Vaccines, Mandates, and the Labor Left With Professor Richard D. Wolff
The famed Marxian economist and I continue our conversation from last year
Last November, I interviewed Marxian economist Professor Richard D. Wolff on vaccine mandates and whether there’s space on the left for protesting the public health measures.
The conversation was intense, respectful, and productive—and today at 3pm EST, we’re going to do round two on my Callin show.
I’ve excerpted a small section from our last chat below.
Join us live this afternoon with your questions and comments, only on the Callin app.
Eoin Higgins: The fundamental, central question that I have is that the resistance to vaccine mandates is not something that should be excused or catered to, because these public health measures, if they are rejected, will negatively impact the rights and the health of all workers and the public. And at a certain point, it really comes down to that there has to be a case made for the health and the rights of the majority of workers—and for all workers—even if that angers a minority who are opposed to mandates.
Why should the left position be to in any way give any kind of credence to these conspiracy theories and and to in any way to accommodate this fringe minority whose actions are going to result in illness, possibly death for many, many workers? Shouldn't the position on the left be that the vaccine mandate should be supported, and that it should be part of a comprehensive approach to helping people deal with the fallout from COVID and to get past it for the good and the health of all workers in the country and in the world?
Richard D. Wolff: I have no objection to a mandate as an idea or as a policy tool. My understanding is that the science says if you're vaccinated, you can still get the disease, but it will be much less severe. You won't have to go to the hospital. Your risk of dying is drastically reduced, et cetera, which on the basis of which I believe it is wise for me and I've not only been vaccinated, I've had that booster thing as well. I would urge everybody I know to get a vaccine because it strikes me as literally contrary to science in the broadest sense of the term, not to take advantage of what has been learned about the relationship between the vaccine on the one hand and the risk of disease on the other.
I wouldn't mind a procedure in which there is some properly democratic way which gets at the resistance feeling the people have. We have a process in which the arguments are made and then the vote is held so that the majority, as you put it at the beginning of this conversation that once vaccines and that once everybody given whatever science they believe to be vaccinated because it's in the interest of the majority to do so, then I would have no problem with the mandate that emerged from that.
[...]
If you could develop, or if we could articulate, a process of democratic decision making, if the mandate came out of that process, I'm OK with it. If the mandate doesn't, if it becomes a prerogative of the employer or a prerogative of the top of the bureaucratic pyramid, then it is in direct conflict with that feeling of resistance. And I don't want to be on the side of the mandate so I'm on the side of the resistance.
On Tuesday, I talked to journalist Walker Bragman about the anti-vax movement. We also discussed the limits of free speech and differed on whether or not those that spread vaccine disinformation should be held civilly liable.
You can listen to the whole conversation here.
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Email me at eoinhiggins@gmail.com
Getting back to the science, this vaccine, just like other flu vaccines, does not create sterilizing immunity in the reparatory system, ophthalmological organs, and other membrane organs. As has been observed, the vaccine has very little effect in spreading of the contagion as these tissues can still host the virus, it's no substitute for masking, filtration, and other mitigations. If one spent as much time worrying about these, then even though it's irrational to expect vaccination to prevent spread, it would be more tolerable.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/01/opposition-rises-to-nhs-mandate.html