental pharmaceutical products from corrupt, profit-driven pharmaceutical corporations is not the way forward. Demanding that people inject themselves with novel mRNA technology that has more reported adverse events than ALL vaccines combined for the past 30 years will not make a better or safer community. Instead, try asking someone WHY they have chosen not to get vaccinated, and then actually listening to the answer. THIS will actually help build trust and community. This is what will start to bridge the divide.
AWhat VAERS Is (And Isn’t)
The public database of reported post-vaccination health issues is often misused to sow misinformation.
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/what-vae…
review of adverse events following vaccination against COVID-19 with mRNA vaccines in the USA confirms that most side effects were mild and decreased substantially after one day. The new study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, suggests that for more than 298 million vaccine doses administered between December 2020 and June 2021, 92% (313,499/340,522) of reported adverse events were not serious, and less than 1% of v-safe participants reported seeking any medical care following vaccination.
https://www.technologynetworks.com/vaccine…
“Overall, severe allergic reactions to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, including life-threatening anaphylaxis reactions such as low blood pressure and difficulty breathing, are rare, on the order of five cases per million vaccine doses administered,”
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-relea….
Vaccination may be a good idea, but if you are relying upon a broad principle like “bodily autonomy”, you’re going to have to accept it being also applied even in situations which you object to. The point is not whether or not the specific application is a good idea, but whether you truly have autonomy over your body, or you don’t. If you allow some situations in which individual choices are overruled and intervention mandated, then you do not have autonomy. You will find little support for a right which is only granted in the limited situations you approve of.