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"I asked you to cite one example of a policy that I support and how that threatens the rights of "countless individuals."
You asked for one example. Here's a clear one: vaccine mandates.
Mandating that individuals inject a substance into their bodies under threat of losing employment, access to education, or participation in public life is a textbook violation of bodily autonomy, one of the most fundamental individual rights. It substitutes personal consent with state coercion.
It does not matter if a majority supports the mandate. Rights exist to protect the individual from the majority, especially when fear or politics override reason.
When the government assumes the authority to override your bodily autonomy for what it deems "the greater good," it sets a precedent. What else can they compel in the name of public health or safety? Where is the line? The moment you accept coercion over consent, you lose the moral ground to object when the next mandate doesn’t suit you.
Supporting vaccine mandates threatens the rights of countless individuals precisely because it makes rights conditional—and rights that are conditional aren’t rights at all.
And FYI, I am not 'anti-vaccine.' I support traditional vaccines like those for polio, measles, and tetanus, which went through long-term randomized clinical trials and decades of real-world follow-up before becoming routine.
My skepticism is focused specifically on the COVID-19 vaccines, and it is based on facts:
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA):
The COVID vaccines were authorized under EUA, meaning they bypassed the normal full approval process that requires years of long-term safety and efficacy data. (FDA,
December 2020). Full biological approval (for Pfizer) was only granted in August 2021, and even then, only for certain age groups.
Failure to stop transmission:
Early messaging promised that the vaccines would stop infection and transmission ("get vaccinated to protect others"). However, by mid-2021, real-world data showed that fully vaccinated individuals could still catch and spread COVID-19 (CDC, August 2021, outbreak in Barnstable County, Massachusetts). Rochelle Walensky, then head of the CDC, admitted vaccinated individuals carried similar viral loads as unvaccinated individuals.
CDC quietly changed the definition of 'vaccine':
Pre-September 2021, the CDC defined a vaccine as "a product that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease."
After criticism that COVID-19 shots were not preventing infection, the CDC changed the definition to "a preparation that is used to stimulate the body's immune response against diseases."
(CDC definition change documented September 1, 2021; archived at Wayback Machine.)
Efficacy claims based on limited data:
Pfizer’s original clinical trial reported 95% efficacy, but this number was based on relative risk reduction, not absolute risk reduction (which was less than 1%).
