Mandatory Vaccination

Question 1

What does ‘mandatory’ mean?

Answer 1

• Use of force?
• Criminalizing non-vaccination?
  (ie. jail, fine; if you don’t get vaccinated)
• Conditioning access to services, jobs, school, etc., on vaccination?
  (ie. vaccines are a condition to go to a restaurant; it is not compulsory)
• Imposing costs on the unvaccinated?
  (allow people to purchase the option to not comply: ie. if you are unvaccinated and get other people sock, you can be sued)
• Providing incentives for vaccination?
  (People believe that providing incentives for vaccination is a mandate)
• Persuasion?
  ( tries to impact the choices you make on your health)

Question 2

What are vaccine mandates?

Answer 2

• requirements that
  one be vaccinated as a condition of, e.g., working in a particular setting, travelling to certain countries
• Not ‘mandatory’- vaccination is not compulsory - you dont have to do it, but there are compelling reasons to do it

Question 3

If a policy is “recommended”, do you need an exemption if you do not want it?

Answer 3

• Only need an exemption, when it is a requirement

Question 4

What are the mandate’s objective?

Answer 4

• Improve vaccine uptake?
  (more ppl getting their vaccine)
• Increase proportion of vaccinated individuals in a given setting (e.g., a hospital)?
• Reduce incidence of infection? (Population level? Setting specific?)
  (whether they get vaccinated or not is not the goal, the goal is reduced infection)
• Reduce transmission? (Population level? Setting specific?)
• Reduce incidence of severe disease, hospitalization, death?
  (even if vaccines do not prevent transmission, but they reduce ppl being hospitalized, maybe we want this to be the objective)
• Reduce absenteeism (from work, school)?
• Achieve herd immunity?
  (if we reach 70% of ppl being vaccinated, it confers protection to the unvaccinated [important to ppl who can nit be vaccinated])
• All/some of the above? Other?

** policies need to be evaluated on the basis of intended objectives***

Question 5

Can vaccine mandates be justified if they are effective at achieving societal goals?

Answer 5

• It is about more than the effectiveness
• It is also about autonomy
• Some people do not have trust in the government, so we may not even believe the if they say it is effective
• It infringes on time

Question 6

What is Coercion?

Answer 6

• Coercion involves the use of force, threats, or intimidation to compel individuals to do something they would not otherwise
  do.
• Mandatory vaccination compels people to get vaccinated (ie. by threatening them with being fired if they aren’t vaccinated, and is thus coercive, and hence, unethical.

Question 7

Why are some forms of coercion are wrong and some are acceptable ?

Answer 7

• “Political power is ALWAYS coercive power backed up by the government’s use of sanctions, for government alone has the authority to use force in upholding its laws.”
• If the mafia threatens to destroy your property if you fail to pay
  protection money, this threat will count as coercive; but if the state threatens to confiscate your property
  unless you pay taxes, this threat is arguably not coercive

Question 8

How do vaccine mandates violate informed consent?

Answer 8

• Vaccination is a medical intervention for which there is an ethical and legal requirement to obtain informed consent,
  which must be given voluntarily.
• Mandatory vaccination violates informed consent because the consent is not voluntary

Question 9

How do vaccine mandates discriminate?

Answer 9

• Mandatory vaccination imposes restrictions or sanctions on individuals who are unwilling to be vaccinated.
• This discriminates against people just because they are
  unvaccinated (espec against those who are unable to be vaccinated due to conditions)
• We do not want our policies to be discriminatory
• If they are discriminatory, they will not be carried out

Question 10

Employment and discrimination

Answer 10

• Employment conditions can lead to the unequal treatment of people who belong to different groups
• This does not necessarily constitute discrimination because the distinction is not related to an immutable characteristic of the person or is unrelated to job performance
• Vaccination status on its own is not considered discriminatory because it is modifiable and can reflect a real requirement of occupational health and safety
• “While the Code prohibits discrimination based on creed, personal preferences or singular beliefs do not amount to a creed for the purposes of the Code.”

Question 11

On what basis, is it just to discriminate?

Answer 11

• Personal beliefs/preferences are not included in the code - so you can technically discriminate on that basis
• someone preferring NOT to be vaccinated is not being discriminated against with a vaccine mandate, because their PREFERENCE to not be unvaccinated is not in the code

Question 12

How are liberties/freedoms imposed on by mandates?

Answer 12

• The imposition of direct or indirect restrictions by vaccination mandates interferes with civil liberties / freedom, including the right to liberty, privacy, and bodily integrity, which makes them unethical/ illegal/unjustified.
• The job of the government is to make sure members of society do not enjoy their freedom so much that they put people at a disadvantage or harm them
  (there must be a balance between the rights of the individual and the interests of society by putting limits on civil liberties)

Question 13

How does the charter protect people’s freedom?

Answer 13

Section 1 of the Charter effects a balance between the rights of the individual & the interests of society by permitting limits to be placed on those guaranteed rights and freedoms
–> interests of society important, not just of individual

• section 1 overpowers section 7
  section 7 = “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”