I believe vaccine mandates are primarily substitutes for destructive alternative restrictions that are worse for freedom, and those who oppose mostly think they are mostly complements that ramp up restrictions of all kinds.
That is definitely a crux, thank you for pointing that out.
or that if you’re vaccinated that’s sufficient protection that you shouldn’t care who else around you is unvaccinated.
This is 100% me. My view is: if your solution requires absolutely everyone to buy in to it—that is, it requires successful coordination across all cultures within the US, or in the world—then you don’t have a solution, you have a wish. The wish is for human nature to be fundamentally different from what it is.
Forcing coordination through federal mandates is different, in that it’s actually possible. But I see a similar kind of wish here. Re the substitute/complement question above, I believe the hypothetical version of the US government that successfully exercises such control over its citizens’ physical bodies and then promptly relinquishes that degree of control, is a US government not run by humans.
I happen to think the vaccine is an actual solution under the strict definition above. As in, I got it, so the pandemic is over for me. The reductions in infection and long-term risk are well documented here, and in my view they’re enough to justify taking the (underrated) benefit of no longer worrying about my covid risk (including caring about the vax status of those around me) (obviously I’m still worried about the second-order effects). I’ve had a really enjoyable summer that was full of social interaction, travel, dating, etc.
Tldr: “Real life” has enough utility that I count my individual vaccination as sufficient risk mitigation to justify it.
That is definitely a crux, thank you for pointing that out.
This is 100% me. My view is: if your solution requires absolutely everyone to buy in to it—that is, it requires successful coordination across all cultures within the US, or in the world—then you don’t have a solution, you have a wish. The wish is for human nature to be fundamentally different from what it is.
Forcing coordination through federal mandates is different, in that it’s actually possible. But I see a similar kind of wish here. Re the substitute/complement question above, I believe the hypothetical version of the US government that successfully exercises such control over its citizens’ physical bodies and then promptly relinquishes that degree of control, is a US government not run by humans.
I happen to think the vaccine is an actual solution under the strict definition above. As in, I got it, so the pandemic is over for me. The reductions in infection and long-term risk are well documented here, and in my view they’re enough to justify taking the (underrated) benefit of no longer worrying about my covid risk (including caring about the vax status of those around me) (obviously I’m still worried about the second-order effects). I’ve had a really enjoyable summer that was full of social interaction, travel, dating, etc.
Tldr: “Real life” has enough utility that I count my individual vaccination as sufficient risk mitigation to justify it.