As writers from the Left, we are disturbed by this turn of events. We don’t think there is anything progressive about the current move towards compelled — and in places mandatory — Covid vaccinations. These are discriminatory against minority communities, many of whom for historical reasons are suspicious of medicine and the state, and have had lower vaccine take-up rates. They are enormously costly, not only in economic terms, creating huge profits for the pharmaceutical companies rolling them out, with BioNTech, Moderna and Pfizer making between them over US$1,000 per second, but also in human resources terms — with thousands of health workers being pulled out of (already understaffed, in many cases) hospitals to run mass vaccination centres.
The difference between these people and those who run our government are twofold.
The first is a realisation between real social justice and that which is promoted by our moneyed interests. It should be obvious that the latter is artificial, but in the “party line” that gets put out these days does its best to hide this simple fact.
The second is that no solution is going to be perfect, especially in the Third World. This was the point I tried to make in Teaching Secular Blasphemy, but that reality hasn’t percolated to our conceited, unscientific elites.
If enough people on both sides will refuse to be bought off so easily and have a reality check, we just might get this fiasco under control.
Positive Infinity 