Protests break out in France over new Coronavirus vaccination restrictions.

 

Protesters in France. The Hill/Getty.

Protests have broken out in France over new Coronavirus restrictions requiring vaccine "passports". The Hill. The restrictions will force French people to either show proof of vaccination, a negative test or proof that they are recovering from the virus to do most activities, including shopping, eating out, going to the hospital and boarding trains or planes. It will also require all health care workers to be vaccinated by September 15th. The change in policy lead to immediate protests from people that argue that the vaccine pass is a huge violation of civil rights. The new French restrictions are among the toughest in Europe and the entire world. 41.6% of French citizens are already vaccinated. 

My Comment:

I have said for a long time now that requiring vaccination in this way is a major violation of civil rights. Though I am vaccinated myself, there are obviously reasons why someone would not want to do so, with some reasons being better than other. But I do think that vaccination is not right for everyone. I honestly don't think the very young, people who have already had the virus or people who are concerned about the safety of the vaccines should be forced to take it. 

I also think that it's disgusting that they are trying to make people that don't want or don't need the vaccine into 2nd class citizens. There should be no reason ever to ban people from restaurants, hospitals and shopping. People have a right to do what they want and if they don't want the vaccine they should be able to refuse. 

What I really don't understand is why the vaccines are being pushed so hard right now. The virus is basically gone from a lot of areas and I haven't seen any evidence that the Delta variant is any worse than the previous variants. With many people either immune because of vaccinations or because of already having the virus, we have to be approaching herd immunity or already there. 

Which makes me think that this has very little to do with the virus and everything to do with classism. They are angry that people are no longer listening to them. And why would they? The elite have been wrong about almost everything in the past few years, and there is little reason to believe that they got the Coronavirus right. They can't stand this lack of respect and so they push things like mandatory vaccination. If they can't get the respect they want they will rule through coercion instead. 

As for these protests I don't think too much will come from them. French has made protests and riots a yearly tradition and not much ever comes from it. The Yellow Vests protests accomplished very little in the end and I am guessing these anti-vaccine passport protests will do the same thing.  

So what can French people do to fight back against this? Easy, don't comply and make sure the people that do comply are miserable. Once enough people ignore a law it becomes impossible to enforce. I see no reason why anyone in France, vaccinated or not, should go along with it.