{"id":394015,"date":"2022-01-13T17:34:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T14:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/quebec-isnt-the-only-one-targeting-the-unvaxxed-but-is-it-moral\/"},"modified":"2022-01-13T17:34:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T14:34:51","slug":"quebec-isnt-the-only-one-targeting-the-unvaxxed-but-is-it-moral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/quebec-isnt-the-only-one-targeting-the-unvaxxed-but-is-it-moral\/","title":{"rendered":"#Quebec isn’t the only one targeting the unvaxxed. But is it moral?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Quebec isn’t the only one targeting the unvaxxed. But is it moral?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Taxes and fines cross a red line, taking us down a road that one ethicist warns ‘will do tremendous damage to our society’\n <\/div>\n
\n \u201cI think it\u2019s reasonable for the majority who are vaccinated to feel some emotion of resentment or to feel moral disapp<\/a>robation toward the unvaccinated,\u201d says Arthur Schafer, a bioethics professor at the University of Manitoba.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those are strong words for an ethicist, and a measure, surely, of the point we\u2019ve reached in this pandemic: the hospitalizations of so many unvaccinated mean pain for others, including<\/span> having medical procedures<\/span> such as cancer or heart surgeries cancelled or postponed. Around 500,000 surgeries were delayed in just the first 15 months of the pandemic in Canada, <\/span>according to the<\/span><\/a> Canadian Institute for Health Information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, as hospitals around the world are again being overwhelmed by patients, many of whom aren\u2019t unvaccinated, governments across this country and abroad<\/span> are tightening the rules for those who remain unvaccinated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron recently proposed new measures against the unvaxxed, including <\/span>restricting<\/span><\/a> their ability to travel<\/a> by public means and barring them from communal venues such as restaurants, theatres and arenas. \u201cWhen some make from their freedom\u2026a motto, not only do they put others\u2019 lives at risk, but they are also curtailing others\u2019 freedom,\u201d Macron said. \u201cThat I cannot accept.\u201d And in Quebec, the unvaxxed now can\u2019t enter liquor and cannabis stores.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The question is when those restrictions cross ethical lines, and even become counterproductive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For bioethicists, who have grappled with a steady stream of<\/span> moral dilemmas during this pandemic, there is a big difference between rules that restrict access to non-essential venues, and the imposition of taxes. \u201cI think vaccine mandates\u2014restrictions on who has access to restaurants, gyms, concerts, sporting events, liquor stores, bingo halls\u2014are all justifiable,\u201d says Schafer.\u00a0 They protect the health-care system, those who work in those places and other patrons, he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kerry Bowman, a bioethics professor at the University of Toronto, agrees that such restrictions are, in principle, fine during a pandemic, though he\u2019d like to see consistent operational definitions of what is and isn\u2019t governed by such rules (such as buying alcohol, which now requires vaccine proof in Quebec but not in Ontario).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More controversial is a new trend for governments to impose a tax, fee or levy on those who are unvaccinated by choice\u00a0 (as opposed to those who have very real and rare medical reasons why they can\u2019t be vaccinated and are exempt from such levies). This week, Quebec Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault said his government was considering such a plan, though the exact mechanism and amount aren\u2019t clear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As of now, at least three countries have either <\/span>a<\/b>nnounced or are implementing plans to essentially tax the voluntarily unvaccinated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n