No right to infect and disrupt
I’m for vaccination and workplace mandates. When the exercise of someone’s “personal freedom” – refusing vaccination and mask wearing – endangers the health (possibly lives) of others, disrupts the workplace and social life generally, and cripples the economy, I find it hard to defend that “freedom.” In nearly every direction we turn, we can find examples where government mandates (or laws) restricting personal behavior (or freedom) for the greater social good. We aren’t “free” to run stop signs or drive drunk or enter schools unannounced for obvious reasons that no one contests. I’m well aware that a tension can exist between personal rights and freedoms and collective/social rights and freedoms, but in this case, the tension isn’t so apparent to me. To claim a “right or freedom to infect and disrupt” the lives of others just doesn’t register in my world.
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