Opinion

Editorial: Right to free speech does not include intimidating healthcare workers

The right to protest is enshrined in every democratic society.

People are entitled to hold peaceful protests.

But what they are not entitled to do is intimidate others, as happened in west Belfast over the weekend.

Healthcare staff at a Covid vaccination clinic in the Colin area were targeted by anti-vaccination protesters for the second week in a row.

A small number of anti-vaxxers photographed and filmed nursing staff, leaving some understandably distressed.

It is completely unacceptable to target people who are simply doing their jobs.

Just last year, the public was applauding healthcare workers for battling to keep us safe during the worst global health emergency in a century.

Now healthcare workers, who remain under huge pressure, are facing hostility and, at times, abuse.

In August, anti-vaccination protesters disrupted a vaccine clinic for pregnant women in Derry.

And health minister Robin Swann has had to review his security after being subjected to death threats over the last 18 months.

In recent weeks, anti-vaxxers have targeted schools and clinics in Britain.

Some protesters upset pupils at one school in Gateshead in England by showing them pictures of dead and disfigured children and falsely blaming the Covid vaccine.

In Wales, a 15-year-old girl and her mother were confronted by protesters while attending a vaccination clinic in Cardiff on Saturday.

Few of the people who strongly oppose vaccines appear to have a scientific background or even a basic understanding of how vaccines work.

Several decades ago, the American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov noticed a growing hostility in western society towards knowledge.

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’,” he wrote.

Children know that vaccines safely teach our bodies to fight infections.

The Covid vaccines were created in an emergency. But the science behind them has been developed over centuries.

Smallpox used to be one of the most deadly diseases, killing millions of people every year.

English physician Edward Jenner devised the first-ever vaccine in the late 18th century, giving hope that the spread of smallpox could be curbed.

Thanks to a highly successful World Health Organisation vaccination programme between 1958 and 1977, the disease was eventually eradicated in 1979.

Protesters are fully entitled not to receive a Covid vaccine themselves. But they should not prevent others from exercising their right to protect their own bodies.

While vaccines do not fully protect against Covid infections, they remain our best form of defence.

Free speech also comes with responsibilities. Protesters must ask themselves if their fears about Covid vaccines are based on empirical evidence or misinformation.