On Mandated COVID-19 Vaccinations

The individual rights given to man by God, and enshrined in the US Constitution should not be violated merely because a large faction of the population have given into an unreasonable fear of sickness and death. Nevertheless, we are dangerously close to seeing municipal employees, whom we hailed as heroes a year ago for continuing to work during the pandemic, be forced to choose between their consciences and their jobs. People who have a moral objection to vaccines in general, but to the COVID-19 vaccines in particular should not be forced to take them. People who have recovered from COVID-19 infection and have been shown to have antibodies present in their blood should not be forced to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Bodily autonomy and integrity should be respected; no one should be forced to receive a medical treatment against their will. Governments are instituted among men in order to secure and protect individual rights, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Forcing people to choose either between becoming vaccinated, or becoming second-class citizens is destructive of these ends.

First, people who have a conscientious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine should not be forced to take it. The three vaccines approved for use in the United States all use abortion-derived cell lines in either their development and production, or during the lab testing phases. As an evangelical Lutheran Christian, I find it morally unacceptable to receive such vaccines. Scripture teaches that babies in the womb are alive, and are human persons from the time of their conception. To end that life without moral justification is murder, and a sin against God’s command. God calls us in the the 5th Commandment not to harm our neighbor in his body, but to help and support him in every physical need. To receive the benefits of such a vaccine developed from abortion-derived cell lines, however tangentially, makes me feel complicit in that murder.

Next, People who have recovered from COVID-19 infection and are producing antibodies should not be forced to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The National Institutes of Health has found that most people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection come away from their illness with long-term immune protection from the disease. A recent study from Tel Aviv University in Israel, the country with the highest vaccination rate in the world, has determined that natural immunity to COVID-19 is “far superior to vaccine-induced immunity.” Yet, in the United States, we are treating people with natural immunity as though they pose a danger to the health of the general public, if they do not receive a vaccination. We should recognize the benefits of natural immunity through infection recovery and at least consider it to be on the same level as vaccination-induced immunity. We should not require people with natural immunity to be vaccinated.

Finally, the rights of individuals to seek out or refuse medical treatment should be respected. No one should be pressured to get a vaccination if they do not believe it is in their best interest. All the currently available COVID-19 vaccines were developed quickly and authorized for use under emergency use approval by the FDA. We have no clear idea what the long-term effects of these medicines will be on the human body. People willing to accept that risk should certainly be allowed to take the vaccine. People who do not want to take that risk, no matter how ignorant others may consider that decision to be, should not be forced to do so. Moreover, though these medications are being called vaccines, that is not truly what they are. These treatments are, in reality, therapeutics similar to the flu shot. They may not prevent a vaccinated person from contracting the disease; they may lessen the severity of the disease and its duration. While our society strongly encourages everyone to get a flu shot each year, we do not mandate it, and influenza kills tens of thousands of people every year.

Every day we seem to get a little closer to a vaccine mandate here in Hodgkins. The federal government is on the cusp of mandating companies which employ 100 or more people to require their employees to be vaccinated. Private corporations, institutions of higher education, and municipalities all over the country are instituting vaccine mandates as a condition of employment. Hodgkins’ neighbor, Countryside, has instituted such a mandate for their city employees, punishable by measures up to and including termination of employment. Mandates are being challenged in the courts all across the country. Some are being upheld, and some have been struck down. The best course of action would be to allow workers to make their own choices about the vaccines, and let them live at the level of risk at which they are comfortable. It is clear that the most reasonable compromise would be to allow exemptions to those people who have a conscientious objection to the vaccines, as well as to those who can demonstrate natural immunity through antibody testing, and to require from this group continued social distancing along with regular COVID-19 testing in lieu of forced vaccination.

Such constant testing and social distancing is itself divisive and, I suspect, useless. It could be endured as a compromise with those who are still afraid and want to retain the illusion that these superstitious measures protect them.

The general public is becoming conditioned to to believe that their friends and neighbors who choose not to get vaccinated for COVID-19 are somehow endangering the lives of those who are vaccinated. This certainly isn’t true. We should resist this misconception and respect the rights and choices of all individuals. ###