- Joined
- Oct 22, 2020
- Messages
- 187
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- 305
There's definitely a difference between mandating a vaccine for the military and mandating one for the general public.
Putting whether it -ought- to be mandatory for the military or not aside for a moment - joining the military is essentially saying that you want to give up a significant portion of your autonomy to do something good for your country and by extension the people who live in it. And as everyone on this threat knows, it isn't just about firing a rifle, it takes many forms. Ergo, I think it is a different conversation to mandate a vaccination for the military as opposed to the general public. So these are different conversations. The question is whether or not it is necessary for the military.
I don't like the argument that "you give up your autonomy" in the military for a few reasons. First, you don't give up your constitutional rights and bodily autonomy is something that has been founded in those rights. I think if the military prohibited abortion we would say they erred. Therefore the military cannot be completely arbitrary when it decides to infringe on constitutional rights.
Second, our military is transiently volunteer, but we still have selective service and US males are liable to be drafted. If this happened in the 1960s you couldn't make the argument that "joining the military is essentially saying you want tot give up a significant portion of your autonomy" because draftees are compelled to serve by the Government.
I think if the military is going to compel mandatory vaccination they need to exhaust all other options first, and present a clear and compelling reason to violate the bodily autonomy of their troops. Smallpox and Anthrax I get, these are bioligical agents which have been weaponized and can be increadibly destructive. You can easily say that anthrax and wipe out a battalion. COVID is a much weaker case. We know the people who make up the majority of the military have a very low risk for complications from COVID, and at present voluntary vaccination rates a COVID outbreak in a battalion might hardly make an impact.
At the most I can see a mandate of vaccination as necessary for enlistment and retention.