The unvaccinated owe a figurative debt
to society that should be literal
BY
LLOYD STEFFEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 01/25/22
Employees at JBS Meat Processors receive a $100 bonus for getting a COVID-19 vaccination. The Lidl grocery chain offers $200 to employees who get vaccinated. Trader Joe’s offers employees two hours of pay per dose of vaccine. In the city of Acworth, Ga., $200 gift cards await city workers who can show that they have received the vaccination.
Providing financial
incentives to the unvaccinated does provide a visibly dramatic demonstration of
the importance of moving to that 90 percent vaccination rate where herd
immunity stops the further spread of the COVID virus.
But as Arthur Caplan, a preeminent American
bioethicist said in a Today Show interview: “If you pay
people to get vaccinated, the strong implication is it’s not safe, there’s
something wrong, you have to use money to persuade them.”
Resorting to paying
people for vaccinations that are free and scientifically proven to protect
against serious illness, hospitalization and death, is curious, if not
stupefying, given that vaccination is in the vital interests of those who
receive it — as well as everyone who encounters the vaccinated. And Caplan is
right: Paying people to get vaccinated is a bad idea if it sends a misleading
and false message about safety.
But a more important
issue is that money for vaccine participation obscures a moral obligation. In a
time of pandemic, vaccination imposes a duty to take care of ourselves and not
burden others with preventable sickness and death. When vaccination is framed as a way to promote the good of others, we
are in Golden Rule territory — ethics 101.
Continues at: HTTPS://THEHILL.COM/OPINION/HEALTHCARE/591257-THE-UNVACCINATED-OWE-A-FIGURATIVE-DEBT-TO-SOCIETY-THAT-SHOULD-BE-LITERAL
I agree, paying people to be decent and responsible members of the community just feels wrong. On the other hand, the utilitarian calculus might consider it worth the cost in the short term. In the long term, though, it would be horribly counter-productive if it became a standard expectation. What ever happened to the JFK inaugural ethos, "ask what you can do for your country" and for humanity?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the author that the incentive of getting vaccinated is the vaccination. However, I do not appreciate his bit on conscientious objectors, specifically comparing the "obligation changing to accommodate conscience". No matter which way you look at it it is unfair. I grew up near Chattanooga TN, the final resting place of Desmond Doss from the infamous "Hacksaw Ridge". I have doubts the notorious conscientious objector would appreciate being included. Additionally, I find the closing remark referring to a fourth of the population as "free-riders" to be distasteful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what the article says. If people are getting incentivized to get the vaccine, then it is unfair to the people who did it without the incentive. Vaccination protects us and fellow members of society, and that should be incentive enough to get it. Slowly it would reinforce people who did it without incentives to wait until they are given some sort of compensation for just doing their duty as a member of society. I get what they are trying to do but it is not okay.
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