Papers, Please! Creeping Authoritarianism in Business

Before I begin, the views in this article are my personally held beliefs, and this is not and 'anti-vax' rant. You're welcome to disagree with my points, whilst we still have some modicum of freedom of speech that is.

I'm a big believer in bodily autonomy – nobody should be forced to put something into their body, regardless of national of international emergencies, pandemics, anything. It's a line we should never cross, because once we have, it opens to door to catastrophic human rights abuses and sets a precedent.

We may trust our current government to 'do the right thing', but once this precedent has been set, it gives future governments carte blanche to push through legislation to mandate pretty much any other form of jab.

I realise the past two years have been terrible for everyone; some more than others, but if we continue down this path, I fear a future government could for example determine that the country is overpopulated. What's then to stop them from then mandating a jab that prevents a portion of the population from reproducing?

“Sounds far fetched”, I hear you say. I’d argue it’s a very real possibility if we don’t stand firm on bodily autonomy, because this argument about it being for 'the greater good' (Hot Fuzz, anyone?) is now being used by many people to victimise those who do not wish to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

We're seeing increasingly Authoritarian practices creeping into countries across the world – Austria, Germany, Australia – that are restricting the rights of those who are unvaccinated, even if they’ve had Covid-19 and recovered. When the data shows that those with 'natural' immunity (from having had the virus) have 10+ times better immunity than those who have been vaccinated, I don’t see how these practices can be considered rational or justified under any circumstances.

Here in the UK, we've been quite fortunate that, of late at least, our government have taken a more hands-off approach except with large venues. In the USA, new legislation is being forced through that all companies with 100 or more employees must enforce vaccination or receive fines that would bankrupt them. Vaccinated people can still spread the virus. These companies will still have outbreaks. So how can it make any sense for people to lose their jobs over personal choice?

I'm taking a pre-emptive stand, that should the UK government ever impose mandatory vaccination on our employees, we will do everything in our power to fight against this. Some members of our team are vaccinated, some are not; that's their personal choice. We will never mandate that any member of our team must be vaccinated to come to work. If we get fined, we won't pay the fine(s), and will pursue legal action against the government if this happens.

I sincerely hope more businesses will also take a stand against any future measures that threaten our fundamental freedoms and bodily autonomy.

Steve

18 November 2021