Corona Virus and the Threat to Democracy

 https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/are-you-one-of-the-people-covid-19-loves-_219696?profile=1096

I hold no brief for anti vaxers but growing numbers believe that what’s right and wrong — especially where it concerns the rights of marginalised groups such as virus deniers and the anti vax movement to say how they feel and to not accept the vaccine are sufficiently self-evident they shouldn’t be up for debate. However, social media has banned their ability to be heard and here in Canada at least one pastor has been jailed for defying the restrictions. So, we all, including anti-vaxxers have the right to be heard but what happens when a pandemic threatens and the government of the day has to use an 'exception' to these rights? All of a sudden, those rights are up for debate. Who decides on the exceptions? Can power ever truly be democratised? If there is a threat to everyone by those who refuse the vaccine as governments say, what happens to democracy? For example, do I as a patient have the right to demand that those caring for me be vaccinated? This is happening in the medical and other fields of endeavor. My refusal to be served by someone unvaccinated could lead to the server losing their job. All of this is coming about because the vaccines were marketed to the public as some kind of prevention of infection when it does nothing of the sort. The vaccines now available do not prevent infection, they only ramp up your immune system so that you either have no symptoms of very slight symptoms. It is still not known if a vaccinated person can be a carrier. However, there has been no opportunity for the public to have any input into the decision making. Here in Canada, one provincial premier was forced to apologize and back down on draconian police enforcement of public health measures only because the police themselves refused to carry out his orders because of the violations of constitutional rights involved. In Jamaica, the police just do whatever the politicians say they are to do regardless of the violation of people's rights to assemble, movement and speech. Democracy is always compromised by absolutism, because no matter how flawless a set of rules you think you have devised and no matter how 'democratic' a country is or claims to be, sooner or later a situation will crop up that doesn’t fit the rules. This has now happened with the coronavirus. So called 'democratic' governments worldwide are now breaking the rules: freedom of speech, assembly and movement. When that happens, you have a “state of exception”. Coronavirus lockdowns are a good example: of the past year, countless ordinary freedoms were abruptly suspended in the name of virus control. In Jamaica, you can't go to church as you like, have the kind of funeral you want or organize a party or dance. On weekends there is a curfew: yu cannot even lef yu yaad. You can tell who’s really in charge by who gets to implement such a state: “Sovereign is he who decides the exception”. Therefore, contrary to what the US Constitution says and what we believe (falsely) in Jamaica, the people are not sovereign. The political elite are....Post pandemic, we will have to be vigilant and resolute so as to reclaim the rights we have lost.