1. Vaccine passports have existed in the U.S for decades.
Some of my libertarian heroes have recently stated during podcasts that vaccine passports create a caste system and that this is one reason they should be opposed. The term “caste system” accurately and brilliantly describes one of the consequences of vaccine passports. However, in the same discussions, they have characterized vaccine passports as a “new” threat to liberty. In fact, vaccine passports and their resulting caste systems have been in effect for millions of Americans for years. Unfortunately, most libertarians have overlooked this fact. Due to semantics, these passports have not been recognized for what they are.
For decades, American children have been required by state governments to “show their papers” in order to attend public school and, in some states, private school as well. Generally, the papers not only must prove that a child has been vaccinated, they also must prove that he or she has received each of the specific vaccines required by the state. Without periodically flashing this passport, children have generally not been permitted to attend school.
Exemptions exist and, in limited circumstances, have allowed attendance without the passport, but the exemptions have been rolled back, as discussed in section 2, below. (The erosion of the exemptions is also discussed in my April 26, 2020 article entitled “Central Planning of Your Immune System is Dangerous”.)
Some may view a vaccine passport requirement for school attendance to be significantly less egregious than the vaccine passports currently being proposed. If so, I would suggest that they ask a child forced to stop attending school with his or her friends due to “lack of papers” how significantly this impacted his or her life. For many children, their time interacting with friends is critical to their emotional health. We have seen evidence of this within the context of children “locked out of” their schools by COVID-19 lockdowns. Ironically, children denied school attendance due to lack of vaccination papers have received little support from the libertarian community, but those denied school attendance due to COVID-19 lockdowns have received significant support from it. There is a lack of evidence establishing that either group of children poses a danger to others.
2. The vaccine passport system already in place is merely being incrementally strengthened.
The vaccine passports currently proposed in connection with COVID-19 are simply building upon the passport system already in place, discussed above. They are just another step in an incremental process.
Childhood vaccine mandates have been systematically strengthened in recent years through legislation and orders expanding mandates and/or eliminating or limiting exemptions. Big Pharma has influenced the efforts to strengthen mandates. Examples of this are discussed here and here.
The strengthening of mandates has been accompanied by a PR campaign that has repeatedly bombarded the public with messaging along numerous lines:
While this propaganda has been repeated ad nauseam in the main stream media, which receives a substantial amount of its revenue from Big Pharma, many medical professionals who have questioned aspects of the CDC’s schedule have paid dearly for doing so—by having their reputations smeared and/or their licenses suspended or revoked.
It should go without saying that nearly all of those labelled as “anti-vaxxers” have simply advocated for vaccine choice and/or decided against having their own families vaccinated with one, some or all of the vaccines on the CDC’s schedule. However, considering the success of the “anti-vaxxer” PR campaign, this probably needs to be stated. If anyone exists who believes that vaccines should be outlawed, I have never run across them in my many years in the vaccine freedom movement. I am still waiting to meet one of those unicorns.
Further, despite what the promoters of the PR campaign want us to believe, information does exist which arguably calls into question the safety of many vaccines on the CDC schedule and the necessity for them, as well as the safety of the entire CDC schedule. Unfortunately, the information can be difficult to find due to its suppression. An article by Jeremy R. Hammond posted on March 26, 2021 entitled, “Dr. Paul Thomas Suspended for Practicing Informed Consent” discusses both some important data regarding vaccine safety and the issue of the suppression of dissenting voices. The article includes, in part, data which showed that children who were not vaccinated, or who were only partially vaccinated in accordance with the CDC schedule, had better health outcomes than those who were fully vaccinated in accordance with it.
3. We must work against the “anti-vaxxer” culture hack in order to persuade the public to reject vaccine passports.
The “anti-vaxxer” propaganda that swept America in connection with the fight over childhood vaccine mandates has infiltrated the brains of most Americans and most have accepted it hook, line and sinker. The few who have not accepted it are divided into two camps—those who have been brave enough to publicly challenge it (knowing that doing so would earn them the dreaded “anti-vaxxer” label and the disapproval of polite society) and those who have voiced no opposition to it. With dissenters routinely being deplatformed and smeared, the hesitancy to speak out is understandable.
I believe that the public’s overwhelming acceptance of the “anti-vaxxer” propaganda, and fear of being labelled an “anti-vaxxer” or “anti-science”, has been the greatest factor in why so many have readily accepted COVID-19 related oppression and are now supportive of proposed COVID-19 vaccine passports.
Peter R. Quinones is one of the rare libertarian podcasters who, pre-COVID-19, drew attention to the vaccination caste system imposed upon our children. He has stated in podcasts that the powers-that-be have pulled off a “culture hack” in connection with COVID-19. I agree with his assessment and would only add that I believe the seeds of that culture hack were planted in the fight over forced childhood vaccines and that this is where its roots dwell.
In order to dissuade the public from supporting vaccine passports, we must work against this culture hack. To do so, we should provide the public with the accurate facts about the relative risks and benefits of all vaccines being forced upon anyone and the true risks posed by their associated diseases. More importantly, we should repeatedly remind them that it is righteous and reasonable to “look beneath the hood” when it comes to vaccines, in order to protect oneself and one’s family. In other words, we should help them to throw off the psychological shackles that have stopped them from researching vaccines and questioning them if warranted by the evidence.
4. Framing the state’s COVID-19 related tyranny as a “one-off”, and not as another incrementally worsening step in a long-standing pattern and practice, fails to describe its true nature.
