The reason Gov. Ivey gave for opposing government mandates is that they contravened the right and freedom of each person to make their own health care choices about the vaccine, and the government should not use a mandate to make, or try to make, a person receive a vaccine.
In giving that as her reason for opposing vaccine mandates, Gov. Ivey expressed no consideration of the effect on other Alabamians of people making personal choices not to get vaccinated.
In the town hall, there was discussion of the large amount of misinformation about the vaccine on the Internet, the problem that people may be making personal choices based on the misinformation, and the great difficulties in countering the misinformation.
Personal choice not to get vaccinated affects other Alabamians
The past few months have shown that there are very significant adverse consequences to other Alabamians from people's personal decisions not to be vaccinated. These include large numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths of other Alabamians that would not have occurred if more Alabamians were vaccinated, and overburdening of hospitals and the health care system and impairing their ability to provide services to persons with severe COVID and to persons having other other serous health problems in need of treatment.
While this morning Gov. Ivey expressed no consideration of the adverse consequences to other Alabamians of people making personal choices not get vaccinated, it is possible she has given a lot of thought to the extent to which a governmental vaccine mandate would keep such adverse consequences from happening.
Given the potential very adverse consequences that could result from not having a mandate, Gov. Ivey should have given a lot of thought to how much a mandate would save lives and protect the health of Alabamians. She should have done extensive consultation with Dr. Harris and other expert advisors to get information and opinions about how much a mandate would help save lives and protect the health of Alabamians.
A special factor Gov. Ivey should have taken into account is the extent to which misinformation is being being purveyed about vaccines, the risk that people are making personal decisions not to get vaccinated based on misinformation, and these personal decisions are adversely affecting other Alabamians as referred to above.
Gov. Ivey should report to Alabamians about the consideration she and her administration gave to how much a mandate would help, or not, to save lives of Alabamians and protect their health, and should fairly report the conclusions they reached, and expressly state that it was their determination that the collective benefit to be received by all Alabamians from a vaccine was an insufficient basis for interfering with the personal right and freedom of each person to decide for themselves about whether to get vaccinated.
Protecting Alabamians from their own choices
The adverse effect on other Alabamians that is discussed above if people choose not to be vaccinated is or should be the primary consideration by Gov. Ivey in making a decision to impose a mandate or not.
While that is primary, there is a role for government to protect people from making bad personal choices for themselves. Requirements of people to wear seat belts and of motor cyclists to wear helmets are examples of not allowing people personal choices. Prohibiting people from using dangerous drugs such as heroin is another example.
In most cases, not being vaccinated is a bad personal choice, and it would not be run amuck totalitarianism for there to be a governmental vaccine mandate to protect people from making a bad personal choice not to get vaccinated.
This would seem to be acutely the case where there is massive misinformation being purveyed about vaccines, and people are making personal decisions not to get vaccinated based on misinformation.
10/10/21
My message to @AGSteveMarshall & @GovernorKayIvey is it is morally depraved to know uncontrollable misinformation is causing Alabamians not to get vaccinated & mandates work, and not use power to override & defeat misinformation & save AL lives & health with mandates.#alpolitics https://t.co/LnGF4wS8rv
— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) October 10, 2021
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