Refusing the Covid jab is a betrayal of the common good

South Africa is justifiably proud of its culture of support for human rights – and it can be argued that we lead the world in this area. But there is seldom any discussion about the flip side of rights – the responsibilities of citizens of a democratic country.

Having your human rights guaranteed by the constitution does not allow you to do, or say, what you want. And many are the times when your human rights have to take second place to the rights of the greater community.

Nowhere is that more important than in a public health emergency like the Covid pandemic facing us, and the rest of the world, at the moment.

In South Africa, the official Covid death toll has just breached 70 000 – and it is rising by hundreds more every day.

When the “excess deaths” – those who died in numbers higher than would have been predicted in a normal year – are tallied, then it is probable that 200,000 South Africans have fallen victim to the respiratory disease.

If that is not a national disaster, then we don’t know what is.

The reality is that the best way of combating the pandemic – and reducing the suffering through hospitalisations and deaths of those who become infected – is by vaccination. The science is clear on that.

Yet, there are many people in this country who are refusing to have the jabs. This conduct has raised the danger that unvaccinated people will not only impose an unnecessary burden on our health services, but they could become the repositories where new variants of the coronavirus are breeding.

To refuse to have a vaccination is, in our view, a rejection of an individual’s responsibility to the community – a refusal which is particularly egregious, given that it is based on flimsy factual grounds.

Just because the authorities will not force people to have the vaccine does not mean that others in the community – including employers – can take their own steps to minimise the risk from those who refuse to get the jab.

That is why it is disturbing that the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has already apparently taken sides in the raging debate by asking for “evidence” from those who believe they have been, or will be, discriminated against in the workplace because they are anti-vaxxers.

There is no indication that the SAHRC will canvass the views of the majority of South Africans – more than three-quarters of whom want the vaccines – who might feel themselves discriminated against by having to share a workplace with an unvaccinated person.

Clearly, the SAHRC is struggling to find relevance for itself, other than its post-facto “ïnvestigations” into racism in the nooks and crannies of our society.

What about the human rights of those who have lost their jobs or their business in the looting and violence?

What about the human rights of the people who have died from Covid because our health system was unprepared, mainly because funds intended to combat the pandemic have been looted?

The world is moving towards increased restrictions on those who have not been vaccinated.

We will, undoubtedly, have to go the same way, if we are to be allowed to interact with other countries.

That is not an assault on your freedom; it is guaranteeing ours…