John B Finch, a former chairman of the US Prohibition Party in the early 1880s was addressing a meeting of the party on the subject of personal liberty: “I stand alone upon a platform. I am a tall man with long arms which I may use at my pleasure. I may even double my fist and gesticulate at my own sweet will. But if another shall step upon the platform, and in the exercise of my personal liberty I bring my fist against his face, I very soon discover that my personal liberty ends where that man’s nose begins.”
I was reminded of Finch when I read the comments from Jennifer Aniston about her decision to stop seeing people in her circle who haven’t been vaccinated, or who refuse to confirm their vaccination status: “There’s still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don’t listen to the facts. I feel it’s your moral duty and professional obligation to inform, since we’re not all podded up and being tested every single day. It’s tricky, because everyone is entitled to their opinion—but a lot of opinions don’t feel based in anything except fear or propaganda.”
I’m with Finch and Aniston when it comes to personal freedom. I don’t care what someone believes. I don’t care what they think constitutes a personal freedom. But I do care if their beliefs and opinions and exercising of personal freedom pose a threat to me. I do care when they insist their ‘opinion’ trumps the expertise and evidence of those who are specialists in a particular subject. I do care when someone refuses to take a vaccine because they believe — without any discernible evidence whatsoever — that Covid is a hoax, part of a conspiracy to control and manipulate people. I do care when someone believes it is their right to be a ‘spreader’ of both disease and nonsense.
I do care when someone’s refusal to wear a mask, or take a vaccine, poses a threat to me, my family, my friends and my fellow citizens. When each of our children showed signs of chickenpox we phoned their schools, told family friends and, on one occasion, kept one of them away from a Christmas Day celebration. When a doctor confirmed I had flu 20 years ago I stayed away from work until I was certain it was gone and kept away from elderly relatives. When I have a heavy cold I keep away from close contacts and won’t shake hands.
Maybe some of you will think I’m being overly cautious. I prefer it see it as being courteous to family, friends, colleagues and fellow citizens: taking seriously the advice about coughs and sneezes spreading diseases. And while I do accept that there was clearly an air of panic and overreaction when Covid first hit, I also believe it was right to err on the side of caution until we had a better understanding of what we were dealing with. That’s why we stayed inside; didn’t see friends and family; avoided birthday parties and the usual big family get-togethers at Christmas; wore masks when we were out; and found new ways of entertaining ourselves and communicating with the outside world.
I didn’t regard any of that as an infringement of my liberties; let alone a conspiracy to ‘reset the world agenda.’ The opposite, in fact. I saw it as a collective effort by most governments to protect us and to be fully prepared to return to ‘mostly normal’ when conditions allowed. Yes, there were personal and family inconveniences (Lilah hated being off school for so long; and Megan missed her year-long interment place in Disney, Florida). For many people there were also mental health challenges (I wrote about my own in an Irish News column in May 2020). Businesses and their owners came under enormous stress.
But had we taken a more cavalier attitude I’m pretty sure the casualty rates would have been much, much worse than they have been. Had governments not taken drastic action (backed up by furlough arrangements) it’s very likely there would have been chaos and economic collapse. Desperate times (particularly times no one has previous experience of) called for desperate measures.
To those of you who think this column is nonsense, fair enough. That’s your opinion. But don’t feign surprise, or shock and don’t howl about your supposed loss of freedoms when the vast majority of us say we don’t want you on planes, or in pubs, or in shops or sporting venues and festivals with us. Or that we don’t want to be shoulder to shoulder with those who don’t give a toss about our wellbeing. We, too, have freedoms that matter to us.
