Vaccine Passports doom our rights

Vincent J. Curtis

12 Aug 21

RE: We have no charter right to endanger others.  Op-ed in the Hamilton Spectator 12 Aug 21.

Toronto defense lawyer Reid Rusonik, a self-proclaimed Charter defender, argues for vaccine passports.  His grounds are that nothing in the Charter says passports can’t be imposed, and that we have no right to endanger the lives of others.

Let’s begin by realizing that an unvaccinated person isn’t the same as a contagious person, and it is the contagious person who can possibly pass on the virus to others, not the unvaccinated person.  Next, let’s realize that breakthrough infections of the vaccinated are known, and it is often claimed that vaccinated people can be carriers of the virus despite being vaccinated.  Hence, vaccination status is no guarantee that a person isn’t contagious, and it is the contagious person that could be a threat to others.

Let’s also realize that many people have acquired natural immunity and have the antibodies by having been exposed to the virus, and vaccinating these people is at best useless and at worst harmful to them.

Then, there’s children under 12, and adults under the age of 30.  The data shows that children don’t catch the virus and don’t pass it on, and there may be danger in vaccinating them.  As for people under 30, the data again shows that they shrug off an infection within a few days and hospitalization is rarer than for the seasonal flu.

Who are the unvaccinated endangering?  Not the vaccinated, surely!  It can only be other, unvaccinated people.  Aren’t unvaccinated people accepting the risk willingly? Isn’t driving a car potentially risky to others, and aren’t you accept a risk by driving?

Vaccine passports are a solution in search of a problem.  In Hamilton, there are only a couple hundred active cases in a city of half a million.  In Ontario, there are a few thousand active cases in a province of 15 million.  Vaccine passports are to have the innocent prove their innocence, but are no guarantee of what they’re supposed to guarantee – not being contagious!

Passports are supposed forfend the next lockdown.  Lockdowns were intended to protect the healthcare system from getting overwhelmed, not protect people or eradicate the virus.  The people becoming cases now are the young and otherwise healthy, and their hospitalization rates are comparable to the seasonal flu.  The system will be fine.

If vaccine passports become required for COVID, there is nothing stopping requiring something else like it for seasonal flu or any other condition the authorities can dream up.  All you need is a flimsy excuse.

-30-