Fri Apr 02, 2021 4:48 pm
#1837484
I think it is worth remembering the risk / cost issue here. We all know that the Government has been making difficult choices trading off public health risk against economic performance. However, it is also important to remember that the highest economic price has generally been paid (and will be for decades to come) by those least at health risk. Those most at risk - older people - are suffering the least financially.
We have now vaccinated the at risk categories, and those of us in those categories now owe it to the people who are going to pay for all of this mess to at least relieve them of as much of that burden as we can as quickly as we can. Vaccine passports will continue to discriminate against those least at risk, and just isn't fair at this point in the game.
Signs are good that the vaccines are going to work well. However, if we higher risk categories don't like the chance that they won't work quite as fully as we all hope, then we don't have to take the risks. I won't personally be going into a busy pub any time soon, but at this point we have a duty to let the economy open up as quickly as possible. I think the Government approach of taking it step by step is a good one because the vaccines may not turn out to be as effective as we hope, and new variants could still give problems, but we still need to get things moving.
I don't think our Government will be stupid enough to introduce these passports for anything other than international travel as they inevitably discriminate against the young who have not had the chance to be vaccinated, against those who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons, and against those who choose not to be vaccinated. Further, I don't think many organisations will introduce them voluntarily. Once they think through all the practicalities and costs involved, together with the policing and liberty issues, combined with the reality of excluding a large part of the market, I doubt we will see many go down this route.
We have asked a lot of the young in this pandemic. It is about time we started showing that we appreciate their sacrifices. The risk / cost scenario has moved on significantly, and we all need to rethink our attitudes to reflect that.
We have now vaccinated the at risk categories, and those of us in those categories now owe it to the people who are going to pay for all of this mess to at least relieve them of as much of that burden as we can as quickly as we can. Vaccine passports will continue to discriminate against those least at risk, and just isn't fair at this point in the game.
Signs are good that the vaccines are going to work well. However, if we higher risk categories don't like the chance that they won't work quite as fully as we all hope, then we don't have to take the risks. I won't personally be going into a busy pub any time soon, but at this point we have a duty to let the economy open up as quickly as possible. I think the Government approach of taking it step by step is a good one because the vaccines may not turn out to be as effective as we hope, and new variants could still give problems, but we still need to get things moving.
I don't think our Government will be stupid enough to introduce these passports for anything other than international travel as they inevitably discriminate against the young who have not had the chance to be vaccinated, against those who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons, and against those who choose not to be vaccinated. Further, I don't think many organisations will introduce them voluntarily. Once they think through all the practicalities and costs involved, together with the policing and liberty issues, combined with the reality of excluding a large part of the market, I doubt we will see many go down this route.
We have asked a lot of the young in this pandemic. It is about time we started showing that we appreciate their sacrifices. The risk / cost scenario has moved on significantly, and we all need to rethink our attitudes to reflect that.