The Price of Liberty

A few days ago, Tom Woods reported

An NBC poll finds Americans souring on vaccine mandates, perhaps as they begin to observe their consequences.

The question: “Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose requiring that everyone who is now eligible must get a COVID-19 vaccine?”

Favor 47% (34% strongly)
Oppose 50% (41% strongly)

Now expect those numbers to change if the northeast has a bad winter, even though nothing about the vaccines themselves or the issues involved will have changed.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll published Thursday found that less than 30 percent of parents of 5- to 11-year-olds plan to get their children vaccinated. 

Agora Financial’s folks also are chipping in with some words of encouragement and wisdom:

Vaccine mandate madness has reached new heights of absurdity. To be clear, the absurdity is in the mandate, not the vaccine. The COVID vaccines do not stop the spread of the disease. Those who are vaccinated can become infected, as we saw in the recent case of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. For that matter, vaccines can increase the spread of the disease because the vaccinated remain asymptomatic longer and build up viral loads that are ten times greater than the unvaccinated, who show symptoms quickly. That said, vaccines do reduce severe symptoms and reduce fatalities. If you want the vaccine, get it. If you don’t want to take it for one of many valid reasons, that should be your choice. Our problem is not with the vaccine; it’s with the mandate. You should not lose your job or be threatened with other punishments just for exercising free choice. Forcing people to take vaccines ignores the 46 million Americans (probably more) who have had COVID and survived and have much greater antibody protection than the vaccinated. Mandates also disregard women of child-bearing age and those with conditions that may be greatly aggravated by predictable side effects. Still, our neo-fascist government agencies don’t care about any of this. For them, it’s get vaccinated or be treated like a leper. How far has government taken this non-scientific nonsense? This story reports that New York City has had to close 20 FDNY fire companies because of suspensions, retirements and layoffs of fire fighters who chose not to be vaccinated. The same personnel losses are being reported in the NYPD, emergency medical workers, nurses, teachers, sanitation workers and others performing critical tasks needed to keep society running. Politicians don’t care. For them, it’s vax or be fired. For the rest of us it means more fires, unsafe streets, rats feeding on garbage, and no medical care. The economic cost of this is huge on top of the social costs. It’s one reason economic growth almost stalled out in the third quarter. It will get worse.