Scuttlebutt: COVID and Colors
By Mitch McFarland
I don't tend to write about local current events. Our political conversation moves so fast these days that a monthly can't keep up. Nevertheless, a recent agenda item at the Arena Theater board meeting has national overtones. The issue was about Covid protocols to be observed while attending events there.
Mendocino County Health Dept. is mandating that the theater post one of three placards to inform audiences as to how the management is handling vaccine requirements. A green placard means all employees are vaccinated or tested weekly and audiences must show proof of vaccination. A yellow placard means the employees are vaccinated or tested weekly, but audiences need not be and a red card means there are no requirements for vaccines of anyone. Mask wearing is still required when not eating or drinking in all cases.
Mimicking the national conversation, if that is what we call our current political dialogue, the discussion at the board meeting ranged from the very cautious (green) to the extreme other end in which a comment was made that vaccination mandates will “usher in totalitarianism “. Apparently no one mentioned Bill Gates microchip.
I get why there is a wide variation in opinion concerning vaccination. Simply put, deciding whether or not to be vaccinated for Covid comes down to personal (and societal) risk assessment. We all face risks beginning as soon as we get out of bed in the morning, but we all have different ways to assess risk. We are never going to come to a common understanding of the amount of risk a particular behavior contains. How risky is riding my motorcycle without a helmet the half mile down my dead end road to my neighbor's house versus navigating traffic in San Francisco?
Those who oppose a mandate correctly point out the numerous precautions being taken by theater staff. Staff are all vaccinated, but one, who is willing to be tested weekly. Also highly efficient air purifiers have been installed, in addition to thorough cleaning between shows. Finally, patrons are seated socially distant and must wear masks when not eating or drinking. These facts and the low transmission rate in our area in general could easily lead someone to conclude that being protected by a vaccine is not necessary to enter Arena Theater.
Folks on the green placard side point to statistics that pretty clearly demonstrate that after administrating over 4 billion doses to many hundreds of millions of people that the vaccines are safe and effective. It has also been pointed out that the potential negative side effects of the vaccine are much easier to treat than Covid.
They might also argue that the quickest way to end Covid and recycle ALL the placards and masks is for folks to simply get the vaccine. Herd immunity is the only way out of this pandemic. Anti-vaxxers like to skewer statistics to support their position that the vaccine isn't that much of a help. This isn't true, so their focus then turns to their civil rights ( I don't think we have any of the chip idiots around here). This is where I part ways with their arguments. They claim a right to control their own bodies as well as the right decide their behavior around others.
I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as natural rights. If nature had imbued us all with natural rights, then we would all be in agreement as to what they are, just as we all innately agree that a charging lion is a threat and the sky is blue. No entity in nature actually has any “right” to anything. Our idea of rights is established by societies of people. That is why they are called human rights.
The human rights established by societies virtually always come with some responsibility to exercise those rights without endangering others. I have been given the right to drive a car, but only after I have expressed a willingness to drive on my side of the road.
No one should deny others the right to control their own body. Those who wish not to get vaccinated should be given that right, but may not use it to endanger others. In this case the body of the Arena Theater is their audiences which theater management has the right and duty to protect. To pretend otherwise is arrogance.
I believe to frame this as a civil rights issue gives powerful ammunition to those who work to restrict our actual civil rights. It allows them to equate, for example, constitutionally enumerated voting rights with the right to see a movie while unvaccinated. To me it trivializes all our rights when folks look to claim that whatever behavior they choose to declare a “right” should be respected.
I wonder if the issue of individual rights is being taken too far to its own detriment. On one hand you have some college students complaining that they want a “safe” place where they won't be offended by anything. On the other hand you have people who think they have the right to storm the Capitol and overthrow the government. I don't think anyone ever told college students they will be protected from ever hearing something that bothers them and certainly no government has ever given anyone the right to violently overthrow it.
I have to ask if those protesting vaccine mandates will join me in protesting helmet laws? Helmets protect no one but the user, thus there is no individual but me at risk of head injury should I crash my motorcycle, yet the non-motorcycle riding public overwhelmingly supports helmet laws. I assume anti-vaxxers would oppose this form of oppression.
And if you are still wondering how the board voted, they went with the yellow. Employees are fine with their requirements and the anti-vaxxers can go watch movies. I wonder if they will? Will you?
