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Thursday, September 2. 2021

The Freedom to Be Left Alone

At Taki


Are there two tendencies? Those who want something from government, and those who say they want to be left alone? 


Posted by The News Junkie at 11:17 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Private companies have a right to keep the workplace medically safe from pandemics, safe for both other employees and patients (for hospitals) or students (e.g. the recent COVID infection in California BY an unvaccinated teacher to her pupils, who then infected their parents.
No one HAS to work for the hospital or the school (nor American Airlines). It's your choice. And it's the organization's choice to employee you and obligation to keep others safe.
#1 ns on 2021-09-02 12:16 (Reply)
I was under the impression that people who have received the COVID-19 vaccination can become re-infected, can still carry and spread the infection, and so on. Is that not so?
#1.1 Aggie on 2021-09-02 12:42 (Reply)
Aggie: I was under the impression that people who have received the COVID-19 vaccination can become re-infected, can still carry and spread the infection, and so on. Is that not so?

That's true for all vaccines. No vaccine provides perfect protection. (The smallpox vaccine is 95% effective.) However, reducing your chance of infection also reduces the chance you will spread the disease to others. And if everyone is vaccinated, then the chances of an outbreak drop significantly.
#1.1.1 Zachriel on 2021-09-02 16:59 (Reply)
But I was referring to the COVID-19 vaccine, not other vaccines. For instance, the smallpox vaccine is made up of dead virus, not so? And thus is quite different in its mechanism of protection, compared to the COVID-19 vaccine, as I understand it.

I know (personally) a handful of people that were vaccinated for COVID-19 and yet became reinfected - so naturally my point is, if one wishes to stipulate that all persons must be vaccinated in the name of public health and safety, it's an unhelpful, false argument to posit that getting the COVID-19 vaccine accomplishes this, or even approximates it - especially if that policy position is communicated autocratically, to putatively deprive someone of a livelihood (Houston Methodist, for example). Some companies have watched industry peers try this on, only to back away from it themselves, for quite sensible reasons.

It would be much more persuasive (and more constructive, IMO) if risk assessments started making their way back into such arguments to inform a sense of probabilistic likelihood, rather than simply feeding polarized positions that are not quite true to begin with. Those are the opposite of persuasive, and they only serve to underscore our landscape of public policy craters that feature within a largely successful vaccination effort.

But at least we're not behaving like Australia is - I suppose I ought to be thankful for that. I am flabbergasted at what is going on there.
#1.1.1.1 Aggie on 2021-09-02 18:02 (Reply)
Aggie: But I was referring to the COVID-19 vaccine, not other vaccines.

Yes, and as pointed out, imperfect protection is not unique to the COVID-19 vaccine, but is a property of all vaccines.

Aggie: I know (personally) a handful of people that were vaccinated for COVID-19 and yet became reinfected

Yes, and as pointed out, imperfect protection is not unique to the COVID-19 vaccine, but is a property of all vaccines.

Aggie: if one wishes to stipulate that all persons must be vaccinated in the name of public health and safety, it's an unhelpful, false argument to posit that getting the COVID-19 vaccine accomplishes this, or even approximates it

That doesn't follow. Vaccination reduces the chance of infection, reinfection, and reduces the overall prevalence of the contagion.

Aggie: It would be much more persuasive (and more constructive, IMO) if risk assessments started making their way back into such arguments to inform a sense of probabilistic likelihood

Those arguments have never left. The risk of the COVID vaccine is very low, and the value of the COVID vaccine is very high.
#1.1.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2021-09-03 09:06 (Reply)
On the opposite end of the freedom scale, Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist if he refuses to serve society. (The same applies to all Statist political systems, including communism and fascism.) --Ayn Rand

I didn't read the article once I saw who wrote it. The "Z Man" actually believes that Ayn Rand was a communist. If he can be that that mistaken about Rand, I don't care to find out what else he is mistaken about.
#2 snopercod on 2021-09-02 12:22 (Reply)
I would phrase this differently.
One tendency into make society more moochable, and the other tendency is to try not to be mooched upon.
Moochers want to hide at all costs their desire to mooch, and so come up with all kinds of masking complaints or issues designed to bring about this effect without actually claiming this bottom line motive. Knowing what the real motive is, is the first step to not spend any effort trying to address these false concerns as that would not placate those who complain about them.
Systematic racism, white supremacy, anti-americanism, gender equality, identity politics are some of the false complaints of those who simply want to be moochers. They will go blue in the face to deny this is their true motive. But it is...
#3 Phil Taylor (Link) on 2021-09-02 17:48 (Reply)
Today we are all either a schlemiel" or a "schlimazel".
#3.1 OneGuy on 2021-09-04 13:01 (Reply)

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