Scott Horton is a libertarian gem who has educated many about the conflicts in the Middle East and the culpability of the US government, and other players, in connection with them. When discussing the current conflicts, he constantly provides the backstory, discussing the events that led up to the conflicts and the contexts within which they occurred. He has often stressed the important of understanding the backstory to understanding the current scenario.
Just as one cannot effectively explain and analyze the current situation in the Middle East by limiting the discussion of context to only the period since September 11, 2001, or, even worse, since January of 2020, one cannot effectively explain and analyze COVID-19 tyranny by starting with early 2020. As discussed below, that tyranny is part of a longstanding playbook.
Those in the vaccine freedom movement have a few of their own favorite themes: Big Pharma’s influence over the regulatory agencies; the corruption and conflicts of interest that permeate public vaccine policy; the lack of vaccine manufacturer liability; and the lack of free market forces in connection with vaccines. Their research and works have, collectively, brought to light a playbook that has been used in connection with the vaccines mandated upon our children. The playbook has common elements: A. the stripping of rights purportedly based upon the risks posed by an infectious disease; B. the exaggeration of the risks of the disease; C. the exaggeration of the benefits of the vaccine; D. the minimization of risks of the vaccine; and E. the suppression of scientific information that conflicts with the state’s narrative about the disease and vaccine.
For example, those reading the work of Jeremy R. Hammond concerning the vaccines for measles and influenza should recognize this playbook in the events and circumstances surrounding those vaccines. The playbook is also apparent with reference to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, which have been the subject of many articles posted by Children’s Health Defense. All states mandate the MMR vaccine upon children. The influenza and HPV vaccines are each mandated upon children by some, but not all, of the states. (As an aside, the lack of consistency in the vaccines required by different states and nations illustrates the fact that there is no consensus, even among lawmakers, about which, if any, vaccines are allegedly necessary.)
Each of the above-referenced elements from the standard playbook has been present in the tyranny imposed to purportedly protect us from COVID-19, although element A has thus far had a twist because it has involved lockdowns and mask requirements and not the usual vaccine requirement. However, COVID-19 vaccines have not existed during much of the time since COVID-19 emerged and, now that they do, a vaccine requirement will be imposed imminently if the powers-that-be have their way.
5. We will advance our cause by adopting a “one story” approach and by accurately framing that story as one of incrementally increasing tyranny, permeated with scientific misrepresentations about the risks of infectious diseases and the relative risks and benefits of vaccines.
As indicated above, the story of COVID-19 tyranny is part of a larger story and is best characterized as such. One high-profile person from “team pro-forced-vaccines” who also seems to favor the “one story” approach is Peter J. Hotez.
In Hotez’s March 29, 2021 article entitled “The Antiscience Movement Is Escalating, Going Global and Killing Thousands” he essentially argues that anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, anti-lockdowners and COVID-19 deniers and skeptics are one big, dangerous blob which should be dealt with as a global security threat. He identifies 2015 and activity that occurred in that year by “anti-vaxxers” as a pivotal point in the anti-science movement and he describes the movement as strengthening and accelerating since then into its current state, filled with both pre-COVID-19 anti-vaxxers and those now fighting COVID-19 related measures. (James Corbett discusses Hotez’s article in his video entitled “Science Says”/Episode 398 of the Corbett Report.)
Therefore, even though most libertarian voices recently expressing opposition to vaccine passports have not delved into the issue of pre-COVID-19 vaccine mandates, this has not earned them a spot outside of Hotez’s security threat blob which also encapsulates the “anti-vaxxers”.
If you oppose any aspect of COVID-19 tyranny, you will be linked in the public consciousness to the dreaded “anti-vaxxers”. Hotez and his cronies will make sure of that! Accordingly, whether you like it or not, you cannot effectively fight COVID-19 tyranny without addressing and slaying the gross inaccuracies in the “anti-vaxxer” mythology and setting that record straight.
Perhaps more importantly, the Hotez crew is getting a jump start on the “one story” theme and this is giving them a tactical advantage. When that “one story” is told in a manner that reflects reality, it is a compelling story about the loss of some of our most important freedoms due to the longstanding use of a playbook riddled with scientific misrepresentation, scientific suppression, cronyism, conflicts of interest and corruption. “The science” shoved down Americans’ throats in connection with childhood vaccines has been just as cherry-picked and distorted as that shoved down our throats in connection with COVID-19. The true risks of infectious diseases and the relative risks and benefits of vaccines are being obfuscated. I again refer the reader to my April 26, 2020 article, as it has numerous examples of risks and problems associated with childhood vaccines that would surprise most Americans.
Conclusion
I respectfully ask “our side” to consider, when providing the public with analysis of COVID-19 tyranny, doing so using a wider lens. A lengthy pattern exists of the state’s incompetence and corruption in connection with infectious diseases and vaccines, which began long before COVID-19 arose. When arguing our case-in-chief against vaccine passports in the court of public opinion, I believe we weaken our case when we omit evidence of the state’s pre-COVID-19 malfeasance. I further believe that we will not win the case by telling only the last 5% of the relevant story and that waking Americans to the truth about the other 95% only strengthens our arguments for liberty and health choice. Our side has some of the most brilliant minds, writers and speakers and I believe they will make mincemeat out of the “anti-vaxxer” narrative once they take it on. I further believe that this will be our ticket out of vaccine passports.
It should be noted that this author is aware of Americans’ somewhat limited attention spans and that they are often unwilling to sit through lengthy analysis. I am also aware that there is often insufficient time in speeches and interviews, and insufficient space in articles, to address topics from a bird’s-eye view. For those who feel that it is too unwieldy to incorporate the childhood vaccine mandate issue into pieces on COVID-19 tyranny, I encourage them to consider addressing the former issue in separate pieces.
