![Jordan Reid says it's no problem to refute vaccine mandate objections.](https://san.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ReidVaccineMandatesThumbnail.png?w=1427)
Commentary
-
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
Here’s a topic sure not to ruffle any feathers: Vaccine mandates! I’m looking forward to the comments under this one. Look, we’re all aware that COVID has become wildly politicized to the point where the mere mention of a mask or a shot has the potential to throw a regular old, boring school board meeting into UFC territory.
That’s unfortunate. It’s also the byproduct of a political landscape that has gone way off the deep end and has divided us to the point where our sense of shared humanity is less important than proving the other side wrong.
Any perspective put forward by someone who we perceive as being on that other side is just automatically rejected. And that goes for Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are not blameless here.
But on the subject of mandatory school vaccination, I still think it’s worthwhile to try to cut through all the hysteria to try to get at the essence of what we’re trying to do here.
I think we can all agree, Democrat, Republican, in between, that we want our children’s educational environments to return to some semblance of normalcy. I also think we can agree that we care about public health. We care about people.
So let me offer some counterpoints to some of the objections to mandatory school vaccinations that I’ve heard from parents over the past few months.
One, you don’t trust the vaccine. It came out too quickly. Yeah. It came out super quickly. I get it. It’s wild. It’s also amazing that we live in an era where scientists have the capacity to come together on a global scale in order to change lives. It’s a miracle from God or science. Take your pick.
Two. Sure other people can get the vaccine, but I don’t want to. And I get that too, except for there’s a key problem here. You may have heard about the most recent variant, Omicron. The reason that these variants keep arising is that viruses, they’re smart, and they want to survive. And if they have to change in order to keep jumping from potential host to host, that’s what they’re going to do. So we have to reduce the pool of potential hosts for them to jump into. Maybe that way they’ll stop hanging around our little species and go park somewhere else.
Three. You don’t think that you or your children should be made to do anything with your bodies that you don’t explicitly choose, except we already do so many things that are required of us by the federal and local governments. We wear seat belts. We don’t smoke on airplanes.
And remember how, like a couple hundred years ago, people used to poop in the streets, allegedly, I wasn’t there. And now we don’t poop in the streets anymore because the government realized that that’s really bad for public health. And so now it’s illegal, basically that.
Look, part of the contract that we sign when we decide to become members of a society and we reap all of the benefits that comes with said membership, for example, public schools, is that we agree to care about and participate in the common good.
And when we make choices that have the potential to harm the public, we can reasonably expect to face consequences.
I hate wearing a mask. You hate wearing a mask. Nobody likes getting shots. None of this is fun, but if we want to return to normalcy, and we all do, we have to recognize that public safety and public health, they’re everybody’s responsibility.
And when it comes to vaccine mandates, the choices we make affect the lives and deaths of others, I think it’s hardly a choice at all.
-
Americans must reject Trump to defend our democracy
At the end of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump accepted the nomination as the GOP candidate for president. In the first part of his acceptance speech, Trump called for unity and healing, although he derailed into partisanship as he continued. Critics have debated the media’s role in handling Trump’s speech. Some argued he was…
-
It’s time for Kamala Harris to pick up the torch
Debates have continued among Democrats about whether President Joe Biden is the best candidate for the 2024 election or whether an alternative Democratic leader might be more electable. While there’s no shortage of fellow Democratic leaders to choose from, President Biden and his supporters have continued to assert that Biden can and will win as…
-
Republicans want to sabotage US education
Former President Donald Trump’s official educational policy platform reveals plans to eliminate the Department of Education and seize the financial assets and endowments of elite U.S. universities. These proposals and others have convinced some liberal critics that the true goal of Republicans is to intentionally weaken U.S. education. Watch the above video as Straight Arrow…
-
Despite poor debate performance, Biden deserves our support
President Joe Biden himself admits that he delivered a “bad” performance in the first 2024 presidential debate. About a week after what some consider to be the worst debate performance in the history of televised debates, polls indicate that more voters than ever have an unfavorable opinion of the president, believe he is too old…
-
The modern-day Republican woman has terrifying role models
In a recent New York Magazine cover story entitled, “How Did Republican Women End Up Like This,” Rebecca Traister writes about some of the more polarizing examples of female Republican leaders and their positions on abortion, the transgender movement and women in general. With Republican women set to play a major role in the November…
Latest Opinions
-
U.S. Department of Defense
Congress still trying to figure out how to reduce wasteful military spending
-
DVIDS
US Navy, Air Force making waves with new weapons at RIMPAC
-
Getty Images
Israeli PM Netanyahu meets with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
-
Getty Images
Growing US nuclear power resurgence reaches the nation’s heartland
-
Getty Images
Beer from the sun, other solar thermal projects get government funding
Popular Opinions
-
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.