Leer en Español
France President Emmanuel Macron has said he wanted to “piss off” and expel from cafes, theaters, and cinemas the millions of French citizens who have not been vaccinated. Simulateouly, tennis player Novak Djokovic was arrested in Australia and will be deported for not being vaccinated, so the nine-time tournament winner will miss the Australian Open. In Italy, the government issued mandatory vaccines for those over 50.
What kind of monsters have we become? It is time we ask ourselves at what point has this Chinese virus turned millions of people around the world into totalitarians who want to condemn to confinement those who do not get a vaccine.
This is not about a few politicians getting out of hand, it’s worse. This is about millions of people who support and call for turning the unvaccinated into third-class citizens, without freedom. Macron is in fact on the campaign trail and his delirious speech about “pissing of” anyone who won’t provide a health pass is frightening proof of how far this sanitary dictatorship has come.
What’s happening these days shows how fear, largely instilled by politicians, makes people accept any totalitarian madness. It is frightening that some people want to deny medical services to the unvaccinated, and how normalized it is to ruin someone’s life, putting them out of work, just because they made a different medical decision.
Let it be clear that not getting vaccinated is not putting the rest of humanity at risk, in any case it would be putting oneself at risk. If we believe in the vaccine and we know that it works, there is no reason to worry about those who did not get vaccinated. That is precisely what the vaccine is for, so that if you get Covid —which can be transmitted by both vaccinated and unvaccinated people— you will not die and the effects will be mild.
Covid and the fear that has been spread by politicians and scientists —who are really more politicians than anything else— reminds us of some of the worst moments of humanity. Where an unhinged crowd decided to blame a group of people for all the evils of the world and therefore condemn them to banishment, torture and even death.
And it doesn’t matter if it is legal, the Nuremberg and apartheid laws were also legal. Legal is not synonymous with ethical or right. That a politician decides to force by law to discriminate and segregate the unvaccinated does not make it right.
We must react now. We have gone too far. Today, it is about the unvaccinated, tomorrow it will be those who do not have the two doses and it will go on like this if we do not stop it.
Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editor-in-chief of El American. Economist. Podcaster. Political and economic analysis of America. Colombian exile in the United States // Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editora en jefe de El American. Economista. Podcaster. Análisis político y económico de América. Colombiana exiliada en EE. UU.
Ayyyy Vanessa, deja de pensar y decir que los gobernantes que hacen eso van en contra de la libertad del ser humano; las sociedades necesitan disciplina . . . no es el hecho de la obligacion, es que la gente literalmente ya no respeta la autoridad, la disciplina, la etica, los valores, la generosidad vs otros seres humanos y entonces quien va a parar esto? Yo entiendo que debe haber libertad de expresion, pero cuidado porque lo que escribes puede ser mal interpretado por aquellos que lo que quieren es apostar al caos. Tu eres inmigrante y saliste de Colombia por la posible persecucion y estas en un pais libre. Eso te da derecho a pretender interpretar la libertad a tu antojo? O es que acaso en el pais donde estas, sin reglas hubiera sociedad? O sea para una cosa te sirve, pero para otra no. Lo que es bueno para el pavo es bueno para la pava. Calladita en estos temas te ves mejor.